How Does Early Education Help A Child To Become A Good Learner?

It’s never too early to let your child take baby steps into the world of education. Working on a child’s self-image and self-confidence should be started at a very tender age. When a child is only three months old, his natural curiosity is at its zenith. He starts to interact with his toys and other kids and remains hooked to something which is of great interest to him. So it is the responsibility of parents to admit their child in a good lower school and build their confidence. 

A school environment leaves room for curiosity and experimentation. So children would enjoy being in a lower school since they will remain busy learning new things and satisfy their curiosity. 

Play is an important aspect of a child’s life. Children enjoy learning through play since it allows them to express themselves. Play contributes to the cognitive, emotional, social and physical well-being of a child. Through play, he learns better about the world and the society and can interact with other fellow beings in a better way.

 Children love to learn new things in a fun and creative way. In Williamsburg Northside Lower School, teachers involve children in different playful activities and imparts attention and encouragement to them which builds their confidence and in the process prepares them for their later years. So enrolling your child in a lower school can be a fruitful start to your child’s educational career. 

Lower schools such as Williamsburg Northside Lower School provides bright, colorful classrooms and play arenas which helps children feel at home. The use of colors contribute to a child’s first impressions about a lower school. Aesthetics of a classroom plays a great role in keeping children engaged in any activity. Such engaging classrooms hold the attention of the child and make learning adventurous. In an engaging classroom, children enjoy making new discoveries since they are provided adequate encouragement by the teachers. This spurs them to learn more and expand their horizon of knowledge. 

The skills, knowledge and attitude which a child develops in his lower school goes a long way in shaping him for his formative years and also affects his whole life. The role of parents is not just dropping the kid at school and picking him up after the school gets over. They should actively involve themselves in his learning. It will build his self-esteem and he will also feel appreciated. 

Making The Right Choice Of Daycare In Williamsburg Northside

Daycares form the first step towards the education and personality development of your child. A good daycare is no less than a second home for your child where he learns the premise of what is going to be a long journey for him and you both.

Williamsburg Northside has a plethora of daycare options to choose from and making eth right choice can get difficult with the variety of setting that they offer that benefit the child in overall development.

Hereby defined are a few considerations that you must keep in mind while choosing a daycare for your child:

• Your you assessment: Before anyone telling you the pointers you keep in mind you have to see what your own gut tells you about the school. Since you as a parent will be making that decision for your child, it is important that you visit the school and see for yourself the working of this organization. You know your child the best and it is important to keep in mind if your child will be comfortable in spending a considerable amount of time in these places.
• Teacher interaction: The teachers who are working in the daycare will be the ones handling your child. It is important to see how well they are around kids and the way they deal with children already present in the daycare. This tells a great deal about them and whether or not they will be able to handle your child.
• Recommendations: Going by someone else’s experience of a place or a thing is the smartest way to decide for or against that. See if you can get to talk to parents whose kids have already passed out from the place and how they have turned out to be. This helps in understanding if the end result is what you are looking for and helps in deciding to go further or look for other schools.
• Extracurricular: While the learning bit is quite helpful, extracurricular activities shape the personality of a child and develop their interests and hobbies that are helpful in later stages of life. You must make sure that the extracurricular activities are also well placed in the daycare. 

 

Why is Elementary Education Essential?

A good lower school such as Williamsburg Lower School is usually the next step in a child’s learning and development after preschool and the first major step into mainstream education. These early years are particularly critical and important for children, for it is the period when they transition into full-fledged education system with more focus on learning and skill development. 

The ability of a child to grasp and understand education in these years will greatly influence their learning ability in the later years of their life.

But it is a studied problem that many parents decide to skip the early elementary years, owing to the largely vague public policies regarding elementary schools. This issue was brought into mainstream attention when the Every Student Succeeds Act was passed, requiring annual grading examinations for students from 3^rd grade onwards.

Now a child has to be proficient enough to be able to face and pass the 3^rd grade examinations, which require them to be well versed in early education, specifically those taught in elementary schools. This is where the importance of elementary school education is increased manifold.

Another issue is the lack of quality education. Although Williamsburg Lower School maintains the highest standards in education, there are quite a number of schools that do not live up to the educational standards that are required for children to be able to be prepared for 3^rd grade tests.

While lower school children require to be exposed to the right mix of play and education, the focus should be specifically in their ability to comprehend and rationalize whatever is being taught to them, along with the ability to reciprocate it successfully to a considerable extent. And a good school ticks all the right boxes when it comes to teaching it all to the kids successfully and effectively.

The Every Student Succeeds Act is specifically designed to improve flexibility to the states to design elementary education in schools, although one major flaw in the Act is that it doesn’t provide the states any incentives to do so. 

The states are virtually handed a free reign in terms of control, which they may or may not choose to do so. Basically, it comes down to pure interest of the states when it comes to revamping elementary education.

Learn more about the flexible curriculum followed at the Williamsburg Lower School in Brooklyn, NY.

Williamsburg Northside Schools: Shaping Young Minds into Independent Individuals

In a world of seven billion people, adults like you and me often find ourselves with an evading sense of self.  What separates us from our peers, our neighbors and even our family are our individual opinions, thoughts, and observations. Having a strong sense of individuality is essential for each one of us, be it a child or an adult.

