Our Philosphy

Goals for the Child

• To provide opportunities for being with other children in a setting conducive to the development of wholesome social relationships.
• To provide appropriate play experiences that contributes to the developmental needs of the child.
• To provide opportunities for meaningful play that is based on the child's individual needs, interests, limitations, abilities that build important foundations for future reading skills and other academic pursuits.

Goals for the Parent

• To provide opportunities to meet with and work with other parents and teachers who have, as their common concern, the interests, and needs of the preschool and school-age child.
  
• To provide care for the child while the parents work, attend school, or pursue other interests.
  

To provide opportunities to grow in the understanding of child development through planned parent workshops.

Goals for the Community

• To help meet the needs of the community by providing an early childhood education facility.
  
• To contribute to the wholesome growth and development of the future citizens of the community.

Interest Centres
It is always possible that inclement weather may keep us from using our outdoor space. Therefore, we plan our indoor areas as if we did not have a playground at all. Each morning before the children arrive, the teachers prepare enough interest centres to equal two-thirds the number of children. That is, if we are expecting sixteen children, we will have ten interest centres.An interest centre can be set up on a tray, a table, in a corner of a room, or any other place where a child can spend some time pursuing an activity. Activities can range from sitting alone quietly observing to being involved in self-chosen activities to joining with others in building a large block structure or exploring manipulative objects or creating art projects. Interest centres can accommodate from one to four children at a time. Some centres have a choice of several activities – others have only one. Sometimes a particular place will have the same interest centre for several days in a row. Other times, it will be changed daily.In setting up an interest centre, teachers select materials that will lead to a particular learning experience. Teachers know, of course, that sometimes the child may use the material in some way other than the way the teacher anticipated. The child's learning experience, in that case, will be something other than what the teacher intended. If the teacher feels that the child still needs the learning experience that was originally intended, another interest centre may be prepared at another time, perhaps using a different approach to motivate the child in the desired direction.

The Daily Program
When the children enter our Program in the morning, they are greeted by a teacher/caregiver. They are given the freedom – not permission – to explore the various learning activities and interest centres that have been prepared before their arrival. These interest centres are changed from week to week, day to day, and sometimes from hour to hour.

Paint, clay, playdough, collage, musical instruments, blocks, dolls, books, or special things for special days, all make each day enjoyable and unique. There are enough interest centres and activities going on at any time to motivate the child. Enough things remain the same to provide the security and comfort of familiarity, but we incorporate something new or a new way of doing something to add excitement. Learning centres are not arranged for ease of movement and convenience, but rather for maximum challenge to the body and mind.

When a child loses control of materials, equipment, or even emotions, a teacher is always nearby to answer a question, offer a challenging statement, follow through on a suggestion, or to give comfort. Each child's current level of achievement, interest, ability, and needs are kept in mind when developing program plans.

Moments of the day can sometimes be brief periods of: whispers, quiet times, relaxation, a savouring within of good feelings, involvement time when there is a very special closeness between friends, a love time, or a magic time. We are sometimes involved in a story, quiet music, a gradual approach to a rhythmic activity and dancing, crawling, jumping, growing like flowers, or blowing like the wind activities. We go outdoors to walk, run, climb, and jump. We are given time and room to explore, to experiment, to discover, to play, and, most importantly, to be a child.

Goal-Directed Programs
Within our Programs you will see:

• Games to play.
• Materials with which to create.
  
• Ideas and things to talk about, relate to, compare with, match, fit into, try out, reinforce, invent, discover, and enjoy.

The children are being continuously challenged by specific learning goals we have set for them:

• In order to begin to read and perform other academic tasks, the children must first gather meaning from the world and develop an awareness of concepts.
  
• In order to gather meaning from the world, children must have many satisfying sensory motor experiences - we encourage the children to explore their ability to touch, feel, see, smell, and hear. Perceptual development is how children interpret their sensory experiences, which is a prerequisite for developing their minds.

The early learning programs we create are geared toward helping children develop habits of observation, questioning, and listening. It gives them an awareness of their own feelings by sometimes channelling them into other means of expression. The children learn that they are free to make choices and that as long as they stay within the limits of consideration for people and things, they do not always have to conform. Our open-ended programs prepare children to use their intellectual and creative abilities in future learning tasks.

To Our Parents

• We want you to know, to understand, and to discuss our goals with us.
• We want you to look often into busy, happy, noisy, creative classrooms and see your child at play.
• We want you to realize the validity of play and the importance of what is being learned.
• Parents and teachers together can help your child develop to his/her full potential.