JB 3-Year-Olds
“Childhood is not a race to see how quickly a child can read, write, and count. It is a small window of time to learn and develop at the pace that is right for each individual child.”
- Magda Gerber, renowned early childhood educator
Environment
For our 3-year-olds, learning is not a competition: it is an opportunity to explore and inquire, for teachers and students to embark on a learning adventure together.
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Research has shown that “letter of the week” activities and number worksheets have little to no lasting impact at this age. Instead, our 3-year-old teachers thoughtfully encourage pre-reading skills with literacy immersion. Pre-reading activities aren’t forced, they are naturally integrated into the classroom, for example:
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Print is located in every activity center.
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The construction zone has signage on every road.
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The playhouse has an abundance of mini newspapers and circulars.
Curriculum
The curriculum is child-led: teachers follow the children’s lead and let the year develop based on what the students are interested in. It is truly fascinating to see how each of our two 3-year-old classrooms start off the year with the same general curriculum, yet the individual classrooms unfold differently based on child-led interests.
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Nurturing lifelong learners, our 3-year-old program produces children who are more than ready for K4, having met learning goals naturally. Our students excel in kindergarten not because they have memorized numbers, shapes, and letters, but because they learned how to be critical thinkers and approach literacy in an organic way.
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Most importantly, they have refined their social-emotional skills, developing qualities such as kindness and empathy that will serve them well into kindergarten and beyond.
We consistently satisfy our ratio standards with more teachers on hand than required. Extra help is always available in the school as needed.