Early Childhood Center

We offer a child-centered program that is developmentally appropriate for children who are two-, three-, and four-year-olds. Our goal is to provide a positive school experience, one that will stimulate learning through exploration and encourage independence.

Through positive interactions with classmates and adults, children have many opportunities to develop social skills. Our activities and projects are designed to value the process more than the finished product, allowing children to be creative and inventive.

Both indoor and outdoor play allows children to learn about the world and themselves. As children play, they learn new skills, coping mechanisms, the ability to test new ideas, as well as mastery of their bodies.
Program Objectives

Make a successful transition from home to school Feel comfortable and secure in school Develop social competency with peers and adults Develop a positive self-concept, respect for others & their ideas Encourage each child to play and work well independently and in a group Provide opportunities for self-expression for each child through language, dramatics, art, music, and play Stimulate imagination, develop an interest in learning & exploring Provide opportunities for large and small motor development Provide opportunities for interacting with a wide variety of materials that promote abstract and deductive reasoning Introduce the concept and use of numbers and letters through a variety of experiences

Educational Curriculum

The Early Childhood Center uses the Creative Curriculum for Preschool as the keystone of our child-centered, play-based program.

The Creative Curriculum is soundly based on years of research in the areas of learning theory and child development. There is increased focus on the social and emotional skills needed to succeed as a learner in school and life.

Provided in this curriculum is extensive guidance for teachers in selected content areas that include: literacy, math, science, social studies, and the arts.

Strategies used range from child-initiated to teacher directed. There are distinct aspects always considered in lesson planning. These include the children’s backgrounds, knowledge and interest, as well as the parent’s skills and talents, along with the teachers’ ideas from their own experiences.

There is specific emphasis on the arrangement of the classroom environment into interest areas that promote hands-on, child-initiated, open-ended exploration that leads to significant stimulation and subsequently learning. This results in every segment of each day becoming a teaching/learning experience.

Teachers routinely observe the children interacting with each other, the adults and the learning materials in their environment. These observations become the basis for future lesson plans as well as the two yearly assessments that are completed and shared with parents.

The Creative Curriculum for preschool provides the framework. The experienced staff at ECC makes it meaningful for their class and the individual students and is therefore able to offer a unique high-quality early childhood experience to your child.

The Early Childhood Center is a non-sectarian nursery school. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, or national origin.