Childhood is a time of infinite wonder and possibility that is also significant to the development of the brain and therefore the child and how they view the world.
We aim to create a space that young children can explore their interests, follow their curiosities, and learn about their world in an environment that empowers them to safely explore risk and be active participants.
Teaching and learning is viewed as a collaborative process where teachers can gently guide and support children by carefully observing their play, listening to their inquiries, and using these observations to facilitate their learning. This encourages the development of autonomy and cultivates a deeper understanding of their world.
We encourage children to put their theories into practice and continuously observe them in the process. This enables teachers to gain an extensive understanding of how each individual child learns and develops. It also also constantly evolves the teacher’s knowledge of early childhood.
The teacher acts as a coach and a researcher who will document their findings to share with colleagues, families, children and the wider community to elevate the image of the child as capable and competent learners who can be active contributors to society.
Observation and Documentation One day Max brought a paper plate mask from home. It was something that he had created as part of an activity at a birthday party he attended over the weekend. Later on in the day I observed four kids sitting around the table in our mini
Lines are everywhere and yet so easy to overlook! What begins as a way of developing pre-writing skills (an important part of literacy development and communication) can lead to improving children’s ability to detect and form patterns, shapes, and letters. Incorporating other mediums into the classroom such as wire, play-doh
While the Vita Mia students have been following an interest in boats they have been exploring the properties of water, buoyancy, flow and motion. This study can also foster children’s social and emotional development, as they have been interacting with each other to share ideas, opinions, listen to different perspectives,
Risky play in early childhood is an important way of encouraging children’s development of self-confidence, resilience, executive function abilities as well as risk management. It is something that changes with each child and their own unique ability. Standing for the first time is risk taking at some point in life,
Tesoro has been playing around with a variety of lights. The children have been experimenting how different toys change color in the presence of the rope lights. They even experimented with their hands and legs, touching where the rope lights were illuminating their skin. In the dark, and with a
Music can stimulate children’s natural curiosity and desire to learn as they explore the diversity, sounds, rhythms, and emotions of different music genres and instruments.
It fascinates me how attentive young children can be while out in nature. A study of mushrooms is not what I would have predicted. But, at the same time, why am I surprised by children’s natural curiosity and desire to learn about these strange little things that pop up out
My name is Lauren Huyck and I am the afternoon lead for the Scoperta classroom. I started as a teaching assistant when the center was still part of Aquinas in 2010. When we became the GREDC in 2012, I stayed on. In 2014, I was excited to accept the role of lead teacher.
I have a Bachelors in psychology and writing, and an associates in early childhood education. I am currently working on getting a Masters in psychology with a concentration in child development.
I love seeing the children grow and learn. There are so many developmental milestones that I get to see and experience. I fell in love with the Reggio approach and work to incorporate it in all my experiences with children. It has definitely taught me to treat children as citizens of the world.
I honestly could go on about how much I love the work I do and how passionate I feel about every child having quality care but that would take eons. So I will end with these two quotes:
“To take children seriously is to value them for who they are right now rather than adults-in-the-making.”
Alfie Kohn
If you trust play, you will not have to control your child’s development as much. Play will raise the child in ways you can never imagine.
Vince Gowmon
