Education is not an end in itself, but a means to success.
Our Mission
The mission of Toddlertime’s educational program is to provide a foundation for success in life. With this goal in mind, we have been inspired by leaders of education, business, and health fields to create an educational program that not only prepares children for later success in school but also develops key skills which will serve children throughout life. Beyond creating academic achievement and life skills, we are committed to encouraging each child to develop as a unique individual.
Developmentally appropriate learning outcomes are met through opportunities and support for children to make decisions, take risks, develop compassion, work collaboratively as both a leader and a team player, persevere when challenged, take responsibility for their actions, and act with integrity. All of these attributes serve a person well throughout their school years as well as throughout life.
Our Philosophy:
The philosophy of Toddlertime is to provide an exciting, innovative and active learning experiences in a secure and nurturing environment. Our goal is to explore an idea from multiple perspectives with the help of real-world experts, tools and experiences, collaborate on projects driven by their curiosity, and share their findings with the world. Research tells us that rich curriculum and skill development are best delivered through carefully planned and facilitated play where learning goals are intentionally embedded.
Hands-on sensory and experiential learning engages the whole child. Since, young children think in concrete rather than abstract terms, they achieve a better understanding of their lessons by experiencing them through all their senses. We encourage children to feel, hear, see, smell and touch as well as read and write about their experiences. Beyond the classroom, children explore the local community and participate in enrichment programs to further discovery and learning.
Our goals are based on the research of those who have done outstanding work in the fields of human development, education, and organizational development.
Emmy Werner, Michael Rutter, John Bowlby have guided our practices of creating a learning environment that helps children to develop resilience, where taking initiative, forming positive attachments, and self-control are priorities.
Magda Gerber inspired our values on the need for young children to feel secure, competent, and confident and allow them to be curious, self-directed, and resourceful in pursuing learning. We support their interests, focus, and attentiveness to create highly engaged learners who are able to problem solve without excessive adult interference and which supports higher order thinking. Our aim is to teach children how to think rather than simply what to think.
Howard Gardner guides us to respecting each child’s strengths and needs and view intelligence as unique to each individual. Cognitive development is a complex integration of potential and achievement across multiple intelligences including spatial, linguistic, musical, kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, natural, and logical-mathematical thought which all need to be nurtured from a young age in order to fully develop.
Children of the same age will not necessarily develop and learn at the same rate. Our classrooms provide the means for active learning giving children many opportunities to work at their own pace and level. This environment allows each child to attain success in all areas of their development as they are ready.
Our school is one where learning goes beyond academic preparation to also preparing children for life’s challenges. The work of business leaders such as Peter Senge and Ronald Heifetz tells us that adaptability to change, decision making, collaboration, and interpersonal communication are essential ingredients to success across all vocations. We believe that these must be nurtured from the earliest years of a child’s life and apply classroom management strategies that do so.
Together with families we are partners in developing young minds and character in such a way that will serve as a solid and meaningful foundation for later learning and also for life success.
Curriculum
At Toddlertime, we follow the Connecticut Preschool Curriculum Frameworkand assess children based on the Connecticut Preschool Assessment Framework. We like this curriculum because it gives us standards and guidelines to make sure your child is ready for kindergarten but it allows our teachers to be creative and for the interest of the children to direct the flow of learning. We also use the "Handwriting Without Tears" program, which is the same program taught in the New Canaan public school system.
Because we are committed to continually evolving our school into the best that it can be, we have hired an educational consultant for the 2010-2011 school year who will be working with the entire staff to thoroughly examine our curriculum and teaching practices. Our consultant is Patricia Reinhardt and you can learn more about her by visiting her web site.
23 Park Street New Canaan, CT 06840 Tel: (203) 972-3111 Fax: (203) 972-3125 Office@ToddlerTimeNS.org