Our goal is to weave faith development into all other areas of development, giving us a whole child approach. We pray, sing songs, hear Bible stories and use real objects to interact with the stories. At this young age, faith is a practical expression of feeling safe, loving one another, helping each other and treating each other with respect. We want them to know that God loves them and so do we...and that they can love God and others also.
We believe in letting children play the way children were meant to play. They are given a lot of leeway to be creative, develop their own guidelines and to challenge their own bodies. We have lots of loose parts (some of which may look like junk to the casual observer) to use in their adventures. We embrace the great outdoors and we are not afraid to get into the mud, play in the rain or even have the occasional outdoor naptime.
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We use a lot of emergent curriculum, following the interests of the children, as well as the seasons and holidays that are a natural part of their lives. We do not believe in having a "store-bought" curriculum that is supposed to work for all children every year. Every year is different for each teacher, depending upon the interests, developmental levels, personalities and gifts of the children in the classroom. We do use a lot of the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum in our Pre-K classes and we utilize philosophies from many of the pioneers in early childhood education, including Reggio Emilia, Handwriting Without Tears, Maria Montessori, Piaget, and Vygotsky.
We follow Dr. Becky Bailey's Conscious Discipline for guiding children's behavior and social interactions. The children are in the first few years of their lives and it is our job to teach them how to socialize with others and to treat materials respectfully.
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The Children's Center staff believe that we are "brain builders" and in order to do this, we must be held accountable for our education. Our teachers complete at least 24 hours of annual continuing education in the early childhood field and have the opportunity to participate in major conferences and other high quality experiences. In addition, all of our teachers are CPR and First Aid certified.
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