Early Childhood Education Communities: From Enrollment to Education Process

Once you have made a decision to enroll your child in an early childhood education setting, we know that you must interview the programs you're considering, but once you've decided on a program, what should you expect?
Do you remember the questions that you asked the provider when you were shopping?  Those are the exact expectations that you should see.  Each family enrolls with different expectations for their child(ren), however, at minimum, you should expect to see examples of the answers that you received during your interview.  Programs that educate children by using regular assessments of children are programs that place a huge emphasis on the developmental components of their program.  Additionally, it is important that families have many opportunities to communicate with the educators that work directly with their children.  Educators should be mindful of the type of information shared with families during pick up times, and families should be mindful of appropriate times to communicate about certain topics.  The saying, there's a time and place for all things is certainly relevant when communicating in a professional environment about children.

Trying to Determine if the Program is Educating or Babysitting:
The education of young children can be a challenging task for many.  However, when you make a choice as a parent/guardian to enroll your child in an early education community, you are giving an early educator the opportunity to educate your child, using their philosophy of education and the company (or public setting) chosen curriculum (framework that educators use and follow).  In programs where educators are given 'canned curricula,' the children are often being 'generalized.'  The educators follow a chosen format that the company has chosen, with pre-formed ideas about the children's development, hence forcing the educator to lose sight of each child's developmental needs, rather meeting the company's standards for marketing purposes.  In other words, just because some children may enter kindergarten knowing how to read or perform basic arithmetic, by no means does it mean that all children should know how to perform those same actions.  While human development can be predictable, it isn't form fitting. Educating young minds involves educators picking up on children's habits such as an every day 4:00 meltdown period, or an everyday 2:30 table flip over picnic.  While many would see these times to be very troublesome, an educator is seeking to find solutions or alternatives to those periods of time is a good sign that the children are indeed learning.  Educators that mention development in the children's daily sheets, provide tips and even help with those difficult transitions such as biting from an educational standpoint, there is a high probability that you have chosen a high quality facility that uses developmental assessment as the primary basis of their practice.

The Reggio Difference:
Young children thrive in programs where their development is seen as the primary basis of the program's practice.  When families enroll into a program that is based upon the philosophy of Reggio, children are placed in a natural environment (environmental friendly as well), where they are allowed to simply, be children.  Young children are very precious, and their creations are precious.  In Reggio programs, each production by children is protected and honored.  These statements are not to undermine non-Reggio programs.  There are many programs that have the ability to accomplish these goals, but many programs lack the ability to both display the learning process in pictures and words, and many also lack the ability to allow children to undergo the full learning process, more they often force 'topics' on children that are often not age appropriate, as well as not fully thought through to maximize the learning process.

All in All: 
If your family wants to educate your young child(ren) in a professional setting, completely research the facilities that will best suit your family.  Make a sound decision based upon the developmental aspect and overall teaching methods/skills of your child's teachers.  Choose a program whose staff are happy and have a solid philosophy of education.  Keep in mind that programs with 'canned curricula' are more likely to generalize your child(ren).  Promote individualization!