What an adventure your child will embark upon when he or she joins us at Prospect Preschool Academy… new friends, new experiences and new kinds of fun! While having a wonderful time, your little one will learn important skills that will prepare him or her to succeed as individuals and as they progress to elementary school. We recognize that each child has unique talents, learning styles and personalities. Our highly-qualified teachers and staff are committed to working within each child's comfort zone to ensure optimal social, emotional and educational results. We are simply not just a daycare for your children. Rather, each day will bring a new and enriching experience.
In our newly remodeled Infant and One Year Old Rooms, we provide the nurturing care that only mothers can provide. The age appropriate toys and playtime activities are modeled to develop our children physically and emotionally. Currently our infant room has a ratio of one teacher to two children meaning that your child will receive the utmost in constant attention and nurturing.
At Prospect Preschool Academy we take an innovative approach to preschool curriculum. Our academic day begins with one of the three core classes: language arts, math or science. After forty minutes, each homeroom will rotate to the next class. This inventive method of teaching allows the children to visit several classrooms with different teachers who specialize in one of the three core subjects fundamental to an early education. In addition to daily academic lessons, your child will also participate in a variety of weekly enrichment classes including art, computer, Spanish and organic gardening!
We are now enrolling for our new Summer Camp program that begins June 13, 2011!! It is an eight week adventure with themes from Outer Space to Cooking to the Olympics. Designed for 4-8 year olds, it is an experience that will include field trips and hot lunches!! Call us today to sign up...Hurry - Space is limited!!
Our Philosophy
Our philosophy at Prospect Preschool Academy mirrors that of the National Association for the Education of Young Children. All preschool-age children should learn the fundamental building blocks of reading, writing, math and science, as well as how to interact with teachers and classmates. “However”, says Barbara Willer, Ph.D., deputy director of the NAEYC in Washington D.C., “the overarching goal of any preschool should be to help a child feel good about himself as a learner and to feel comfortable in a school-like setting.” We aspire to send each of our children home at the end of the day filled with exciting new facts and fun stories of friendship to share with their parents.
Why We Focus on Three Core Subjects
Language Arts
Learning to read and write is critical to a child’s success in school and later in life. One of the best predictors of whether a child will function competently in school and go on to contribute
actively in our increasingly literate society is the level to which the child progresses in reading and writing. Although reading and writing abilities continue to develop throughout the
life span, the early childhood years—from birth through age eight—are the most important period for literacy development.
Children take their first critical steps toward learning to read and write very early in life. Long before they can exhibit reading and writing production skills, they begin to acquire some
basic understandings of the concepts about literacy and its functions. Children learn to use symbols, combining their oral language, pictures, print, and play into a coherent mixed medium
and creating and communicating meanings in a variety of ways. From their initial experiences and interactions with adults, children begin to read words, processing letter-sound relations and
acquiring substantial knowledge of the alphabetic system. As they continue to learn, children increasingly consolidate this information into patterns that allow for automaticity and fluency in
reading and writing. Consequently reading and writing acquisition is conceptualized better as a developmental continuum than as an all-or-nothing phenomenon. But the ability to read and write does not develop naturally. Children need regular and active interactions with print. Specific abilities required for reading and writing come from immediate experiences with oral
and written language. Experiences in these early years in an excellent preschool setting such as Prospect Preschool Academy begin to define the assumptions and expectations about becoming literate and give children the motivation to work toward learning to read and write.
Math
The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and the National Association for the Education of Young Children affirm that high-quality, challenging, and accessible mathematics education for three-to-six-year-old children is a vital foundation for future mathematics learning. In every early childhood setting, children should experience effective, research-based curriculum and teaching practices.
Math helps children develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Just as the brain is "pre-wired" to learn and use language, it is also a part of human nature to learn and use math concepts. As children begin crawling and walking, they explore, handle objects and notice the sizes of their toys. They start to form ideas about their environment, naturally. With these activities, children learn the basics of math.
