Our Phliosophy

Our Philosophy

We believe children learn through experience and exploration. As teachers, we usually facilitate this through our interactions with the children, the school space itself, and the materials we provide.

Inspiration

We see our school as a combination of all the best traits from all the best pedagogical approaches. We believe in the power of unstructured time for play and child centered emergent curriculum. Montessori inspirations can be found in the form of materials on shelves at the child’s eye level, and on separate trays which can be easily brought out and used individually or together with friends. Our interactions with students follow many of the same principles as Respectful Parenting and the RIE approach.

Interaction With Students:

We believe in treating children with respect, even when they are very young. You won’t hear us using baby speak, raising the pitch of our voice, or condescending to the kids. We know that children are capable, complex beings who rise to the occasion if we let them. Our questions are meant to invite reflection, rather than quiz or demand a rote answer. We like to have discussions about shared experiences, what do you like to do when it’s sunny outside? What colors do you see out your window? This builds community and trust, as well as helping us all get to know each other.

Of course, we also have a lot of fun with the kids. Circle time is often playful with creation of stories, wordplay games, and imaginative inquiry. What would you do if dinosaurs were alive today? If everything started with "T”, what other funny new names would things have? Children have amazing ideas, and we delight in exploring with them. We love singing songs and reading books. These still happen even though we’re not in-person, you can read more about how on our Chrysalis At Home page.

The School Space:

Children are easily overwhelmed by visual stimuli. We know that they are more likely to take activities off the shelf if they are at eye level and visible. Our shelves at school had activities on individual trays with plenty of space around them. This sends a visual cue about the different components being meant to be used together.

In our distanced program, we aren’t able to curate the space. Instead, we have our shelf plan, and we communicate with parents about setting their space up to facilitate learning. We also help parents with issues like refusal to clean up, claiming boredom, and cycling activities.

Materials:

This is where our distanced program really shines. Because hands-on learning is so important for children this age, we take time to curate materials that will spark curiosity.

Open-Ended

Blocks, paint, dress-up clothes, stuffed animals, magnetic tiles, these all lend themselves to being used in many different ways, and allow the child to experiment. They can be used to create a wide variety of things, tell stories, inspire inquiry. These are beneficial in a child’s development because they encourage creative thinking, problem solving, and imagination.

Task Focused Activities

Does that sound antithetical to creativity? Task focused activities don’t hinder creativity, and they play an important part in children’s development. Puzzles, games, put-and-take activities-- these are considered task focused. Having a structure can be very comforting to children. Often our youngest students can be found with the pitcher of beans pouring and scooping back and forth for a long time. These are beneficial because they provide a sense of accomplishment when completed, and a challenge to be taken on. Children work their way through our puzzles through the years, and as they master them, look back with pride on what used to feel impossible that is now easy-peasy.