for people ages 21/2-6
Where community is encouraged, individualism is valued,and children are treated with love dignity and respect.
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| Curriculum |
| Menu |
| Schedule and Tuition |
| Staff |
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| Our Philosophy | |
There are many schools of thought regarding how to educate and nurture young children. (Montessori, Waldorf, Reggio Emilia, etc.) When you look at the philosophies, there are many similarities between them because there are certain “truths” that must be a part of each philosophy — such as children need a safe environment. Taking what rings true from the various philosophies, adding experience, practicality and love, a new, hybrid philosophy is created — BellaVita. |
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| 1. Meet basic needs | |
When basic needs are met, children can relax into their environment and learn. Basic needs include: physically and emotionally safe environment, a sense of belonging, adequate and nutritious food and water in regular intervals, and comfort in the elements (e.g. Sunhats in summer or mittens in winter). Basic needs should not be underestimated; they are the foundation to everything else. If this foundation is weak, the higher levels of human potential will not be attained to their fullest. |
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2. Create meaningful experiences
and learning |
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When people are able to connect new information to things that they already know or that are important to them, the learning is more internalized and remembered. For example, when a child is learning to write letters, they do not start with random words, they start with something meaningful that they’ve heard thousands of times — their own name. |
3. Value and document efforts
to communicate, problem solve and express oneself
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Using specific praise for a child’s efforts, documenting work with pictures or journals, and dictating a child’s spoken word are some of the many ways we can send them the message that what they do and say is important. Through documentation, verbal review and dialogue, children are able to review their work progress and plan for future endeavors. This process results in the creation of real, meaningful self-esteem.
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| 4.Community and Culture | |
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No one is an island, we all need the resources and support in our community to get our many needs met. With regular and open communication, sharing of cultural traditions and diversity and camaraderie between all the people that make up the school community, we send our children (and adults) the message that they belong to something bigger than themselves which creates a sense of place, security and comfort. |
5. Love, Joy, BellaVita
When a current of love and joy flows through the environment, the possibilities
are endless. Love and joy are communicated through our bodies in many ways (verbal
and non-verbal), through the physical and emotional environment we create together,
and through the special attention and compassion we give each other and ourselves.
We are all responsible for creating our “beautiful life” environment
and community. Most parents and teachers want children to grow to be compassionate,
responsible, conscious adults who act from integrity and contribute to our planet
in a positive way. Most of us want children to learn to handle the hardships
of life with a positive outlook, an attitude of life-long learning and to develop
the ability to see and implement solutions both on their own and with others.
When we can honestly say we are behaving the way we want our children to be,
we have every reason to expect great results. |
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