Graham Windham Grow With Us Preschool

Graham Windham’s early childhood programs encourage children’s physical intellectual emotional and social development to the fullest extent possible. Incorporating the principles outlined in the Eight Essential Elements of Effective Early Childhood Education by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) our center-based programs and the family child care programs use the Creative Curriculum which emphasizes and builds on each child’s strengths. Graham Windham views academic achievement as a critical factor for later self-sufficiency and therefore lays a strong foundation to build the competencies necessary for future success while addressing behavioral and social skills development.

Given that literacy is the cornerstone of academic success Graham Windham adopted literacy for all its children as its signature mission for the next decade and implemented an organization-wide literacy initiative as a key element of its strategic plan. The Early Childhood Division’s core objective is to expose children to reading as early as possible. Our literacy initiatives for young children are rooted in the concept of emergent literacy considered the cutting edge approach to early literacy education. Emergent literacy theory developed from a vast amount of research in the fields of child development psychology education linguistics anthropology and sociology. It postulates that literacy development begins in the very earliest stages of childhood even though the activities of the child may not seem related to reading and writing. Early behaviors such as “reading” from pictures and “writing” with scribbles are examples of emergent literacy and are an important part of children’s literacy development. To help our children become successful confident readers and writers we have implemented teaching strategies that nurture this process in all five of our center-based programs as well as in our three home-based programs.

Children classified as having developmental delays and/or disabilities are encouraged to explore and discover at their own pace. Children are offered a wide range of multi-modal learning experiences within thoughtfully designed learning environments. Activities are individualized according to children’s needs and ability levels and children are challenged according to their individual strengths and interests. All students engage in self-selected and teacher-directed indoor and outdoor activities alone and in small groups. Children have the opportunity to question to seek answers to rethink and restructure and to find new relationships through active learning opportunities. The early childhood programs at Graham Windham serve more than 3000 children and their families. Providing families with a range of services that augment parenting abilities and connect them with a broad spectrum of community resources Graham Windham’s commitment to its youngest children reaches well beyond mandated benchmarks. The agency is committed to the idea that quality early childhood education coupled with quality child care provides physical psychological intellectual and social opportunities for children to learn and grow in a safe healthy and stimulating environment.

Child Ages:

2 years - 6 years

Licenses & Accreditations:

New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene - NAEYC Accredited

Preschool:

Yes