Education
at Cheerful Beginnings

scaffolding-on deck -bernie and kids.jpg

Our educational philosophy is for our teachers to continually assess where the child is across many developmental areas and, through scaffolding, help them get to the next level through engaging play.

While there’s lots of time for this scaffolded and engaging child-led play, the children (both babies and preschoolers) enjoy our monthly themed Experience Curriculum. This curriculum is designed to enhance your child’s learning experience with hands-on, engaging activities that foster creativity, critical thinking, and early childhood development.

What this means for your child:

They’ll be participating in fun, interactive lessons that are designed to build key skills for their future.

We’ll be using research-based activities that support each child’s individual learning style and development.

You’ll see more purposeful play and projects that encourage your child to explore and discover the world around them.

We will share daily updates and newsletters to keep you informed about what we’re covering in class, your child's progress across various areas of development, and to share ideas on how you can continue learning at home. This way, you can engage with your child’s learning journey and reinforce key concepts together.

Click each logo below to learn more about the curriculum

Plenty of Time for Child-led Play

Pretend Play

Through my coursework (especially in Scandinavia) and in working with kids, I know the importance of pretend play.

We are helping children learn how they should navigate the world around them. They learn social customs and appropriate interactions while working on empathy and perspective taking. It's a great way to play out scenarios that work on emotional regulation, develop problem solving skills, show their creativity, and develop confidence in their world. Kids have a blast playing various societal roles they currently don't get to fill, while us teachers help incorporate development across various skills sets.

STEAM Focus

At Cheerful Beginnings, you won't find "push-a-button-and-make-noise" toys. Instead, we gravitate toward STEAM materials and toys and systems that and let their imagination and creativity dictate play and exploration. Whether it's the "how do you play with these?" Bililbos, magnatiles or our backyard magnet wall, children's minds (with some tactful scaffolding from teachers) learn to think outside the box, problem solve and work together with peers to make their ideas come to fruition.

Love of Books

Love of reading is a huge predictor for future academic success. We take our mission to grow avid book lovers seriously and delight in finding genres and topics of books that excite and engage each child. (And you may wonder why I have 3 library accounts when each one allows 50 books out at a time :) ). Books provide a foray into so many areas of learning about our world, sparking curiosity, while developing their vocabulary, enhancing their sustained attention and through sharing with others, fostering teacher-child and peer-to-peer relationships.