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The focus for our youngest
students in our four-year-old program is on learning through
play. We believe that by allowing children to explore their
world through creative play, their natural sense of curiosity
and wonder will lead them to learn in developmentally meaningful
ways. By guiding young children in participating as responsible
members of a classroom, we introduce them to the social skills
they will need to succeed in school and beyond. We know from our
own years of experience, as well as from volumes of documented
evidence, that young children need a nurturing environment that
emphasizes hands-on play and carefully supervised social
interactions. An over-emphasis on academics at this stage is
developmentally inappropriate and results in stress and
frustration for children. Engaging children so that they love
coming to school and are eager to learn is the surest path to
long-term academic, and lifetime, success. Ours
is a full-day program that runs from 8:30 a.m. until 3 p.m.
Families may choose among a 3-, 4-, or 5 day program; the 3-day program
runs from Tuesday through Thursday, and the 4-day program offers a
choice of Monday through Thursday or Tuesday through Friday.
Spaces in the 3- and 4-day program are limited, so please do be sure to
have an application submitted before the end of February if you are
interested in one of those schedules.
Children receive
instruction in Spanish, the arts, and physical education in addition to
their regular classroom activities, in ways that harmonize with those
activities.
Books we recommend
to parents of preschoolers:
The Hurried Child: Growing Up Too Fast Too Soon (3rd edition)
by David Elkind
The Power of Play: How Spontaneous, Imaginative Activities
Lead to Happier, Healthier Children by David Elkind
Under Deadman’s Skin: Discovering the Meaning of Children’s
Violent Play by Jane Katch
They Don't Like Me: Lessons on Bullying and Teasing from a
Preschool Classroom by Jane Katch
Bad Guys Don't Have Birthdays: Fantasy Play at Four by Vivian
Gussin Paley
You Can't Say You Can't Play by Vivian Gussin Paley
The Boy Who Would Be a Helicopter by Vivian Gussin Paley and
Robert Coles
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