Brookswood Kids' Place Inc.
Brookswood Kids' Place Inc.
Discover, Play, Develop.
Preschool Program Philosophy
Preschool Program Philosophy
Our preschool philosophy recognizes the importance of a child's first impressions of school and provides a safe, fun, exciting, and development oriented learning environment.
We incorporate open-ended art activities daily, to allow the children to explore their imaginations and enhance their fine motor skills. We also incorporate "build-by-build" (Reggio Emilia) projects, where all of the children engage together on an art activity; this promotes a team oriented atmosphere with a sense of accomplishment in the final product. We then ensure that it is displayed for all of the children to enjoy and converse over.
We ensure 45 minutes of open progressive play time where the children can fully engage into activities in dramatic play, self-learning manipulatives’, literature, music, math, science, writing, gross-motor games and activities.
At our learning circle times we allow the children the opportunity to engage in finger-plays, songs, dancing, counting, number recognition, letter recognition, name recognition, puppet shows, felt board stories, basket stories and more.
Our themes are flexible and adapt to the groups’ interests and learning abilities. If the group of children are showing a strong interest in a certain theme,(Reggio Emilia) then we will continue on with that theme to allow the excitement continue with learning.
Throughout the year, depending on each child’s progressing abilities and interests, we will be working together independently with the children on phonics and writing sheets. It is very important to recognize that introducing preschool phonics to children needs to be in a fun and stress free environment, where the children feel free to engage.
Some of these worksheets and creations will be kept for us to view progress throughout the school year, and then returned to you at the end of the school year.
We have a daily show-and-tell circle time, near the end of class, which enables the children to share something special to them from home, and share and tell their friends about it. This activity fosters emotional and social development, as well as speech and language development.
Similar to Rousseau’s theory (1712-1778), we believe that "out-side play" is a necessity in our program, which directly relates to Robert Owen’s theory (1771-1858) of "natural curiosity." Along with the importance of natural curiosity is Montessori’s theory (1870-1952) of creating a prepared environment with "self-correcting or encouraging learning materials.
By incorporating these theories’ into our programs, with team oriented teachers who encourage natural curiosity, the children will further enhance cognitive development, and build self-esteem and independence with making their own choices and following their interests.
Like the "Open Education Program," our philosophy believes a program should be very supportive of emotional development. Much like Reggio Emilia, "interaction and relationship" with the same teachers is important in this area of development. Including dramatic play into our program daily is also a very important part of emotional development, and allowing the children sufficient time to fully engage into progressive play, where they can further build their self-awareness and self-esteem.