Philosophy
Mission statement:
The Little Disciple Learning Center is committed to providing quality early childhood education. Our purpose is to provide an atmosphere that encourages social, emotional, spiritual, physical and intellectual growth and development of the child as a whole. Our nurturing teachers and staff will encourage learning through play, as well as through carefully planned learning activities with specific learning goals.
Our Program Promotes
An Environment which:
1. Develops creativity, interest and joy of learning throughout an interactive process with the environment using all the senses. Discovery of relationships through direct experiences and the promotion of choice are encouraged.
2. Enhances communication skills through fostering meaningful dialogues with children and adults, listening to and discussing stories, participation in group play, language experience activities, relating to pictures, role playing and pretending, as examples.
3. Develops self-control and responsibility through gentle guidance by setting clear, consistent, fair limits for behavior and expectations, redirecting to more acceptable behavior if necessary, guiding children to resolve conflicts and modeling skills that help children solve problems.
4. Develops fine and gross motor skills by providing a balance amount of large and small muscle activities. Gross motor activities might include running, jumping, balancing, and group games. Fine motor skills development may be enhanced through artwork, use of scissors, solving puzzles, block building, and cooking, as examples.
5. Introduces pre-academic skills and expose children to letter sounds, numbers, the alphabet, shapes, and colors. Examples of pre-academic skills are number concepts, such as one to one correspondence and counting meaningful objects. Aspects of language arts are presented through exposure to stories, poetry, and the provision of a print-rich environment.
6. Teacher problem-solving and decision-making skills through individual choices of activities and encouragement of child-initiated investigation, exploration, questioning, and making suggestions.
7. Enhances concern for others through recognition of feelings, demonstration of respect, ability to share, promotion of understanding of commonalities and acceptance of differences between individuals.
8. Encourages the development of a positive self-concept through demonstration of respect for and acceptance of children. This leads to a positive and supportive relationship between teachers and children which are crucial for social and emotional growth.
