PHILOSOPHY

Our mission is to continually strive to meet the needs of each child and family. Specifically, we strive to:

Create a safe, nurturing learning environment which encourages social, emotional, intellectual and physical growth of each child; Accept, celebrate and support each child's unique personality, culture, learning style and developmental rate;
Work together with parents to achieve the best for each child and encourage parents to become partners in their child's development by participating in the classroom and by increasing their knowledge and awareness of child development through reading, observation and sharing ideas to meet parenting challenges;
Provide a stimulating play environment, using developmentally appropriate practice and an emergent curriculum with a focus on verbal/cognitive development to teach children to think independently and creatively;
Create a supportive emotional climate to help children develop a positive self-image, to learn and practice conflict resolution techniques, to respect themselves and others and to behave in a socially acceptable manner;
Act continually as an advocate for each child in the program and for children in general; and
Provide a program which embodies the highest industry standards through careful use of resources, by recruiting, developing and retaining high quality teachers and by encouraging open communication and a free exchange of ideas.

Accomplishing Our Mission
CLC's program is designed to provide for the total growth of a child in an environment in which children are encouraged to explore, pretend, create, express feelings and thoughts, develop life skills and experience joy. As we bridge the gap between home and school, we guide children toward a good self-image while helping them to develop their skills.

Our teachers strive to provide experiences that are relevant to each child's age and their emotional, social and intellectual needs. Children are provided with activities and learning tasks that support the learning process by "hands-on" experiences. Ongoing brain research validates our belief that learning by doing results in short-term AND long-term benefits.

Thought comes from action, not from words. So, our teachers provide necessary guidance, assistance and materials to promote opportunities for each child to learn through meaningful exploration, active involvement and reinforcement through repetition.

Children learn best from concrete experience, from "doing", rather than from "hearing about". Play (learning) is planned which emphasizes the process more than the product, fostering a sense of accomplishment and pride in children.

Teachers listen to what children are saying and respond appropriately. We emphasize a verbal-cognitive approach to learning, in which teachers model and support constant language interaction between adult and child and between child and child. Experience and research confirm that the use of language is instrumental in children's development of critical thinking (how to think) and problem-solving skills.

Language use must be practiced many times in order for a child to become skillful. CLC's learning setting provides ongoing opportunities for your child to practice, practice, practice. We repeat their thoughts, correcting the grammar and adding vocabulary. We ask questions to encourage the child to express his/her thoughts. We give your child time to answer.

We encourage and guide children in resolving conflict and in thinking through a problem and offering solutions. Problem-solving involves the development of concentration, systematic trial-and-error, planning a sequence of events toward a solution and noticing, evaluating and correcting errors in the plan. This is challenging work for your child!

We do all this to develop each child's ability to know how to think through a problem. Not only is this a critical life skill for social purposes, it is also a necessary skill for math work in later school years. And with our world's growing reliance on technology, the ability to develop creative solutions is becoming even more valuable.

Problem-solving builds self-esteem and self-confidence in children as they realize they can figure out a problem independently. Also, it helps children control their emotions, as we validate their ideas and needs in arriving at a solution.

We believe children have the right to experience trust, without which learning is difficult. Children have the right to experience being in control, to have friends, to feel safe and secure, to be able to change things, to feel welcomed and loved and to have fun.

Recognizing that children grow in predictable stages but that each child's rate differs slightly, we treat each child as an individual, working from the level that child has attained and challenging them to move forward one step at a time. Relating in this way to children can be time-consuming or inconvenient but we believe it to be a necessity for them.

CREATIVE LEARNING CENTER

PHILOSOPHY