Create

“Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.” – Fred Rogers

We live in a society that emphasizes academics from a very young age, but we need to recognize that young children learn best through play that is relevant and meaningful to their life, not to direct instruction.

The key to a successful curriculum is creating a warm, friendly, interactive, and hands-on environment where children love to learn. Our classrooms are designed to encourage children to actively engage, explore, experiment and develop the critical thinking skills necessary for problem –solving and independence. Our developmentally-appropriate, “whole child” approach to early education supports learning and development in all major domains – language, social-emotional, cognitive, physical, literacy, mathematics, science and technology, social studies and the arts.

Our warm and welcoming environment allows children to have a choice about programming and activities. Regardless of age, when children are allowed to choose activities they are interested in, they are more likely to be enthusiastic and more likely to retain the knowledge, skills and information provided to them. Staff can help children to make choices by guiding them to new challenges or mastery over emerging skills and understanding. CYEC achieves these results by dividing the rooms into Discovery Centers.