We engage and encourage from the beginning; this is the time when children use their bodies, senses, and emerging problem-solving skills to learn about and make sense of their world in the ways most meaningful and effective for them. While respecting individual personalities, the focus at this stage of development is on cultivating basic motor coordination, independence, and language development. Care is taken to respect different levels of maturity and separation concerns. This allows children to settle into their new environment as smoothly as possible.

Children at this stage of development have the ability to embrace knowledge and activity without effort, or fatigue, because of an “absorbent mind.” One teacher and one assistant teacher welcome children into each primary classroom. To aid this period of self-construction, our teachers encourage individual, as well as group work. Focus is on engaging the children in purposeful work.