The benefits of enrolling a child in a home preschool setting are as follows:

1. The significance of enrolling a child in a Family Childcare includes benefits like providing a small group setting with individualized, caring, nurturing and home-style setting to children of all ages. It helps children to gain experiences of diverse cultures, interests, and ideas, languages, and the ability to develop a trusting personal relationship between family and provider.
2. The Family Childcare Program plays a significant role in the early years of a young child’s life. A professional Family Childcare provider practices early childhood education and standards to teach young children in a warm, loving small group, home like nurturing setting.
3. The Family Childcare Program has the ability to provide one to one individual attention to the young children and promotes plenty of opportunities for children to develop social interactions not only with the provider but also between other mixed-age small groups of children. Thus, also foster younger children and older children to learn from and teach each other.
4. The Family Childcare provides many conveniences for parents as compared to center-based facilities. Family Childcare has a flexibility to open early and close late, accommodate seasonal and/or off-hours. It is also less expensive in terms of tuition rates of center based program as well as making it easier for parents commute to work being close to their homes or being in the same neighborhood.

The first 5 years of life are very important for the child because this time sets the stage for success in school and later life. During infancy and early childhood, many experiences should be gained and many skills learned. It is important to ensure that each child’s development is proceeding without a problem during this period; therefore, we are interested in helping follow the child’s physical, social and emotional development. Parents can help us by completing an “Ages and Stages” questionnaire that will be provided to parents 6 to 12 month intervals. Parents would be requested to answer questions about some things their child does and does not do. The questionnaire is needed to be back to Happy Times. We will be also using these assessments and screening tools while conducting your child’s “Curriculum Development and Learning Report”. (Parent- Teacher Conferences)

If the completed questionnaire indicates that the child seems to be developing without problems, we will send a letter or mention in the Curriculum Development and Learning report stating that the child is social and emotional development appears to be progressing well. We will provide the next age-level questionnaire to parents at the appropriate time.

If parents have concerns about their child at any time, they can reach us at any time to discuss the concerns. If the completed questionnaire suggests that there are concerns about the child, we will contact parents directly, and they may wish to have their child’s doctor or another agency conduct a further examination. All information of the child and family will be kept confidential.

Mon·tes·so·ri pronounced MON-tuh-SORE-ee, was named after its founder Maria Montessori, 1870-1952. She was an Italian physician and educator who developed methods for educating children based on the developing child’s initiative; sense and muscle training, and freedom through prepared materials and games. She designed a “prepared environment” in which children could freely choose from a number of developmentally appropriate activities.

The Montessori Method emphasizes learning through all five senses—not just through listening, watching, or reading. Montessori children learn at their own pace and choose which lessons to participate in. Older children spontaneously share their knowledge with the younger students representing a different approach to traditional education.

Through a prepared Happy Times Learning Center environment, children will be exposed and encouraged to explore the fundamentals of Montessori way of reading, writing, mathematics, sciences, social studies and creative arts while integrating these basic concepts with practical life skills.

Practical Life

The practical life exercises help prepare a child for writing and reading skills by developing and encouraging the following:

• Concentration
• Independence
• Small Motor Skills
• Hand and Eye Coordination

Examples of practical life exercises are: dressing frames, polishing shoes, washing hands, pouring water/rice, sweeping, dusting, folding, plant care, room care, food prep, scrubbing, peeling, washing, drying, cutting and pasting.

Sensorial  

Sensorial exercises help children further their development in these areas: matching, sorting, grading, classifying, sequencing and creating order. Sensory based lessons are the foundation for later works in language and mathematics.

• Visuals – knobbed cylinders, knob less cylinders, towers, long rods, geometric solids
• Tactile – rough and smooth boards
• Auditory – sound cylinders and bells
• Olfactory – smelling cylinders
• Gustatory – tasting tray

Language and Writing

• Vocabulary and Rhythmic Work
• Sandpaper Letters
• Moveable Alphabet
• Reading Theory
• Parts of Speech

Mathematics

• Introduction to Numbers
• Decimal System
• Teens and Tens
• Memory Work
• Passage to Abstraction
• Fractions

Geography

• Puzzle Maps – North America, South America, Asia, Europe
• Sandpaper Globe
• Continent Globe
• Land, Air and Water
• Cultural Studies

Art

• Paint Trays
• Colored Pencils
• Clay
• Collage Trays

At Happy Times Learning Center, we incorporated the Handwriting without Tears curriculum. This curriculum is designed to develop the skills children need to begin to write. Our multisensory approach is used to teach children letter formation through songs, activities, and games. It also helps children to become familiar with the concept of print such as reading from left to write.

The HighScope Preschool “Wheel of Learning” Curriculum emphasizes on these components:

• Active Participatory Learning
• Adult-Child Interaction
• Daily Routine
• Assessment

The curriculum vision is to ensure our children leave our pre-school as:

• Healthy
• Independent
• Friendly
• Creative
• Self-Confident

For more information about HighScope please visit their website at www.highscope.org