How We Work

Project-Based Approach

Teachers take cues from interests expressed by children and use these cues as a basis for planning the curriculum.  With a teacher’s support, children work in groups to investigate and build knowledge together.  Children propose theories, test hypotheses, and modify or repair their theories.  They scaffold on each other’s ideas, take different perspectives, and solve problems as a team.  We encourage children to express themselves with the many languages of art, music, movement, and poetry.  We follow the spoken word, the poetics of children’s conversations, and the dialogue through which they formulate theories and make discoveries.  Teachers act as facilitators in the process of discovery.

Present Moment | Mindfulness

We listen carefully, observing the children with a mindful presence and an emphasis on what is happening in the moment.  We guide children in ways that help them become aware of the intentional quality of their own experience.  We pay attention to the fading sound of a wind-chime or bell, the ongoing rhythm of our body as we inhale and exhale, and the center of energy in our body when we try to balance. In these ways children experience where they are, what they are thinking, and what they are doing at the moment. 

The important thing is not so much that every child should be taught, as that every child should be given the wish to learn.

-  John Lubbock

Focusing | Regulation of Feelings

Helping children articulate feelings is a critical component of learning about themselves as well as their social interactions.  We help children understand that feelings can come and go like weather.  Over time they acquire a variety of tools needed for self-regulating the extremes of emotion, both highs and lows.  

In the early years, before language has fully developed, we help children define where in their body they experience their feelings. There are times, even after language has matured, when we rely on art, line, or color drawings to express feelings that cannot be captured in words.  Using multiple forms of expression reduces the impact of unruly or hard to manage emotions. It helps children find the inner strength they need to cope with whatever situations life presents. 

Documentation | Discovery

Children’s progress is closely documented.  Documentation is used to provide teachers and children with a chance to reflect or look back at their work. Panels documenting work-in-progress are often displayed in classrooms. Documentation is electronically distributed to our community of families to provide a changing cross-section of children’s discoveries, interests, feelings, and ideas. This is an important feature of the way we work. Teachers record key moments by writing notes, taking photos, making videotapes, and collecting children’s diagrams as well as expressive art.