Educational Philosophy

• The early childhood years are the most important developmental years of a person’s life.
• Children learn best at their own pace in a non-biased environment that is nurturing, supportive, and replete with developmentally appropriate activities.
• Children learn through their senses; learning activities must be concrete, real, and      relevant.
• Children should be given the opportunity to explore, discover, create and interact with their environment.
• Learning environments should be rich with opportunities for children to communicate and develop self-control.
• Learning environments should also facilitate the development of self-esteem.      Children should be respected, accepted, and comforted regardless of their      behavior.
• The focus of the early childhood curriculum should be on the whole child. It should provide for all areas of development: social, emotional, intellectual, and      physical.

Discipline at SYC is treated in a positive and loving manner. We feel that if the environment is structured in a developmentally appropriate way, then you cut down on discipline problems and the children can explore their environment in a joyful and relaxed style. When children are allowed to make choices it empowers them to be independent and have a higher level of self-confidence. When positive choices are modeled everyday it gives them the ability to make good decisions. 

We always want the children to be empowered so when a behavior needs to be corrected we follow a 5-step process that moves from minimum teacher power to maximum teacher power. 

• First we move into the child’s space, to make our presence known.
• Second we make a non-directive statement such as, “Paint stays on the paper.”
• Third we ask the question “What are you doing?” or “Where does the paint belong?”, so that they can reflect on their actions.
• Fourth we give a directive statement such as” Keep the paint on the paper” or “ If you cannot keep the paint on the paper we will need to do a different activity.”
• Fifth, if necessary we redirect them to a new activity where they are able to make better choices.