Our Curriculum



The philosophy behind our curriculum is that young children learn best by doing. Learning isn’t just repeating what someone else says; it requires active thinking and experimenting to find out how things work and to learn firsthand about the world we live in.

In their early years, children explore the world around them by using all their senses (touching, tasting, listening, smelling and looking). In using real materials such as blocks and trying out their ideas, children learn about sizes, shapes and colors, and they notice relationships between things.

Play provides the foundation of academic or “school” learning. It is the preparation children need before they learn highly abstract symbols such as letters (which are symbols for sounds) and numbers (which are symbols for number concepts). Play enables us to achieve the key goals of our early childhood curriculum. Play is the work of young children.

The most important goal of our early childhood curriculum is to help children become enthusiastic learners. This means encouraging children to be active and creative explorers who are not afraid to try out their ideas and to think their own thoughts. Our curriculum identifies goals in all areas of development.


Our Curriculum Strengthens

Social
To help children feel comfortable in school, trust their new environment, make friends and feel they are a part of the group.
Emotional

To help children experience pride and self-confidence, develop independence and self-control and have a positive attitude toward life.

Cognitive
To help children become confident learners by letting them try out their own ideas and experience success, and by helping them acquire learning skills such as the ability to solve problems, ask questions and use words to describe their ideas, observations and feelings.
Physical
To help children increase their large and small muscle skills and feel confident about what their bodies can do.

 

The activities we plan for children, the way we organize the environment, select toys and materials, plan the daily schedule and talk with children, are all designed to accomplish the goals of our curriculum and give your child a successful start in school.

Each classroom is set-up in a way that promotes exploration and has distinct areas of interest; each area is well defined and has a variety of materials and equipment.

The Infant Program curriculum at The Kangaroo Club is developmentally appropriate. We use specific guidelines for what activities are appropriate for each stage of development. Staff will also take into consideration each infant's individual personality, temperament, and stage of development. Lesson plans are individualized for each baby. Our daily program has activities that will allow your infant time to grow, as well as explore, experiment, discover and play. Our Infant Curriculum goals are as follows:

 


Our Infant Program

 

•To provide infants with many one-on-one, face-to-face interactions. All interactions are characterized by gentle and supportive responses

•To foster infants with a positive identity, and sense of well-being by rocking, holding and cuddling

•To allow infants to achieve mastery of their bodies through self-initiated motor skills such as rolling, sitting, standing, etc.

•To encourage infants to think, reason, question and experiment.  One way to encourage this is to provide simple toys that respond to infant's initiations, so they may witness cause and effect

•To encourage language and literacy development

•To enhance physical development skills by allowing infants to move comfortably and by providing open carpeted areas and low, sturdy furniture

•To provide regular outdoor experiences

•To encourage creative expression through music, activities & art

•To incorporate routine tasks such as eating, diapering, etc., as a means for furthering an infant's learning, self-help and social skills