A fundamental principle that Williamsburg Northside Schools stand on is that all children are born as independent individual beings, capable of thinking, observing, and forming their own opinions. Williamsburg Northside Schools comprise of the following four institutions:

• Infant and toddler center (or the daycare)
• Preschool
• Lower school
• Middle school (opening its doors in September 2018)

Starting with the child’s first step towards learning, Williamsburg Northside Schools aim at bringing out each child’s innate interests, opinions, and preferences. This is achieved by employing teaching techniques and creating a comprehensive curriculum based on the Reggio Emilia approach.

In the formative years of children, i.e. starting from when they are admitted to the infant and toddler center till they reach middle school – children are encouraged to voice their opinions, ideas, and suggestions. Their ideas and opinions or their concerns are addressed by the teachers and the children feel that their voice matters. Following is an important pillar of the Reggio Emilia approach through which children learn how to embrace individuality:

Documentation Techniques used by the Teacher 

A core principle of this approach is that teachers are not merely education providers – they are researchers. Along with the responsibility of providing education, the teachers take upon themselves the responsibility of carefully observing and documenting each child’s ideas, questions, interests, struggles and insights on a daily basis.

Documentation techniques implemented by teachers include collecting samples of children’s works, written anecdotes, written transcripts of children’s conversations, asking questions to gain knowledge about the kid’s curiosities, and video recordings. By the means of careful research, the teachers encourage students to make connections between their own ideas and reflect on the works done by them.

This allows teachers and parents to understand children on an individual level. It also enables the educators to comprehend the next steps to take with the students to enrich their sense of individuality.

Benefits of Employing the Reggio Emilia Approach in Preschools at Williamsburg Northside

The Reggio Emilia approach to preschool education first began in the northern parts of Italy after the end of the Second World War. It was the creation of a teacher named Loris Malaguzzi who lived in the area of Reggio Emilia in Italy. With the passage of time, this alternative approach became highly popular and eventually towards the last quarter of the century, it attracted worldwide attention.

So what are the benefits of the Reggio Emilia approach that it is implemented by the preschools at Williamsburg Northside and other areas around the world?

This blog deals with all that and much more. Read on to find out -  

One of the key principles of the Reggio Emilia approach is that it encourages children to take part in activities, explore and question what they see happening around them. These are what every preschool in Williamsburg Northside actively promotes.

Some of the other practices involved in Reggio Emilia approach are as follows –

Expressive Arts

The Reggio Emilia approach is based on the premise that children use a number of ways to express their creativity, thoughts, and understanding. These various methods of exploring, learning and thinking are expressed through dance, drama, drawing, painting, pretend-play and sculpturing.

Long-Term Projects

The learning projects in the Reggio Emilia approach provide ample scope for research opportunities for young learners. These include real-life problem-solving among peers, opportunities to think creatively and explore. Children are made to take part in small groups and begin with teachers questioning children about their topic of interest.

After this, materials and opportunities in their area of interest are introduced by the teachers. The curriculum is designed in a manner to strike a balance between the instructions of the teacher and the activities which are of interest to the children.

Tracking Individual Journeys

Another key element in the Reggio Emilio approach happens to be documentation. It serves a plethora of purposes but is primarily used for analyzing the learning patterns in children. The focus area of documentation happens to be the experiences the children are involved in and the skills which they acquire. It also helps teachers in assessing the understanding of the children and develop the curriculum accordingly.

How Preschools in Williamsburg Northside are Targeting Development through Play

All work and no play not only makes Jack a dull boy, but it can affect his overall development as well. The importance of play is so great that the UN High Commission for Human Rights has gone to the extent of recognizing play as a right for every child.

In Williamsburg Northside, preschools are making use of this essential aspect of a young learner’s development and incorporating a variety of hands on activities that are fun, engaging and stimulating as well.

Given below are the ways in which the preschoolers have been benefiting from such play-based activities that help in more than one way and do much more than the usual games conducted in most early childhood educational institutions-

Relaxation and Fun

Play forms one of the most enjoyable aspects of childhood that helps children relax and have fun. It also has restorative benefits. Children, after a session of free-play tend to be more attentive and relaxed to indulge in more structured, academic classroom activities.

Development of Social Skills

As students in the preschools of Williamsburg Northside engage with each other during play, they consciously or unconsciously develop some of the key social skills like leadership and group skills by sharing and taking turns.

Language, Learning and Motor Development

Play-based activities inside and outside preschool classrooms provide children an enriching combination of developmental opportunities related to cognition, motor and language (speech and understanding) skills.

Competency

Play requires young learners to face new situations and make decisions and choices that have a cumulative effect on the overall competency of a child. Children also learn a lot about solving problems and acquire the basic skills required for mastery of a variety of situations.

Nurturing Communication

Development of communication skills can be enhanced for young preschool attending kids through structured and unstructured play. Children interact and communicate with each other during games and are more likely to overcome their communication barriers that tend to make them shy and less outgoing.

Establishing Connections

As children engage amongst themselves during play, they establish connections with each other through common interests. This forms the basis of friendship.