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Mrs. Mallick is formally trained in Montessori and High Scope Curriculum. We follow a HighScope, “Plan -Do- Review” philosophy (www.highscope.org) and implement it with Montessori material on daily basis according to the needs and interest of the children.

Montessori Preschool and Pre-K

Ratio: 1 teacher to 6 children

Welcome to the preschool year; the most critical and pivotal two years for determining your child’s lifelong learning ability. Your talkative child is at the prime age for developing pre-reading skills and forming social relations with her peers.

HTLC is a small home-based a Montessori inspired preschool with all the bells and whistles of the larger centers. We are small enough to offer our children a personal touch. We believe that to achieve a well-rounded development, we should provide the children a home-like environment that helps in bringing out a child’s potential by giving him.

Our Montessori inspired preschool program is designed to help your child build a strong foundation for school success. Your child would enter kindergarten, ready to learn and prepared to succeed. Using the Montessori approach and High Scope curriculum to early education and care, we teach your child the cognitive and social-emotional skills that will help her/him become a lifelong learner, problem solving, self-regulation, independence, interactive learning, and collaborative play.

Our curriculum is organized into monthly theme-based units that address language, reading, writing, math, science, social studies, creative arts, motor skills, social development as well as Montessori Sensorial and Practical Life skills.

HighScope Preschool Approach

How Happy Times HighScope approach helps your preschooler progress?

Academic Readiness – Children learn through hands-on experiences; they don’t just watch someone else demonstrate an activity or listen to a teacher explain a concept. They actually work the problem out with their own hands. Children are encouraged by the hands-on environment to pursue their own learning intentions.

Happy Times HighScope Preschool vision is to ensure our children leave our pre-school as:

• Healthy
• Independent
• Friendly
• Respectful
• Citizen
• Creative
• Scholar

Healthy – The preschooler will dance, sing, and achieve developmental milestones in the process with daily music and movement activities. Mrs. Mallick will also work child’s balance and strength in weekly yoga classes and with one hour of indoor/outdoor physical activity each day, one of the best habits for healthy living.

Independent and Creative – Children, with guidance, choose to work independently or in a small group, and return the materials when completed. Motivation comes from within the individual child. The child’s own curiosity and interest drives them toward competence. Children learn to correct their own work. Successes are far more numerous than failures.

Friendly – Children learn to pursue learning for the pure pleasure of it, rather than for short-term, arbitrary goals. Children initiate their own work and continue with it until their tasks has been completed.

Respectful – At HTLC Children learn to embrace rules that reflect a sense of respect for others and authority. At HTLC preschool, children spontaneously seek growth and development. It is in their nature to do so, and the HTLC approach respects this and exploits it to the child’s benefit.

Citizen – Children acquire the qualities to become “citizens of the world “and through civic virtue come to understand and cherish the world they live in. Our vision is of a world that can finally live in peace.

Scholar – Through a research-based curriculum developed by HighScope, your child will gain the early literacy and language skills that will determine his/her future academic success. Mrs. Mallick also works with your child to develop her pre-writing skills, by focusing on grip and letter shape.

Preschool Milestones

What will my preschooler learn?

Before graduating from the preschool program at 4 years, your child will be able to achieve specific milestones in four key areas.

1-Citizen

• Know her first name, last name, age, gender, and address
• Dress and undress herself, including buttoning, unbuttoning, zippering, and un-zippering
• Communicate with friends, practicing taking turns, and enter into play with others
• Wash her hands using soap and water and dry them off with a towel, all on her own

2-Scholar

• Tell you at least two things about common objects and use at least two descriptors about common objects
• Use all of the words in a sentence and speak in complete sentences (for example; “I am going to the bathroom.”)
• Follow three-step specific directions
• Ability to write her own name
• Letter recognition of upper and lower case letters and letter sounds

3-Mind

• Name five different colors
• Count up to 15 and count 5 objects placed in front of her in order (one, two, three, four, five)
• Recognize size relation (i.e., pick the smallest or biggest object)
• Play act and pretend
• Positive sense of self

4-Body

• Hop up and down on either the right foot or the left foot
• Throw a ball overhand and catch a large ball with both hands
• Unbutton one or more buttons
• Master beginning writing skills, including letters or letter-like shapes

Assessment

Your child will be regularly assessed to assure that he/she is meeting these developmental milestones and is progressing in he/her education.

Few early childhood education programs can match our frequent and rigorous approach to measurement. Mrs. Mallick conduct a screening of your child within 30 days of enrollment and then conduct progress monitoring every month on all preschoolers who attend three mornings a week or more. We test early and often, because the sooner we detect potential issues in a child, the better we can address and solve them.

Our approach includes several assessment tools, including ASQ-3.

ASQ-3

Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) is an effective, efficient way to gauge your child’s progress, identify developmental concerns, and better individualize instruction for your child in the classroom.

Ages and Stages Screening Tool (LO2) ASQ would be conducted annually and for all children up to age 5.

Progress Monitoring:

On a monthly basis, our teachers measure your child’s progress in the areas of letter recognition and sounds, print awareness, rhyming and alliteration, vocabulary development, and name recognition and writing.

Parent Teacher Conferences

The conferences schedule in November/December and May/June of each year. The purpose of parent teacher conferences, are to share with parents the progress of their child in the classroom and ways parents can help support the education at home. One-hour conference schedules after school hours and there will be no charge. Child assessment and reports send home in November and May.

Daily Communication

HTLC provides daily communication with parents. Parents will decide if they would prefer paper / text or email communication. HT would be communicating daily with them for any concerns, needs, and will share photos of the child enjoying daily activities through one of the selected methods.

Lesson Plans and Themes

Our Montessori inspired weekly lesson plans are based on interesting themes/ topics based on children’s ages, developmental levels, children’s interest and weekly observations.