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Children in preschool are actively exploring and trying to make sense of their worlds. Adults help children make the connections between new situations and familiar experiences. A variety of activities allow children to follow their own interests, and group activities encourage cooperation and listening to others. The preschool program provides a range of learning experiences that foster development in all five domains. Activities and experiences help children develop language, pre-reading and pre-writing skills, and basic number concepts.

Learning & Development

Between the ages of three to five, children must accomplish many tasks in order to develop optimally in all five dimensions.

Social and Emotional Development

Children need to learn in a social context. They learn best when allowed to explore, with the support of helpful and responsive adults. Intelligence, academic success, and emotional stability are strongly influenced by the personal and language interactions children have with others.

Approaches Toward Learning

In the domain of approaches toward learning, there are several important areas that the child must develop.

• They must develop all of their senses as well as learn through the use, actions and interactions of all the senses.
• They need to learn to be powerful learners. Children need to control the materials they use (such as modeling clay, blocks, crayons, paints, dolls and trucks,) thus learning cause and effect and self-control. This encourages children to be active learners and problem solvers, and lays a foundation for internal motivation.
• Children need to develop their attention spans and focus clearly while resisting distractions. They also need plenty of time to engage their memory and practice visualization.

Language Development

Children are beginning to master the written symbols of words and numbers. They need time to work with the symbols enough to internalize them, and to make the connection between the concept and the written form.

Cognition and General Knowledge

Children need to learn causal reasoning (if I do this, then that will occur) and physically experience the results of their actions. They also need to learn and experience social-causal reasoning, which allows them to develop an understanding of how their actions affect the others in their lives.

Physical Well-Being and Motor Development

Children must make use of their whole bodies and the whole environment they operate in. They must make a physical connection to all that is around them and understand their relationship to other things. They need plenty of opportunity to develop small/fine motor skills in order to build the foundation for later writing.