PRE-KINDERGARTEN/KINDERGARTEN

Pre-Kindergarten (36-60  Months) and Kindergarten (60-72 Months)

Pre-Kindergarten Program

In programming for the preschool children, we consider several factors regarding the pre-kindergarten child.  We know that environmental factors greatly influence the child’s quality of development.  We know that the first five years of a child are the most susceptible to environmental influences.  Research consistently points out that success in a child’s progress through school depends largely on the type of foundation laid in the first five years.  With these and indeed many other factors in mind, we plan activities that are developmentally and culturally appropriate for the children, given their ages, cultural backgrounds, and levels of development.

All the activities are built around specific themes such as Friends; Colors of Fall; Home; Thanksgiving;  Snow, etc. Several skills may be from pre-academic subjects such as Math, Science, Language Arts, Music, Art, Social Studies, Computers, etc.  Recognizing that children learn to think at an early age, we include lots of opportunities for children to learn and apply thinking skills.

For the Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten children , we use the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Curriculum guides.  The new editions of these guides take into account the use of Information technology, English as a Second Language Learners, and Teacher/Parent involvement, and children who are developmentally ahead of their chronological ages (i.e., children who may be either gifted or potentially gifted).  Realizing that some of our children may come to us having missed out on the chronological cut-off age for Kindergarten, we may admit children in our Kindergarten Program if they are turning five (5) years  by November 1^st of the current school year.

Working with parents of such children, we guide these children towards possible admission to public school or private school first grade.  The children are evaluated by our program and the potential school for first grade readiness.  During the school year and indeed the summer period, we place heavy emphasis on the STEM Program  (Science , Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).  In addition, we involve children in the SPARK Program  (Sports, Play, and Recreation for Kids) in order to keep them healthy and physically fit thus helping to prevent health and fitness related problems.