About Tykes 'n Tots Preschool & Daycare
Tykes 'n Tots Preschool & Daycare is a unique home-based preschool supporting social, physical, emotional, and cognitive development through play, art, and drama. Well-organized classroom space with quality materials in which children interact freely with the environment. It is this environment that taps into your child’s natural curiosity, allowing them to discover and develop their unique talents at their own pace, and inspire a love for learning.
Using the Reggio Emilia approach, children use '100 languages' to express themselves through the use of clay, paint, drawing, natural or recycled materials, dramatic play, light and shadow, music, and dance.
All-Day Preschool Features include:
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About The Reggio Emilia Approach to Child Care
Behind the Reggio Approach are strong educational theories, practices and methods. Here are the main principles and how teachers put them into action.
The 5 Principles of Reggio Emilia
1) All children are competent, curious and creative
At the very core of the Reggio Approach is the concept of wonder. Wonder as an act that begins the process of learning and wonder as an integral quality within all children. Reggio educators view children as natural scientists; driven by curiosity, with tremendous observational skills and an ability to form strong theories about the world around them. They consider a child’s creative expression (especially in preliterate stages), as his way of communicating what he understands about the world around him.
2) Essential learning takes place within a system of relationships
Reggio teachers believe that when children share their wonder with other children, their parents or teachers, they engage in a richer and deeper learning process. Collaboration increases the children’s commitment to the topic and multiplies the learning opportunities by encompassing many points of view. In school, when this type of group wonder is guided by teachers who use provocations and questioning rather than demonstrations or explaining, children will almost always be able to connect to the topic.
3) Children’s questions and interests are a foundation for learning experiences
Collaborative wonder and the sharing of ideas plants the seeds for the class curriculum. During this first full-group discussion of the sky, a classmate might share her knowledge of planets or the moon (leading to a study of planets and stars), while another child might want to work on making a picture book about cloud animals (an opportunity for art and literacy development). It’s important to note, at no time would a teacher intervene in a discussion with children to weed out the truth from fiction, or give answers. Instead, she would extend and compile the ideas to be presented back to the group for theory development. In this way, teachers act as guides supporting children as they build their own knowledge.
4) Children express themselves through many languages
In traditional U.S. schools, children are judged by their success using verbal and written forms of expression above all others, in part because test taking depends on these skills. In Reggio schools, all forms of expression are valued equally.
5) Documentation allows children and adults to remember and reflect on learning experiences
Throughout the learning process, teachers document the children’s experience through photographs, note-taking, video, and through artifacts the children make themselves. It is compiled and shared with the focus on process, rather than product.
The guiding belief for the Reggio Approach is that children’s ideas are worthy of deep consideration. In a more traditional system, it’s the opposite— we take away the child’s role in developing the direction of their education. Instead of using their curiosity, we’re telling them at every age, through predetermined curriculum, what they should be wondering about at every stage of their growth. Rather than embedding literacy and math instruction within their interests, we disconnect them, creating boring and difficult exercises for skill acquisition without capitalizing on the motivation that joy and curiosity naturally provide.
The 5 Principles of Reggio Emilia
1) All children are competent, curious and creative
At the very core of the Reggio Approach is the concept of wonder. Wonder as an act that begins the process of learning and wonder as an integral quality within all children. Reggio educators view children as natural scientists; driven by curiosity, with tremendous observational skills and an ability to form strong theories about the world around them. They consider a child’s creative expression (especially in preliterate stages), as his way of communicating what he understands about the world around him.
2) Essential learning takes place within a system of relationships
Reggio teachers believe that when children share their wonder with other children, their parents or teachers, they engage in a richer and deeper learning process. Collaboration increases the children’s commitment to the topic and multiplies the learning opportunities by encompassing many points of view. In school, when this type of group wonder is guided by teachers who use provocations and questioning rather than demonstrations or explaining, children will almost always be able to connect to the topic.
3) Children’s questions and interests are a foundation for learning experiences
Collaborative wonder and the sharing of ideas plants the seeds for the class curriculum. During this first full-group discussion of the sky, a classmate might share her knowledge of planets or the moon (leading to a study of planets and stars), while another child might want to work on making a picture book about cloud animals (an opportunity for art and literacy development). It’s important to note, at no time would a teacher intervene in a discussion with children to weed out the truth from fiction, or give answers. Instead, she would extend and compile the ideas to be presented back to the group for theory development. In this way, teachers act as guides supporting children as they build their own knowledge.
4) Children express themselves through many languages
In traditional U.S. schools, children are judged by their success using verbal and written forms of expression above all others, in part because test taking depends on these skills. In Reggio schools, all forms of expression are valued equally.
5) Documentation allows children and adults to remember and reflect on learning experiences
Throughout the learning process, teachers document the children’s experience through photographs, note-taking, video, and through artifacts the children make themselves. It is compiled and shared with the focus on process, rather than product.
The guiding belief for the Reggio Approach is that children’s ideas are worthy of deep consideration. In a more traditional system, it’s the opposite— we take away the child’s role in developing the direction of their education. Instead of using their curiosity, we’re telling them at every age, through predetermined curriculum, what they should be wondering about at every stage of their growth. Rather than embedding literacy and math instruction within their interests, we disconnect them, creating boring and difficult exercises for skill acquisition without capitalizing on the motivation that joy and curiosity naturally provide.
All images and content excerpts from Tykes n Tots Preschool & Daycare. Content excerpts from http://mommyshorts.com/2015/03/5-ways-kids-learn-at-a-reggio-emilia-preschool.html