Little Years also seeks to expand the attention span of the child by encouraging him/her to continue with particular tasks or activities for extended periods of time.

Little Years believes it is important to enhance each child's self esteem and to develop sound attitudes and social behavior. To attain these attributes, Little Years emphasizes cooperation rather than competition and the use of appropriate words and physical responses.

Intellectual Skills

Even more so than adults, children learn by doing, speaking and acting. Simple concepts are taught first and then increasingly complex concepts taught by building upon and reinforcing the existing base. The concept of size, shape, color, texture, etc. are taught to infants and toddlers. With these basics, the preschoolers learn the more complex concepts by interacting with the teacher and each other.

Language development begins in infancy and continues through all ages. Little Years encourages and supports language development from the early monosyllabic utterances of infants through single words or groups of words and then sentences. As the ability to speak develops, the child is able to enunciate his/her feelings and respond to the ideas and feelings of those around him/her. Our teachers use both precept and example. For instance, when the teachers use expressions such as “please, thank you, excuse me, I'm sorry, etc.”, the children learn, by example, to do the same.

Services

There are three major aspects to Little Years Programs, which receive different emphasis depending upon the child's age and the class he/she is in.

Behavioral Skills
Intellectual Skills
Physical Development

Behavioral Skills

Little Years seeks to teach the children independence and the ability to respond positively to adults and other children. They are taught to listen and to explore their surroundings and also to express their feelings while respecting their teachers and classmates.

Physical Development

Parallel with the development of intellectual skills is the development of the basic motor skills. These are the abilities required for walking, running, throwing, catching, climbing and balancing, among others. Many of these skills are best attained in the playground. For this reason, Little Years provides two playgrounds, one for the younger children (infants or toddlers) and the other for the older preschoolers. These fenced-in playgrounds are furnished with appropriate equipment to encourage and support the development of the necessary motor skills.

For children old enough to handle objects safely, fine motor skills can be developed and enhanced through games and toys such as beads, blocks, crayons, etc. We are, of course, aware that little children put everything in their mouths - thus beads, crayons, etc., can be dangerous. Games and toys appropriate to the level are provided in each classroom.

Through this graduated tripartite approach to learning, Little Years' curriculum leads to the effective social, intellectual and physical development of each child.

The ability to talk about his/her surroundings leads to the ability to sort and classify, which enables the child to make sense of those surroundings. This is the beginning of true intellectual growth and is the basis on which the higher skills of the three R's (reading, writing and arithmetic) can be attained.

Little Years seeks, by precept and example, and through simple experiments and games to enable such child to attain his/her highest level of learning.