The Best of All Worlds- Life Essentials Curriculum

Looking for a preschool/daycare for your little one for the first time it can be daunting. Depending on the age of your child when they are entering preschool/daycare you may be looking for different attributes. When they are infants and toddlers, you look for loving, caring, communicative teachers who understand developmental milestones that children achieve during their first two years of life and help you through phases that are less than ideal (ex. pushing, biting, throwing tantrums, and the rest of the normal but frustrating, phases). As your child gets older, you begin to think about how to best to prepare them for kindergarten. Often, families reconsider their child’s placement at this time to ensure that the best place for their infant is still the best place for their preschooler. Here is a quick summary of some of the more common early education philosophies:

Reggio Emilia– children learn through trial and error, emphasis on creativity and artistic expression, children are considered equal learners with their teachers, generally a very loose structure that is child-led

Waldorf– strictly consistent schedules, develop the child emotionally and physically as well as intellectually by keeping a stable, predictable world in which to be creative and curious

Project-Based- teachers are the guides for the students as they impress the notions of positive learning habits and self-motivation by using field trips and real-world connections to their lessons, this works well for children who are independent and like less structure

Montessori– multi-age classrooms, children choose their subject and have a specific time and space for learning how to correctly use those materials (they are called “self-correcting” since there is only one way to complete the task), individual learning is done to build confidence and self-discipline, children choose what they want to do without influence from teachers to work on other skills/subjects, there is no formal curriculum

Kiddie Academy’s Life Essentials Curriculum- I’m proud to say that some of the best aspects of the above philosophies have been combined along with the latest early education research to create our Life Essential’s Curriculum. During your child’s time with us, you will see many of the strategies used in combination to prepare children for school as well as life beyond. We use research-based curriculum within a scheduled daily routine along with flexibility to take advantage of “teachable moments” throughout the day. Every class scaffolds their learning in academics as well as social and emotional development. As they near kindergarten, classroom routines begin to mirror schedules that they will be expected to follow once they enter elementary school with an emphasis on fostering a love of learning, learning through play and hands-on experiences, and gaining life skills that will help them be successful for the rest of their lives.

Citation: “Preschool Philosophies: What Are They?” from www.greatschools.org , www.montesori.org, www.eyasmontessori.com, http://www.parents.com/toddlers-preschoolers/starting-preschool

By Aleksa Overby, Academy Director