The Early Childhood Program philosophy is based upon the following beliefs:

• Children learn best by doing (hands-on activities).
• Children benefit from a variety of indoor/outdoor, structured/unstructured, developmentally appropriate educational activities that allow each child to learn at their own individual pace.
• For children, play is work and is a foundational element to their learning.
• Each child is unique; therefore teachers respect each child’s special qualities.
• Development of the whole child is highly valued.

The areas of development around which our curricular goals are organized are as follows:

• Social: to help children feel comfortable in school, trust their new environment, make friends, and feel they are a part of the group.
• Emotional: to help children experience pride and self-confidence, develop independence, self-control, and have a positive attitude toward learning.
• Cognitive: to help children become confident learners by letting them try out their own ideas and experience success, and by helping them acquire learning skills such as the ability to solve problems, ask questions, and use words to describe their ideas, observations, and feelings.
• Physical: to help children increase their large and small muscle skills and feel confident about what their bodies can do.
• Spiritual: to help children develop a positive feeling about God and who they are as American Muslims.