What is a Rigorous Preschool Curriculum?

At Kidspace Child Enrichment Center, we believe that children are strong, capable, and active learners by nature. Our purpose is to provide a  “rigorous preschool” curriculum, a playful environment that encourages focused and engaged learning.

Rigorous learning = active play

“If you walk into a high-quality early education classroom, what you see is children playing,” states Amy  O’ Leary, director of the Early Education for All Campaign at Strategies for Children. “What you may not realize is that each station in the room, whether the block area or the dramatic play space or the book corner, has been carefully set up to foster children’s learning and healthy development.”

Rigorous guidelines vary slightly depending on the setting’s particular focus. At our center, learning is not compartmentalized. Rather, play transforms into teachable moments. With education embedded in exploration, kids naturally acquire new skills by pursuing what comes easily: fun.

Our center

Here at Kidspace Child Enrichment Center, our instructors follow practices and use techniques that engage your child’s natural curiosity and teach life skills such as counting, organization, physical coordination, and language development. These include:

• Asking children a question at the beginning of the day, such as “Are you wearing any red or green today?” and graphing the group’s answers at circle time.
• Sitting on the floor with children and actively using contextual vocabulary words in conversation to engage with play items, such as “barn,” “hay bales,” and “tractor” when handling farm animal toys.
• Including counting in everyday activities. Early educators may ask children to add up how many carrot sticks they have in their hands at snack time or how many clouds they see in the sky while at the playground.
• Encouraging children to visit different activity stations around the center, including a block area, dramatic play area, and reading corner, each of which engage them in focused play. Activities may include counting the number of blocks stacked until a tower falls down, or using the dramatic play area as a grocery store where they can shop for ingredients to make a recipe.
• Early educators may sit with children and teach them to cut paper with scissors or place objects in water to see which sink and which float.

In each center and every activity, learning is an essential part of your child’s experience.

Rigorous guidelines

In our interpretation of a rigorous curriculum, learning develops from the dynamic interaction of biological maturation and experience. With guidance from our early educators, young ones are exposed to well-documented sequences that build knowledge at age-and-developmentally appropriate stages when optimal learning is possible.

Early childhood experiences can have profound effects on your child’s development. A rigorous preschool curriculum makes the most of the fertile ground that exists during these years and stages. Through developmentally-appropriate activities, children develop their fine and gross motor skills as well as their understanding of language, math, and science concepts. They learn and practice social-emotional skills such as sharing, self-expression through words, and cooperation. Our rigorous curriculum prepares them for educational and personal success, all through enriched play activities in a supportive group environment.

If you would like your child to engage in skill-building, mind-nourishing play in a daycare setting, call us at Kidspace Child Enrichment Center for more information.