A GOAL-DIRECTED PROGRAM

 

At Sarah's Day Care Center you will see no lines to stand in — only games to play.  No elementary school games — only nursery school games. No complicated, abstract meanings the child cannot comprehend — only ideas and things to talk about, relate to, compare with, fit into, try out, reinforce, invent, discover and enjoy. Yet all the time the children are being continuously challenged by specific leaning goals that we have set for them. All we expect of the children is that they come to school, be themselves and have respect for others.

 

In order for children to begin to read and perform academic tasks, they must first gather meaning from the world and develop an awareness of concepts. In order to gather meaning from the world children must have many sensory motor experiences. They must touch, feel, smell, hear and see. Perceptual development follows — this is how children interpret their sensory experiences, which is a prerequisite for developing their minds.

 

The program we pursue is geared toward helping develop the habits of observation, questioning and listening. It gives them an awareness of their own feelings and of thier right to express those feelings by sometimes channeling them into other means of expression. They learn that they are free to make choices, and that as long as they stay within the limits of consideration for people and things, they do not always have to conform. An open-ended program like our prepares children to utilize their intellectual and creative abilities in future learning tasks.