The joy of learning is the greatest gift we can give to our children. Children learn the most when they are allowed to follow their own pace, guided by age-appropriate lessons and educational materials.
Hands-on materials help children learn concepts in a concrete way. Indoor and outdoor environments are beneficial to social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development.
Rather than following a traditional model wherein the program is divided into separate subjects, our curriculum is organized using integrated studies. Lessons are presented in a simple way during the early years and reintroduced with increasing abstraction and complexity in later years.
Practical Life
The Practical Life Curriculum Area covers the skills needed in everyday life. Activities are designed to help children develop social skills, discipline, grace and courtesy, and care of the self and the environment. It focuses on concentration, coordination, independence, and self-discipline as children are engaged in purposeful activities. These activities are carefully designed to encourage large and small muscle movement as well as hand-eye coordination. Good working habits are also given attention by letting children finish their tasks and put away all the materials before beginning another activity.
Sensorial
Sensorial materials focus on a defining quality, such as color, size, sound, texture, or shape. These materials help develop children’s visual, auditory, and tactile senses. Materials such as bi-nomial cubes are concrete representations of mathematical concepts. This area begins with simple arithmetic and geometry.
Language
Language materials aid vocabulary development. These materials include objects and pictures to be named, matched, labeled, and classified. Textured letters let children feel the alphabet, while the movable ones lead them to read. A variety of materials, ranging from simple three-letter, short-vowel words to read, are designed to introduce long-vowel sounds, phonograms, and parts of speech. Reading materials help children develop proficiency in reading.
Math
Math materials allow children to explore mathematical concepts in concrete form. Lesson presentation progresses from simple to more complex and from concrete to abstract. Children learn concepts at their own pace. These materials are used for presentation as well as to facilitate understanding. The perceptual skills established in the Sensorial Area serve as the foundation for counting and arithmetical operations which are the focus of this area.
Cultural Subjects
Also called “cosmic education”, cultural subjects aim to bring a variety of materials in botany, zoology, geography, history, art, and music, along with respect for other cultures and races. Children become aware of the world through exploration of the customs, food, music, climate, language, and animals of other countries. They will work with globes, maps, flags, and landforms in this area. This helps them gain an understanding and compassion for everyone.
This area begins with the presentation of real objects and proceeds with representations and abstractions. Children learn to identify parts and functions as well as to classify and define them. This area teaches them to become insightful, perceptive, sensitive, and thoughtful.
Science
Children learn about living and nonliving things, parts of plants and animals, and timelines. They start making scientific observations, experiments, and discoveries.
Music
This area focuses on developing an appreciation for music. Children sing and dance, play musical instruments, learn the basics, and develop performance skills.
Art
This area encourages individual expression. Activities like collage, finger and brush painting, watercolor, and clay let children experiment and create.