We know that you have many choices and we are delighted to be able to share some information about us. I work hard to find and retain the very best teachers in the field of early childhood education. Our teachers have the skills, knowledge, ability, and desire to provide the very best care and education for your child. We are passionate about what we do and have made it our career. We have consistently, year after year, for almost 20 years now, accomplished a track record of providing a solid foundation for children that is evident in success throughout their school years. We believe that success starts in preschool. But it is not just any program that provides the best outcomes for children; it is the quality of the program that makes the difference. If you are wondering why our program looks different from many other programs it is because we understand that young children do not think the way older children and adults do. This is important because in order to help children attain a higher level of cognitive functioning and thinking we must do more than simply ask children to follow directions, memorize rote facts, and praise blindly. That's easy to do. Asking children to follow directions and memorize rote facts does not take much effort and it only requires a very small portion of the brain to work, not providing the opportunity to develop higher level thinking to occur. Our goal is to provide children with the foundation for all future success in later academic settings and therefore requires the use of specific strategies. Based on and understanding the theoretical tenets of child development we recognize that a process oriented, rather than a product oriented approach, is the key to furthering development. It is through the process that children develop a more advanced cognitive ability and therefore and ability to think through problems and think logically. Once established, the foundation that is built, will be internalized by the children and will become a natural way of thinking. They will internalize the knowledge, strategies and techniques they acquire here at preschool and it will last a lifetime. This isn't always something that you see on a piece of paper. It's likely that the more you don't understand about "what it is" that your child made, the greater the thought process required from them. Ask your child to "tell you about it". Listen carefully as they think through their process and they tell you their story. Our belief in developmentally appropriate practices and our understanding that children's thinking is qualitatively and quantitatively different comes from many, many years of higher academic education in child development. Our teachers are knowledgeable in early childhood education and child development, educated by both the college system as well as the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation. The High/Scope philosophy is a research based program that is supported by solid research and theory in child development studied for over a century. Longitudinal studies have been ongoing since the 1960's and the findings are out. A hands on active learning program is essential for a higher level of cognitive development to occur. Teachers at Little Orchard Preschool utilize their education, skill, and ability to educate young children in the most appropriate manner. Children need an environment where they are allowed the freedom to interact with materials, people, and ideas, and where they are allowed appropriate freedom to learn in a way that is consistent with their developmental level, a crucial component of our program. Freedom to learn and freedom to grow and develop in a way that is most natural to a young child builds a child's initiative and motivation for learning, an essential component for success throughout their life.
