Children's Center Ll

Children are natural learners. They learn from the environment. Children are also active learners. They learn by doing. In other words, they learn by using all of their senses. They move from concrete, hands-on tasks, to abstract thoughts and from simple to more complex activities. Children's development is continuous, gradual and predictable. Even though all children proceed through the same sequence of development, they do so in their own way and in their own time. It is for this reason that a child's learning cannot be rushed through adult intervention. They must be given many developmentally appropriate experiences and be exposed to a language-rich and stimulating environment. We believe in the whole language approach to language development. Whereas phonics and letter recognition are important, we expose children to real everyday forms of language from the labeling of objects, to reading stories, and writing down the child s words. This kind of language is meaningful to the child and helps to ensure learning is as personal as possible.
The curriculum we use at Children's Center is based on the HIGH/SCOPE philosophy. This is a series of multi-sensory, active learning environments and experiences, which stimulate children
to interact at their existing level of growth and development while challenging them to expand. We accept children as they are, both developmentally and culturally, viewing them as participants and contributing members who help create our program rather than molding them and expecting them to fit into our program. The teacher's role is that of a facilitator who sets the table for each child's learning. They are not so much interested in right answers to problems but more in the process the child took to arrive at an answer. The primary goals of the teachers are to support child development, to provide the learning environment, and to promote active learning on the part of the child. Rather than teaching concepts with worksheets, drills, or rote learning, concepts are learning indirectly through self-initiated activities directed by each child and small/large group activities that are teacher-directed but at the same time, child-centered.