Project Description
Introduction
The Early Childhood Program (ECP) is a play-based program for children ages three through six that includes kindergarten in the final year. We believe that learning is deepest when children are interested and engaged. Children in the ECP learn via open-ended experiences in a variety of learning centers, activities, and projects. As teachers, we make sure we are there to support, encourage, inspire, observe, challenge, and guide the children as needed.
We believe that developing self-regulation, self-expression, emotional resilience, and positive social relationships are primary goals during the early childhood years. We work to establish a safe learning atmosphere where the children build supportive relationships with adult caregivers, where the feelings of others are respected, risk-taking is supported, and problem solving is accomplished as a group. We support and encourage positive behaviors. We provide abundant opportunities for social interaction coupled with appropriate guidance to build empathy, communication skills, as well as problem solving and conflict resolution strategies.
Curriculum
Young children learn best through an active exploration of the world using their bodies and all of their senses. Play is a child’s work! We provide long, uninterrupted blocks of time and a rich, varied environment to stimulate creative, imaginative, and active play experiences. We play and explore nature outside year round, giving the children firsthand experiences with changes in the seasons and weather. Except in cases of extreme weather, we spend over half of our day outside on our loose parts playground or exploring other parts of the school grounds.
Our goal is to develop a lifelong love of learning by providing a play-based curriculum in which children can truly enjoy the experiences of discovering and understanding all kinds of topics. Through free play in our classroom, children build the basic skills for future academic success. We provide a language rich environment where books, words, and letters are valued and early writing can be practiced. The foundations for learning math are gained through board games, card games, puzzles, calendars, blocks, and more. Topics such as science, social studies, geography, and art are all integrated through special activities that follow the children’s interests. We go on field trips, do open-ended art projects, and explore all kinds of materials in the water and sensory tables. All of our activities are designed to preserve the joy and wonder of childhood.
Family Meeting
The ECP will get together for anywhere from 5-20 minutes after cleaning up from the morning activities and before we go outside. The goal for our family meetings is to enjoy each other’s company as we come together as a community and spend some time together as a whole class. We will often play group games, sing songs, dance, read books and poetry, tell stories, and work together to solve problems of importance to the class as a whole. We also have Show and Tell on Fridays, and the themes for each week are thought up and decided upon by the class.
Unique Policies
Children in the last year of the program (ages 5-6) are considered Kindergartners and they will have a few unique experiences to go along with the rest of the typical curriculum. The Kindergartners will be able to participate in Exploration classes, which gives them more opportunities to interact and learn from older children and other Harmony teachers.
They will also get to work on a Kindergarten project in which the kids will get to research and teach their peers about a topic they are passionate about. They will do a practice project to get a feel of what it’s like presenting to the rest of the group. Then they will do a final project where they will do another presentation about a different topic of their choosing.
Children enter the program at three to five years of age and must be toilet-trained. The minimum student:teacher ratio is 10:1. Applications for enrollment are accepted at any time. Enrollment decisions are based largely on balancing the class according to age group and gender. Highest priority is given to current students and siblings of other Harmony students. Admission decisions are also influenced by a need to ensure a balanced and diverse group of children within each age group. We accept applications without regard to race, religion, sex, national origin, or disability.
New students begin at the start of the academic year in the fall. All students are enrolled for the full year (12 months). Families may take a vacation of one to two months and pay a non-refundable, monthly holding fee equal to one third of their normal monthly tuition to hold their child’s space. Parents must inform ECP staff by May 15th of any given year.
The schedule changes in the summer; our afternoon teachers lead a very active program with an emphasis on lots of field trips, swimming, and outdoor play. The ECP is open from 7:30 AM to 5:30 PM and students bring their own lunches. We close for Winter Break, Spring Break, and for one week before the academic year begins in the fall. Tuition is on a sliding scale from $750-$1,300/month for full-time students, based on household income.
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