Education
The Children's Friend family includes traditionally operated early development and educational centers and a Montessori School. Each site typically provides care for children ages 6 weeks to 10 years old. Each Children's Friend Learning Center implements the High/Scope approach to learning in the pre-k and preschool programs.The infant and toddler program is supplemented by locally developed Planned Activities for Learning (PAL) Program.
Our Montessori School is located in Snellville, Georgia.The site is accredited by Montessori Educational Programs International(MEPI).The preschool program implements Montessori principals throughout. In order to meet the differingdemands placed on individual families, our Montessori school also provides infant and after school care.
Since we believe that children learn best by pursuing their personal interests and goals, children are encouraged to make choices about materials and activities throughout the day. As they pursue their choices and plans, children explore, ask and answer questions, solve problems, and interact with classmates and adults. In this kind of environment, children naturally engage in key experiences; these experiences include opportunities in creative representation, language and literacy, initiative and social relations, movement, music, classification, seriation, number, space, and time.
This system of education is both a philosophy of child development and a rationale for guiding growth. It is based on the child's developmental needs for freedom within limits and a carefully prepared environment, which guarantees exposure to materials and experiences. Through this, the child develops intelligence as well as physical and psychological abilities. The Montessori method is founded on the principle of respect for self, for others and for the environment. Classrooms are calm, ordered and realistic. The teacher acts as a facilitator of activities, as well as a role model of respectful behavior. Teachers are unobtrusive in the learning process, allowing each child the opportunity to make their own choices.
The PAL Program serves as a resource to infant and toddler teachers in providing an overall structure to the care and developmental activities of infants and toddlers. Infant and Toddler programs are not a scaled-down version of a good program for preschool children. The philosophy supports that children from birth to age 3 have unique characteristics and needs.In all areas of child development there is a sequence of stages that are recognizable. The PAL Program focuses on appropriate activities to allow for optimum growth during each of these periods.
