Our educational program was designed to clearly define areas of individual, small and large group experiences. Through this concept, our goals for each child includes,

 

• Overwhelming appreciation of himself/herself

• Building his/her skills of problem solving

• A sense of comfort exploring and expressing curiosity

• Being able to make choices and being responsible

 

We believe all children share certain needs and can benefit from a comprehensive interdisciplinary program. This allows children to focus on one learning area at a time. Some of the skills that children acquire through our program are:

 

• Problem-solving skills

• Literacy skills

• Physical abilities

• Social Skills and communication skills

• Ability to deal with emotions

• Self-help skills

 

As a base guideline for our educational program, we chose the Reggio Emilia Philosophy to learning and have integrated this philosophy with our Learning Beyond Curriculum. We believe a child’s learning should be guided with their own interest and ideas. By doing this, children will be more interested in the activities provided.

 

The Reggio Emilia approach to education is committed to the creation of a learning environment that will enhance and facilitate children’s construction of his or her-own powers of thinking through the combination of all the expressive, communicative and cognitive languages. The Reggio Emilia approach is based upon the following principles:

 

• Project Works, also emergent, are depth studies of concepts, ideas and interest, which arise within the group.

 

• Representational Development: Consistent with Howard Gardner’s notation of schooling for multiple intelligences, the Reggio Emilia approach calls for the integration of the graphic arts as tools for cognitive, linguistic, and social development

 

• Collaboration: Collaborative group work, both large and small is considered valuable and necessary to advance cognitive development. Children are encouraged to dialogue, critique, compare, negotiate, hypothesize, and problem solve through group work.

 

• Teachers as researchers: The teacher’s role within the Reggio Emilia approach is complex. Working as co-teacher, the teacher is first and foremost to be that learner alongside the children. The teacher is a resource guide as she/he lends expertise to the children. Within such a role, the teacher educators carefully listen, observe, and document children’s work and the growth of community in their classroom and are to provoke, construct, and stimulate thinking, and children’s coloration with peers. Teachers are committed to reflection about their own teaching and learning

 

• Documentation: Similar to the portfolio approach, documentation of children’s work in progress is viewed as an important tool in the learning process for children, teachers, and parents. Pictures of children engaged in experiences, their words as they discuss what they are doing, feeling and thinking and children’s interpretation of experiences through the visual media are displayed as a graphic presentation of the dynamics of learning. Documentation is used as assessment and advocacy of learning.