Just Kids Learning Center

OUR PURPOSE AND CURRICULUM

Our focus is to provide quality child care (Preschool care/before and after school care/shift work care at the available centers) for your child. This will be reached by providing a safe and nurturing environment that promotes physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development. These

developmental goals will be reached through active exploration and stimulation that will help your child gain his or her independence and positive self image. A daily curriculum based on Project Construct and Creative Curriculum will be followed that will include literacy activities, stories, math and science concepts, art, etc.

The concepts being studied will be reinforced by art work, book work, and structured play. Dramatic play will be used in different activities to let your child express himself/herself freely. Our curriculum will focus on developing your child’s morals, character and community helpfulness. Good communication between parents and staff is an important aspect in the sense of security for your child. Parent participation is encouraged through observation and active involvement. Many teaching techniques will be practiced to meet each child’s individual learning styles. Our services will be geared toward working parents and parents that are interested in early childhood education.

GUIDELINES
At “JUST KIDS!” Learning Development Center the following guidelines and areas will be our focus to help promote your child’s healthy development and safety:

Be warm, caring, and responsive to your child
It is very important that you feel good about leaving your child in safe and caring hands.

Respond to your child’s cues
Our schedule will help ensure that each child’s needs are fulfilled, such as bathroom breaks, and scheduled time to eat. Meals served at the center are breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack (dinner at available centers) are nutritionally balanced using the four basic food groups and planned in accordance with the state of Missouri Guidelines.

Talk, sing, and read to your child
Talking, singing, and reading to a child are important for brain development and a wonderful opportunity to develop closeness between your child and his/her care giver.

Establish routines and rituals with your child
Repeated positive experience from strong connections in the brain and give children a sense of security. At “JUST KIDS!” a daily routine will be followed. This schedule can be found within this packet. The daily schedule helps in potty-training the children.

Experience Literature
Books are readily available to your child within all programs at “JUST KIDS!”

Allow your child to express him or herself
Many methods of free expression will be utilized at the center. Among these are art activities, dramatic play, exercise and music.

Discipline your child with love and understanding
At the center, there will be certain expectations from your child such as: sharing, listening, respecting others, etc. If rules are not followed, your child will be redirected to something else. If the problem persists, the child will be given two warnings before he/she is placed in “time out” If specific problems persist, a letter will be sent home by your child’s teacher. Discipline means “to teach” and the way children are taught to manage their feelings is crucial to later development. Together we must work together to achieve good behavior.

Recognize that all children are unique
In order to facilitate a curriculum that fulfills all learning styles, manipulative materials such as puzzles, pegboards, games, string beads, a water table and other similar items will be used.

TENTATIVE DAILY SCHEDULE
Preschool Children & School-Age Children

6:00 a.m.
Our day Begins! The center’s open and breakfast is served to those children that are hungry. This is a very flexible time where activities will vary. Free play time or activities (such as books, puzzles, paper & Crayons, scissors for cutting) will be available for small groups or individual activities. For those early risers who are still sleepy, cots will be available for napping.

7:30 a.m.
School-agers will catch their bus or be taken to school in our “JUST KIDS!” van.

7:45 a.m.
Bathroom break/Breakfast is being finished up.

8:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Classroom time begins! Each day there will be memory work such as: Pledge of Allegiance, patriotic song, days of the week, months of the year, Bible verse, etc. The preschoolers will have very active mornings that involve the work in their workbooks. Numbers, letters, and colors will be studied thoroughly. Activities will be done to reinforce your child’s retention of the various concepts being taught. The children will have outside activities using their gross motor skills.

11:00 a.m.
Bathroom Break/Clean Up

11:15 a.m.
Lunch is served.

12:00 noon
Outside play when weather permits or an inside activity to re-group after lunch.

12:15 p.m.
Rest time begins! For non-sleepers, a resting period will be followed by quiet activities.

2:30 p.m.
Bathroom Break followed by afternoon snack.

2:45 p.m.
Any unfinished classroom work will be completed. Followed by free-play, organized activities, singing songs, and other fun things will be done both indoors and outdoors. These things will be done until your preschool child is picked up.

3:15 p.m.
School-age children begin arriving at “JUST KIDS!” A snack is served followed by our homework club. Unless instructed differently by the parent, each child will work on homework. As the day progresses, the preschoolers and school-agers will have free play in a multi-age setting until scheduled departure time.