Language Garden Preschool‘s approach to preschool learning is developmental – learning through play. We feel developmental learning is the most natural way to receive, store and apply new information.
Most instruction is given indirectly and the child “acquires” new information as opposed to “learning” it. In short, play is not a break from learning – it’s the way young children learn.
Preschoolers learn differently from school-age children and play is essential to early learning. Play is the main way children learn and develop ideas about the world. It helps them build the skills necessary for critical thinking and leadership. It’s how they learn to solve problems and to feel good about their ability to learn.
Explore, Get Dirty, Have Fun
At Language Garden we provide kids with an opportunity to get their hands dirty and the freedom to explore and investigate the world around them. Teachers and TAs facilitate exploration during the course of the day and also provide them with specific areas of focus – daily guided activities, a different one each day – that provide them with new areas to acquire knowledge.
Play Promotes School Success in Many Ways
Researchers are finding more and more connections between children’s play and the learning and social development that helps them succeed in school. For example, pretend play helps children learn to think abstractly and to look at things from someone else’s perspective. Pretend play is also connected to early literacy, mathematical thinking, and problem-solving.
Their program offers a rich, interdisciplinary bilingual experience for children at an age when they are developmentally best able to acquire a second language.
Why Learn a Second Language in Preschool?
Children Who Start Early To Learn A Second Language:
- develop a high degree of proficiency in the language
- are better able to reproduce a native accent
- will actually build new synapses in response to language experiences
- do better in other seemingly unrelated areas such as mathematics and logic
- increase critical thinking skills, creativity, and flexibility of cognitive functions
