Philosophy of Education

Forest Hill Nature Childcare  seeks to provide a loving, caring environment to help each child in our program grow in their love of God, self, and others. We seek to cultivate children's natural sense of wonder and build experiences that provide children with a solid educational foundation for learning throughout the elementary years.

 Our curriculum incorporates both structured and unstructured learning experiences. The children participate in lessons during shared circle time that teach and reinforce developmentally appropriate concepts. Our youngest learners focus on language-building experiences, counting, recognizing shapes, colors, and numbers. Our older children are learning alphabet concepts, mathematical concepts such as patterning, sequencing, graphing, and number relationships, and book and print concepts. We incorporate art, music, literature, and bible stories into all age levels.


2-Year old children are just beginning to discover a world beyond their own family. Play is their primary vehicle for understanding the world around them. Through play they learn to handle new people, experiences, and objects, words, and discoveries. Children at this age are growing cognitively as well.  They are learning language, relationships, motor skills both using both large and small muscles, independence skills, and basic cognitive skills. Our goal is to nurture the whole child—to help each individual student grow and learn in several basic areas.

We believe  that 2-year-old children learn best by doing.  The experiences we create for our
students allow them to move around, play, get dirty, engage their senses, and build a sense of accomplishment. Projects are planned to reinforce the concepts we are learning, practice independence skills, allow creativity, and give
students an opportunity to feel good about their “work.” Children are offered a variety of materials both for play and for artistic creation. Our schedule reflects a flexible balance of active and quiet activities, individual and group activities, and indoor and outdoor activities (weather permitting).  Parents receive regular feedback from teachers about class activities and programs, and about how their child is progressing through daily written notes and face-to-face interactions with the teachers.

PreK 2 Class Webpage

Personal and Social Development
**Practice using manners and cooperating with 
    peers and adults
**Practice self-control
**Begin to respond to the feelings of others
**Begin to develop an understanding of
self, family, and others through personal relationships
**Begin to participate in group activities
**Begin to demonstrate taking turns and sharing
**Assist in self-care—dressing/undressing, blowing nose, washing hands, feeding/eating
**Follow simple 2-step directions (put toy away and sit down at the table)
**Develop a positive self-image


Physical Development
**Practice toilet training
**Develop gross motor control by running, hopping, marching, climbing
**Develop fine motor control by scribbling with crayon or marker, painting with large brushes, stringing beads, and manipulating
blocks, puzzles, and clay, and using glue on
paper
**Begin to move creatively to different types of music

 Language and Cognitive Development
**Develop an increased vocabulary
**Name familiar objects in books and in the
environment
**Identify animals and their sounds
**Sing the alphabet song
**Practice rote-counting to 10
**Begin to recognize and identify basic
shapes and colors
**Begin to recognize similarities and differences in objects
**Begin to recognize the first letter of their name
**Begin to repeat simple songs and fingerplays


Spiritual Development
**Experience God's love in nurturing and accepting classroom environment
**Begin to recognize themselves as God’s
creation
**Begin to develop Christian values such as compassion, respect, honesty, and fairness as
modeled and communicated by the teachers.  
**Begin to form an understanding of the natural world through firsthand sensory experiences that relate our creation to God
**Listen to stories about God and Jesus
**Sing songs to praise God