Our Philosophy

The Early Childhood based philosophy at Little Gems Preschool is centered on key elements taken from the theories of Erikson, Maslow, Skinner, and Piaget.

• Children need to be encouraged to succeed;
• The foundation for a good preschool is a balanced curriculum;
• Children are primarily auditory learners, visual learners or kinesthetic learners;
• Children learn by touching, seeing, hearing, modeling, and through play;
• Concepts must be presented often to be stored in long term memory;
• It is developmentally appropriate to have planned and measurable goals;
• Children feel secure when there is structure in the class room;
• Children feel safe when teachers provide guidance and warm interaction;
• Children can learn new behaviors through the use of reinforcement;
• Children learn faster in a stimulating environment;
• Through positive interactions teachers help the child develop a positive self image;
• Appropriate curriculum should include child directed and teacher directed time;
• Preschool age children are concrete learners;
• A program should provide individual, small, and large group learning;
• Lesson plans should include exercises in all domains of Early Childhood;
• Learning should be provided through both process and product exercises;
• Young children should be taught about age appropriate safety;
• Children develop best in a non-competitive atmosphere;
• Play is an important part of a child's learning process;
• Reading to young children is important for the creation of pre-reading skills;
• Developing math skills should be an integral part of an Early Childhood program;
• Books must be available for children to explore freely in the class room;
• Preschool should be the foundation for all future learning environments;
• A successful preschool program will prepare a child for kindergarten.