Gross & Fine Motor

Maybe you remember hanging upside down from the monkey bars when you were a kid? Well I was just reading Balanced and Barefoot by Hanscom and in her book she said that research has found that many children don't have the muscle development to attempt these joyful feats of strength anymore. Since outdoor and nature play are a priority here, children are able to gain gross motor strength through the simple pleasure of time outdoors. They will get to challenge their bodies on swings, playgrounds, tightropes, climbers, trees, rocky hills, riverbanks, and the forest floor.

Of course, we also have art supplies available children at all times both in the art area, outside with clipboards, or on the porch at our writing table so that they can continuously hone those fine motor, pre-writing skills. 

Literacy & Math

While children are playing they are absorbing new concepts. Whether they are counting acorns, making patterns with plastic animals, putting together puzzles, writing their names on their pictures, noticing how things sound, or listening to stories, they will internalize this new information as they discovery it in the world around them. Literacy and Mathematics are not ideas that have to be sat down and taught by the teacher to the students. Children will absorb them naturally by working with the materials in our setting. Since the children will soon be pressured to learn these subjects intensely, here I would like children to experience literacy and math with a joy that they can remember fondly, wherever their learning journey takes them.