The home environment is by far the strongest and longest influence in the growth and development of your child. Young children learn from first observing and then doing for themselves, with parents playing the roles of teachers in their everyday living. As parents, you are not expected to know everything about your child's complete physical, mental, emotional and cognitive growth and development. It is difficult for the parent to change roles from parent to formal teacher.

Therefore, the purpose of the preschool is to supplement your child's learning. Our program is centered around the fundamental needs of the young child and provides for all aspects of development - physical, intellectual, social and emotional. Woodroe Woods' will provide for the development and enhancement of the individual child within the group setting. We believe in the acceptance of ALL children. We aspire to help each other, thereby teaching them about their part and responsibility in society. Woodroe Woods School will work cooperatively with other community agencies to assure appropriate additional needs beyond the school setting.

We will provide parents/guardians with our observations and try to facilitate increased parent involvement in the educational and developmental process here and at home. We believe a child's level and rate of development and maturity are directly correlated with the concept of self. Through our methods and environment we hope to help the children build strong self esteem. Philosophically, we strongly believe that children should assume responsibility for their actions and should expect natural consequences for their behavior and actions. By helping to allow children to grow strong and independently we hope to avoid poor habits and patterns from developing in their lives. We look forward to and enjoy working with parents toward these goals. Many of your child's experiences at Woodroe Woods School will be drawn from accepted and established early childhood education curriculum. Following it is our goal to provide experiences and materials which aid stimulation, exploration, creation, perception, organization, questioning, verbalization, mastery and physical skills. Our staff will protect, provide, give affection, restrain, encourage and constantly (by words and action) open up new vistas about the world of ideas and people. It is our intent to provide an environment where children have peers to talk with, to play and work with, and to learn from. Music, art, science, literature, fantasy and fact are all a part of this environment. There is an abundance of stimulation both in and out of the classroom.

Some of the activities offered in the program include: dramatic play, block building, art activities, woodworking, games (for concepts of sizes, shapes, discrimination and identification), puzzles, letters, numbers (developmentally approached), language arts and literature (flannel board stories, books, puppetry, etc.), science, music and movement, cooking, outdoor play activities and field trips. Our objectives and curriculum are not obtained by sitting in a classroom all day, but are acquired in the living classroom, in the home and in the child's total milieu. A room full of preschoolers should be bustling with activity, movement and talk. The teacher is not in front of the class directing the whole group. There are centers so that the children can direct themselves, choose what they want to do and have materials available in an orderly manner. It is the process, not the product which is important. Learning and development occur within a process and are not sought directly as a goal. Teaching is a continuum and more specifically, on an individual basis. We want children to do for themselves. By practicing skills, a child learns and expands. Activities and play are where learning takes place. Through these activities a great deal of learning occurs which children need later as a foundation for reading, math, science, writing, etc.. As they play, children acquire numerous intellectual concepts of shapes, sizes, volumes, motions, numbers, letters, sounds and processes of reading. Play is a child's means of processing information. We encourage it to flow under careful guidance.