- Group and sort: match up objects that have traits in common, such as size, shape, and other features
- Recognize numbers: count and then understand what numbers mean
- Explore space: see and explore how shapes and things fit together
- Recognize shapes: know and point out the basic shapes - squares, circles, triangles
- Recognize patterns: be able to guess what comes next in a pattern of objects
- Estimate/predict: guess amounts, distance, how one thing can affect another (such as determining if a heavier object sinks faster than a lighter object)
- Measure: understand that one object can be used to describe or represent another and learn the concepts of tall, short, heavy, light, half
- Tell time: understand the concept of time, past and present, with words such as later, tonight, tomorrow, yesterday, in 10 minutes
Science
A young child starting preschool brings a sense of wonder and curiosity about the world. Whether watching snails in an aquarium, blowing bubbles, using a flashlight to make shadows, or experimenting with objects to see what sinks or floats, the child is engaged in finding out how the world works. It is not exaggerating to say that children are biologically prepared to learn about the world around them, just as they are biologically prepared to learn to walk and talk and interact with other people. Because they are ready to learn about the everyday world, young children are highly engaged when they have the opportunity to explore. They create strong and enduring mental representations of what they have experienced in investigating the everyday world. They readily acquire vocabulary to describe and share these mental representations and the concepts that evolve from them. Children then rely on the mental representations as the basis for further learning and for higher order intellectual skills such as problem solving, hypothesis testing, and generalizing across situations.
While a child’s focus is on finding out how things in her environment work, her family and teachers may have a somewhat different goal. Research journals, education magazines, and the popular press are filled with reports about the importance of young children’s development of language and literacy skills. Children’s natural interests in science can be the foundation for developing these skills.
Why Our Enrichment Programs Are Valuable Areas of Study
Art
It's been proven that early exposure to visual art, music, or drama promotes activity in the brain. Art also helps children understand other subjects much more clearly... from math and science, to language arts and geography. During this developmental stage, it is important for children to be learning shapes, colors, textures and techniques that will all contribute to their artistic abilities later in life.
Drama allows preschoolers to express themselves through movement and storytelling. It can be an enchanting way for preschoolers to interact in a group and learn about individual roles. Language, math, art and physical education will be taught when preschoolers learn through dramatic play. To teach drama requires planning and creativity but the results are worth the efforts. At Prospect Preschool Academy will explore dramatic play through costumes, games, puppets and much more.
Computer
Most parents and educators would agree that computers are a necessary part of education these days. In a report written by Susan W. Haugland, a professor emeritus in child development, "3- and 4-year-old children who use computers with supporting activities that reinforce the major [classroom] objectives ... have significantly greater developmental gains when compared to children without computer experiences in similar classrooms." These gains included improved intelligence, nonverbal skills, structural knowledge, long-term memory, manual dexterity, verbal skills, problem solving, abstraction and conceptual skills.
Spanish
More and more children are learning a second language, with Spanish a primary one in the United States. Some children start learning Spanish as early as preschool. Preschool-age children are especially receptive to new words, which makes learning another language easier. At Prospect Preschool Academy we will begin to explore the basics of the Spanish language through flashcards, games, music and a variety of developmentally appropriate classroom activities.
Garden Project
At Prospect Preschool Academy, each child will participate in all areas of growing an eco-friendly, organic garden. We will begin our gardening in the spring and continue through fall. In the spring, the children will decide what we will plant, they will help design the layout of the garden and they will help plant their flowers and vegetables. Weekly they will water, weed and help maintain the healthy garden. When it comes time for harvesting, the children will not only help in that area but will also reap the benefits. If they choose to plant carrots, we will learn what vitamins we are eating when we have our own healthy carrots for snack that day. It’s hard to resist any vegetable when you have grown it yourself!
Enroll today, or contact us for more information!
prospectacad@aol.com