Too often today young children are pushed to learn more, younger and faster than ever before. It's a blessing to find a preschool that recognizes 3 and 4 year olds still need to be treated like they are 3 and 4 years old. Westminster Nursery School Children learn amazing things - the basics, plus addition, subtraction, pre-algebraic concepts, biology, astronomy, chemistry, etc - without drills and worksheets. They learn through hands-on interaction, stories, songs and a creativity. Some looking in see "play" and fail to see the real learning process going on. Children counting peers sitting in circle time are learning numbers - and they are also learning to add and subtract - "we have 15 friends in our class but only 12 are here today. How many friends are missing?" they may see a cardboard rocket ship in the corner and assume it's just "play" but they fail to see their child learning about outer space, NASA and scientific processes. Maybe they see a girl stringing beads...and yet what is there is a child learning patterning (pre-algebraic skill) and honing fine motor skills required for writing. They see kids voting on favorite foods - but don't see children coming to understand our political process in terms they can relate to.
Pros: hands-on, age appropriate learning opportunities
Cons: n/a
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