Sunflower Creative Arts Educare Center, USA
At Tiny Tots and Tall Tales we encourage children to be independent, intrinsically motivated, critical thinkers.
Our Story:
Tiny Tots and Tall Tales originated as a project to provide excellent quality, home-based Educare for young children. In 2014, we immigrated to Namibia from New Zealand and I needed to find something that resonated with my gentle parenting methods and interest in Montessori based education philosophy for my 18 month old toddler.
Unable to find a child care service that I was happy with, I decided to start my own, home-based school. As a teacher with over 14 years teaching experience and experience in the New Zealand Early Childhood Education system, I decided to design a programme that resonates with my own educational philosophy and my stance as a parent.
From my teaching experience it has become clear that absolutely all education systems, from conventional to alternative, have their strengths and weaknesses. All children are individuals and what works for one child will not necessarily work for the next one. The idea with this school is to expose children to a variety of educational philosophies, from Montessori, Waldorf and Forest school methods to the Cambridge Jolly Phonics early literacy programme.
All of this with a healthy dose flexibility and spontaneity, with the focus being on the children always, working with their interests and their pace.
Tiny Tots has grown considerably since then!
The foundations this project is built on are:
1)
Parent involvement - creative ideas, constructive
input… Parents should feel that they are part of the exciting
activities and learning that happens in their little one’s day. Parents should
feel free to join the kids for the day if they so wish, do a project with them,
play with them and to continue the learning themes we cover at school, at home.
They should also feel completely safe and happy leaving their child in the care
of our programme.
2)
Our children’s health. We have a
very strict health policy in that, when a child is sick, he/she shouldn’t come
to school. As much as possible, I would like our kids to be healthy and robust,
something I have noticed is lacking in other schools, as kids constantly infect
one another with snotty noses, eye infections, coughs etc.
3)
Active learning activities and stimulation. The children will be exposed to basic early numeracy and literacy (yes,
even at this young an age!) in the form of games, music, creative activities
and art. Learning should be fun, practical, concrete and stimulating,
using mostly Montessori, but also Cambridge and Waldorf schooling principals.
4)
Emotional learning. Children will be equipped to use an
emotional language at school where they feel safe to talk about their feelings
and express what it is that they feel they need. When a child behaves in a way
that hurts another etc., all parties involved need to be able to express what
happened, how they feel, and to be kept safe and close to the teacher (as
opposed to getting ‘time out’) until they feel calm enough to engage in
constructive activities again. I do not believe in punishment at this young an
age and prefer a gentle and emotional investment policy to be used at school.
5)
Imaginative play. The children will have a
space to engage in their own fantasy world of imagination. As they get
older, they will be encouraged to engage others in their imagination and
to
create games together. The teacher will encourage playing games of
‘let’s pretend’ like pretending to be different animals etc.
6)
Sensory stimulation. At least once a day, the kids will experience a sensory activity, be it playing with water, with
mud, with clay, cornflour paints etc. They need to get messy and engaged and be completely
and utterly happy :)
7) Instilling a love for nature in the children.
We have a chicken coop and bunnies. The
kids visit the chickens every day and collect the eggs. We have a lot
of herbs and plants in the children’s playground. I want them to help plant
herbs, smell them, work with the earth, pick tomatoes or lettuce to nibble on
when they feel like it and all the while respecting the plants and the animals.
8)
Music. Such a brilliant way for emotional release
for children. The children will be exposed to beautiful classical music and
music that their parents find inspiring and uplifting. They can play
musical instruments and dance with abandon at least once a day.
9) Montessori Philosophy. Children are encouraged to be independent, intrinsically motivated, critical thinkers. They are allowed big blocks of time to experience academics, allowing them the opportunity to focus and concentrate; a skill crucial to academic success in the future.
Most importantly, we create lots of spaces for the children to play, Play, PLAY! Play is the absolute cornerstone of development for children of this age group. Child-chosen play really is the foundation for all good things in life...
Most importantly, we create lots of spaces for the children to play, Play, PLAY! Play is the absolute cornerstone of development for children of this age group. Child-chosen play really is the foundation for all good things in life...
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