Nature-based Curriculum
At Sprout House we utilize a young child’s innate curiosity with nature to reinforce our integrated curriculum, through purposeful exploration, to teach pre-reading and pre-writing skills. This germane learning is a result of connecting inquisitiveness during play, creative arts, literature, and science/nature, to ensure our student’s interest guides learning to produce a solid foundation. Current educational models recommend abstaining from teaching writing letters and numbers to nursery school children. This philosophy considers the physiology and anatomy of the eye and hand and the importance of learning concepts rather than straight line/curved line recognition. For many children, the tendency to form letter reversals and develop improper pencil grips has far-reaching effects. Children will happily and easily learn these skills later anyway.
Our classroom teachers design a curriculum which incorporates Preschool Standards established by the New Jersey Department of Education utilizing developmentally appropriate practices recommended by NAEYC (the National Association for the Education of Young Children) and addressing the emergent interests of the teacher and children in each class setting.
Our teachers, under the direction of our curriculum director, devise high level planning on a monthly basis and more detailed lesson plans are prepared weekly to allow for a more spontaneous learning experience. The most detailed lesson plans are prepared for the Kindergarten level to ensure compliance with the New Jersey Core Curriculum requirements.
We assess each child quarterly to ensure they are getting adequate exposure and experience to all of the appropriate materials, equipment and practices suitable for their developmental stage.
Through monthly evaluation of our curriculum, we provide all students an opportunity to acquire familiarity with different genres in the areas of Language and Literacy, Music and the Science Inventory.
Sprout House does not use television or computers in the classrooms with children.