Christian Philosophy of Education
“Happy is the man that finds wisdom, and the man that gets understanding.” (Proverbs 3:13)
At UCA, teaching children about the love of Jesus Christ is our priority. We emphasize loving one another the way Jesus loves us and treating one another with respect. This philosophy is woven throughout our curriculum and is demonstrated in our lesson plans, in our discipline, and in our relationships.
We believe “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” and that all knowledge has its foundation in the Word of God. We believe the Bible is God’s inspired Word and we teach it as such, helping children to develop attitudes of love and respect toward it. We train the children to hope in the Lord, to love Him, and to keep His commandments. We encourage the children to know and obey the will of God as revealed in the Scriptures. We strive to stimulate and enlarge the children’s involvement in the church and its worldwide tasks of witnessing and evangelizing.
As a staff, we strive to be models of Christ in our understanding, patience, and love; as such, everything we do and say is in consideration of the children. Because a child develops spiritually, mentally, physically, socially, and emotionally, we are committed to providing biblically based, developmentally appropriate experiences to allow each child to progress in these areas at his or her own level of ability while enjoying feelings of success. This is done primarily through our curriculum, with hands-on learning activities in learning centers, and through the positive, Christ-like role modeling of the staff. We view ourselves as partners with families, teaching and loving the children in our care. The following are some things you can expect at UCA Preschool:
- The children will spend most of their time playing and working with materials or other children. Structured play is crucial for young learners.
- Children will be taught God’s Word through stories, activities, games, and crafts. In addition, God’s principles will be demonstrated through the staff’s modeling of God’s love. Teaching children to follow Jesus’ example of love, respect, and honor is our daily goal.
- Children will have access to various activities throughout the day. Some of the activities and materials you will see are assorted building blocks and other construction materials, props for pretend play, picture books, paint and other art materials, science toys, manipulatives, and puzzles.
- The teachers will work with individual children, small groups, and whole groups at different times during the day.
- The classrooms will be decorated with the children’s original artwork. Older children will have an opportunity to show off their own writing with invented spelling as well as their own stories recorded by the teachers.
- The children will learn numbers and the alphabet in their everyday experiences.The children will be engaged in projects yet still have long periods of time to play and explore. The children will have an opportunity to play outside every day, weather permitting.The teachers will read books to the children. Reading is not limited only to large groups.
- Our teachers recognize that children’s different backgrounds and experiences mean that children do not learn the same thing at the same time in the same way. Therefore, curricula will be adapted for each class and each individual child as is necessary for everyone’s success.