Philosophy of Education

The underlying attitude of our staff is this: Your child is uniquely precious to God Himself. God made only one person just like your child, with his or her abilities, interests and personality.

Therefore, your child is uniquely precious to us. We consider the care of your child to be a tremendous privilege and an awesome responsibility. The early childhood years are critical in laying the foundation for growth in all areas of life – attitude toward learning, creative problem solving, social development, character development, spiritual development – and we are humbled to be trusted with such a responsibility.

We believe that:

• children learn best in an atmosphere where they are loved, cared for, and accepted .

• parents are the first and best educators . We invite you to join us in the classroom as you are able to observe your child at play and gain insight in how to extend what he or she is learning at home.

• children develop skills and organize their world while they play . To shortcut this process by overly controlling their choices is to hinder their development and their ability to learn and problem solve later in life.

• each child is unique, growing at his or her own pace . Our job is to foster individualized growth through providing anencouraging environment and active participation in a wide variety of activities.

• many skills, such as writing and reading, are developmental in nature – meaning that they cannot be rushed and will occur when proper maturation of the brain has occurred.
• We emphasize phonemic awareness in the area of reading readiness. We focus on drawing, painting, building and other fine motor activities to develop pre-writing readiness.

• children acquire skills best when they are taught through interactive activities in meaningful context .

Investigating ice and snow

• what children need most is love and respect.

What we are not:

We are not a program with an emphasis on workbooks, paper & pencil tasks, and children sitting at desks for structured activities most of the day. At SPC, children do have opportunities to do paper & pencil tasks, and some children may choose to write a great deal during center time. However, we spend most of the day in active play in centers, circle time, and outdoors. We also like parents to be aware that the arts & crafts the children do are really their own creative work. They will not all look alike, and some of the projects may not even be recognizable. Children will gradually learn to put the parts in the right places and gain competence with tools such as scissors and paintbrushes. You will definitely have a lot of items to hang on the refrigerator!