Edinboro Early School, Severna Park

PHILOSOPHY Children learn best in an accepting, loving atmosphere, alive with opportunities to explore, experiment and discover. Our goal is to help children, through such experiences, to develop into confident, competent human beings, imbued with a love of life and a real appetite for all that life has to offer. We want to invite children to use all their senses, to think creatively and to become involved. Only in this way can they achieve their maximum potential and develop a sense of worth and fulfillment. We believe in a small group environment, allowing for maximum participation and affording frequent opportunities to experience "hands on" situations. Learning is a continuous process beginning at birth. By the time the child arrives at preschool, his personality traits are well on the way to being developed. His background of experiences and knowledge is significant and constantly increasing. He is a person with a self concept, and that self concept will greatly affect his learning. Increasing that self concept is one of our goals. In the role of organizer and planner, the teacher will guide students through rich and varied activities including socialization experiences, motor development, language development, reading readiness, math concepts, social studies, science, music, art and dramatics - an integrated program providing creative outlets for each child to develop his learning skills as well as to stimulate his natural curiosity. The environment, the materials, the people, and the program all contribute toward meeting the needs of the child and helping him to become a happy, contributing, responsible member in an organized society. ACADEMIC PROGRAM The primary goal of all our activities and experiences at Edinboro Early School is to develop the physical, social,emotional and intellectual growth of each child. Our degreed teachers implement a Maryland State Department of Education approved program providing unique, quality instruction in a warm and caring, small group environment. KINDERGARTEN PROGRAM: Our Kindergarten program emphasizes readiness skills particularly in Language, Reading, and Math, but also in Science and Social Studies. We work on letter and number recognition and formation, and on sound association. Concentration is placed on math concepts, terminology and operations. Social Studies brings the child from himself and his family, into the community, and beyond. The Science experiences help the child to better understand his environment. In addition, music, art, socialization and physical activities are all part of the Kindergarten program. Our very small group atmosphere allows for a great deal of attention and individualized instruction. NURSERY SCHOOL PROGRAM: At the earlier developmental level, our concentration is on socialization skills, language development, listening skills and following directions. Large and small motor activities are also emphasized. Literature is a most important component of our program with many stories, poems, finger plays and nursery rhymes. Children with rich vocabularies and extensive language experiences will be most successful readers at the appropriate time. Through our many and varied activities including music, art and dramatics, we plan for balance between directed and non-directed activities. We offer an unhurried loving, caring environment where children can work, play, learn, explore, create and grow. CHILD CARE--NURSERY SCHOOL & KINDERGARTEN AGES We offer before and after school care for those children in attendance during our school day. This program is approved and licensed by the Department of Human Resources. Children may arrive as early as 7:00a.m. and may depart as late as 6:00p.m. The hours outside our school time are part of our child care program. These times include qualified supervision for free play, stories and activities in the mornings; and lunchtime, nap time, snack time, outdoor (weather permitting) and indoor activities in the afternoons. All of our registered students can participate in our child care program. TWO YEAR OLD CHILD CARE PROGRAM Unlike all of our other Maryland State Department of Education fully accredited educational programs, the two year old activity is a Maryland Department of Human Resources approved child care program. We do, however, have many well planned learning experiences built into each day. Our twos listen to stories, work on language development, have circle time, explore various art media, learn to share and play both inside and outside with their friends, and experience music activities. It is most exciting to see how the twos change from non-speaking to quite verbal, from diapers to reliability, from demolition experts to great clean up helpers--all in one year! We cannot accept a child into this group until he is two years of age. But he could begin on the birth date, assuming there is an opening. Toilet training is not essential at this age for entry into the program. We do work with the child and parents to facilitate this milestone, and by the end of the year we hope everyone is reliably toilet trained. This is a requirement for attendance in our 3 year old nursery school class. Our twos do not venture out on field trips, but do participate in any in-house programs should they be in regular attendance on a performance date. Such programs include the aquarium outreach program, a magician, the story lady, or our visiting music teacher. Programs vary from year to year. We have three lengths of day, half day, full day and extended day. We offer 2,3 or 5 days. As with our other programs, we follow the Anne Arundel County Public School schedule for beginning date, major holidays, as well as snow closings. Our twos can also sign up for our summer session which runs 9 weeks between regular sessions. SUMMER CHILD CARE PROGRAM Our summer program is available for ages 2 through 6. All ages may choose 2, 3 or 5 day programs, and one of three lengths of day. Our summer hours are 7:30a.m. to 5:30p.m. This program begins in June at the completion of the regular session and ends one week before the start of the regular session in the Fall. We feature one central theme throughout the summer. We also provide for a 2 week optional swim class at a local pool for those 3 years and older. We enjoy field trips and a relaxed, imaginative experiences during these weeks. Our instructors are all senior staff trained and are assisted by qualified aides. Some children attend our summer session only, and are not a part of our regular school year. Registration for the Summer Child Care Program begins in January at our annual Open House and continues until classes are full.