Play, Environment, Child-Centric
Our approach to curriculum planning is based on three things:
1. PLAY: At the heart of children’s learning is PLAY. It is through play that children explore developmental themes and stages leading to physical, cognitive, social and emotional development. Children are active, sensory learners and need to be given many opportunities to make choices, explore, investigate, problem solve and interact socially. We are much more interested in the process than in any products they may come up with.
2. The ENVIRONMENT is the foundation of our curriculum. This means that it is child-centered with attractive and interesting materials provided in an organized and thoughtful fashion. Materials are included to foster all the key experiences and developmental themes of early childhood. A supply of backup materials is kept in storage and used on a rotating basis or to supplement and extend an investigation emerging in children’s play. Some materials are introduced to the class with guidelines outlined on their use. Most are undefined and as open-ended as possible.
3. THE CHILD: It is the children’s interests, not the adult’s that we use as the basis of our planning. The teacher’s plans are a thoughtful introduction of materials to stimulate the emergence of an investigation. Teachers anticipate avenues the children may pursue from experience, and they pre-plan and prepare for this with enrichment materials and activity options to add. Occasionally, there may be a teacher-directed plan, but the majority of time children spend with us is child-centered.
The staff at Children's Garden of Learning has spent much time exploring curriculum theory. We have consulted with outside experienced professionals, attended nationally accredited programs, and continually research curriculum literature and theory. The curriculum at Children's Garden of Learning is dynamic and ever-changing, and will continue to grow and change along with the most up-to-date early childhood research.
From our studies of education theorists like Piaget, Dewey, Vygotsky and, most recently, the phenomenal work done by the educators at the Reggio Emilia Schools in Italy, our daily curriculum has emerged, and will continue to evolve as we explore, discover, propose ideas, and make choices and decisions, in order to build a better understanding of the world in which we live.