Our Teaching Philosophy
At Sprout, we have a blended approach.
We use current research about early childhood development to guide our programming.
Play
We believe children learn best through play. Our program is play-based with some teacher-led activities and a variety of open-ended materials that allow children to build, create, pretend, and use their ideas. We believe learning is inherent in every activity. As children play, skilled facilitators help them develop language and skills to complement their explorations.
Social and Emotional Learning
At Sprout, we love to support our students as they are busy developing physically, emotionally, and cognitively. Kids will enjoy a rich social environment as they experience what it’s like to be part of a group. With guidance, they learn to share, take turns, and communicate their feelings. We nurture curiosity and compassion so that children feel a deep sense of acceptance towards themselves and others.
Diversity
We celebrate the diversity of our South Seattle neighborhood and strive to reflect this in our classes and materials. Children begin the year with self-portraits and we notice differences in our skin, eye, and hair color. At Sprout, we welcome conversations about race, religion, and identity. Kids repeat their self-portraits at the end of the year. It’s amazing to see their growth and pride.
Relationships
We work hard to build strong relationships within our community. Our low child-to-teacher ratio (10 to 2) allows us to bond with each child and work with him or her individually, and to establish a working partnership with families and caregivers.
Positive Discipline
We use Positive Discipline. This is a program developed by Dr. Jane Nelsen, based on the work of Alfred Adler and Rudolf Dreikurs designed to teach young people to become responsible, respectful, and resourceful members of their communities. Positive Discipline teaches important social and life skills in a manner that is deeply respectful and encouraging for both children and adults.
Mutual respect. Adults model firmness by respecting themselves and the needs of the situation, and kindness by respecting the needs of the child.
Identifying the belief behind the behavior. Effective discipline recognizes the reasons kids do what they do and works to change those beliefs, rather than merely attempting to change behavior.
Effective communication and problem-solving skills.
Discipline that teaches (and is neither permissive nor punitive).
Focusing on solutions instead of punishment.
Encouragement (instead of praise). Encouragement notices effort and improvement, not just success, and builds long-term self-esteem and empowerment
The tools and concepts of positive discipline include:
Curriculum
We explore a variety of themes based on children’s interests. Some themes we’ve studied include Insects, Bodies, Families, and Outer Space. We read lots of books together and often do projects related to our theme.
In the Grasshoppers Class, we incorporate mini lessons from a literacy and math curriculum called, Get Set for School. This is a Kindergarten Readiness curriculum with lots of hands-on, and active learning.