Curriculum and Programs

Educational Philosophy

We believe that young children learn best from active, hands-on facilitated experiences in a nurturing Christian learning environment that includes small groups, individual attention, as well as large group instruction for children 18 months through 5 years of age. Quality early childhood teachers develop and coordinate the flexible and creative curriculum to respond to the multifaceted challenges faced by today’s children and families. The lifelong educational journey is coordinated by our early childhood teachers to emphasize the joy of learning in these developmental domains:

Intellectual: By exploring and using hands-on activities that build confidence and curiosity.
Physical: By offering exercises that develop large and small muscle coordination, and develop gross and fine motor skills.
Social/Emotional: By facilitating a sense of security and belonging by encouraging participation in group activities and cooperation with others.
Spiritual: By weaving God’s Word into the daily program through Bible stories, Scripture, praise songs, and prayer.
Creative: By exploring arts and crafts materials; and using them in new and individual ways.

Three children sitting at a picnic table

Early Learning Center Classrooms

18 Month Old Toddlers

The Butterfly classroom is for toddlers aged 18 to 24 months of age. The ratio is 1:5 with two teachers to 10 toddlers. These children are required to be walking before acceptance into this program. Children in this age group are moving from infancy to toddlerhood and learning to become independent. Children have a variety of learning activities including art projects, sand and water play, blocks, gross motor movement, puzzles, and many other manipulative activities. Big cars and trucks are a favorite activity at this age. Teachers read stories to the children, sing songs together, and have lots of opportunities for dance and movement.

2 Year Old Toddlers

Our Hedgehog and Kangaroo classrooms are for children who are 24 to 36 months of age. These classrooms have a ratio of 1:7 with two teachers and 14 toddlers. These students continue their inquiry-based learning through art, science, math, and language development. Our students create a lot of artwork. We are proud of each student and praise them for their work and effort. When a child turns three years old this year, potty training is an important part of their learning process. When your child is ready, we will gladly partner with you in this process. The Toddler classrooms share a bathroom with child-sized toilets and low sinks so that each child can navigate this process with much independence. We know that this is a learning process so we also have a diaper changing station.

3 Year Old Preschool

When a child turns three years old by September 15th, they go to our Squirrel and Ladybug classrooms. The ratio for Preschool classrooms is 1:10 with two teachers to 20 students. Children in Preschool learn to become more independent and are now ready to spend more time with letters, and numbers, and recognize their names. Students in Preschool and Pre-K play on the playground that is next to Washington Park on our Legacy Park Field. Our Preschoolers spend one-on-one time with their teachers learning about letters and learning to write their names. Students at this age enjoy being the helper of the day where they can hold the door open, turn off the lights, or be the line leader!

4 Year Old Pre-Kindergarten

Our Flamingo and Owl classrooms are for children who turn four by September 15. The ratio for Pre-Kindergarten classrooms is 1:12 with two teachers to 24 students. Students in Pre-K are preparing for later schooling. Since we have an elementary school, we meet with the Kindergarten teachers to know what their expectations are for students entering Kindergarten. Emphasis is put on letter and number recognition, sounds of letters, and how to write the uppercase and lowercase forms of each letter. Students who stay for the summer will also be introduced to sight words in anticipation of reading. Much time is spent having fun with language and learning about rhyme, rhythm, and repetition through finger plays, songs, and poems. We also emphasize STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) through hands-on activities.

Curriculum

The Creative Curriculum® for Preschool, is a comprehensive, research-based curriculum that features inquiry, exploration, and discovery as the foundation of all learning. As a content-rich, developmentally appropriate curriculum, it delivers academic rigor alongside social-emotional learning and cognitive development and brings meaningful interactions and learning to life in the classroom. It supports the whole child as it nurtures mathematics skill development, promotes language and literacy skills, builds social-emotional foundational skills, and connects the dots between curriculum and assessment as it connects with Smart Teach (formerly Teaching Strategies Gold) which is our assessment tool. It is research-based, field proven and aligned to the Early Learning Standards.

We also supplement a daily Jesus Time into our curriculum to nurture the spiritual development of our students. We use a Bible-based approach, incorporating both Old and New Testament stories along with worship songs and prayer. Our center has a weekly chapel time where we gather all together for a short worship time together led by various staff members from our school and church.

Enrollment and Tuition Information