From infancy to adulthood, we all learn! It happens everywhere, in all of our daily routines and relationships with other people. Using a framework to support exploration, the curriculum we use across the infant, toddler, and preschool programs allows children to love the learning process.
Our infant and toddler rooms use Responsive Caregiving throughout each day, expanding on children's developing abilities and interests. Classrooms are equipped for plenty of movement and interaction. Throughout the daily care routines of each day, we form strong supportive caregiving relationships. Children who feel safe and secure become avid explorers of their world! Because we know that 80% of your child's brain will be formed by age three, we stretch and grow both bodies and brains everyday! We listen and have long conversations (vocabulary building), tumble and move (muscle development and sensory development), respond to many interests (reading, the arts, building, transportation, science and math concepts), help to build self-help and self-regulation skills (emotional and social growth), and have many opportunities for dramatic play. Imitation and role-playing are powerful learning tools! And music is a favorite of these age groups! Responsive caregiving is based on brain research and WestEd's PITC program. The book Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development by Jack P. Shonkoff is a great resource to understand some of the scientific research in Brain Development of Children. Creative Curriculum for Infants, Toddlers, and Twos is also a resource for our program.
We use "Let's Begin with the Letter People" as a literacy curriculum for our preschool and K4 classrooms. The Beginner's Bible is a non-denominational curriculum that we use for our Children's Chapel Time and our Bible lessons and themes here at Agape. Together with information from a number of ever-changing sources, we plan activities with a wide variety of interests to our students and use the Ohio Department of Education's Early Learning Content Standards to insure your child has a great Kindergarten foundation. Teachers' lesson plans are posted weekly on the Parent Information Boards outside each classroom so you can see all the activities your child is involved in. Our themes in each age group change weekly. The number and type of planned activities the children are involved in varies with age and developmental needs. Math, science, language arts, reading, fine motor skills, and large muscle development activities are mixed with free play choices.
Based on the development of the scope and sequence of classwork, all activities are designed to enhance a child's individual development in the the areas of social, emotional, spiritual, physical and cognitive growth. Our library of resources for activities is ever-changing and our staff's experience leads to keeping the best from the past and looking for new fun activities to try. After all, painting with your feet or fingerpainting with chocolate pudding aren't activities most of us do at home on the kitchen table! For example, as children "play" in the water (in a contained water table), they are learning important concepts about wet/dry, measuring, gravity, what will/won't float, mixing colors, and an assortment of other discoveries!
Each group receives a monthly collection of library books from the Hamilton County Public Library. We also have our own collection of children's literature in the classrooms and in our weekly theme prop boxes.