Your child's first few days in the Moonjumper class can be a trying experience because he/she becomes anxious coping with teachers, other children and a new environment.  Some children are more upset by the separation from home rather than by the new world of experiences they encounter in school.  Because of these transitions, we want to give him/her the best start by having him/her participate in enjoyable activities.  Close relationships with other children will heighten their self-esteem and enhance the spirit of friendship.  Together, they soon discover the joy of their accomplishments.  Throughout the day, activities are planned so every child will have the opportunity to develop the following basic skills:  

Fine Motor Skills

Activities like coloring within the lines build hand eye coordination skills that help children develop their fine motor muscles.  These visual motor integration activities will help your child with feeding, buttoning a coat and other tasks that support independence and self care. 

Gross Motor Skills

For preschoolers, development of gross motor skills is an important part of healthy development.  Playground activities such as running, jumping along with exploration of music with motion helps develop necessary muscles groups that enable graduation into more complex activities like balance on one foot, walking up stairs and riding a tricycle.

Self-Care

Providing an opportunity to practice self-care skills is a fantastic way to help children at this age feel capable and increase self-esteem. Through practice of table manners and proper hygiene activities like independent feeding with spoon/fork and washing hands before meals creates a great sense of autonomy, a drive to learn and grow.

Social Development Skills

At age two, children view the world almost exclusively through their own needs, however through parallel play activities, pretend play and practice of taking turns children of this age learn to effectively communicate with words, share and successfully engage in group activities.   

Listening Skills

Listening skills are crucial to language development therefore through listening and repeating familiar rhymes, children develop an ear for sounds, discovering they can be manipulated and changed. Activities like practice of following directions, story and circle time can help enhance these skills.

Reading Readiness

Early readiness reading skills for pre-school age children are invaluable in the learning process and bring about many benefits in academics, communication and critical thinking skills. Activities like reciting nursery rhymes, finger play, learning alphabet, basic colors, identifying and upper/lower case letters helps set the stage for language mastery and love for reading.   

Math Readiness

Two year olds learn key logic and reasoning skills essential to math skills from play, therefore activities like manipulatives, identification and sorting of numbers and shapes help establish a strong foundation for mathematical development. 

Music Skills & Concepts

Preschoolers have much to gain from early introduction into musical education.  Exposure to harmonic sounds, rhythms and sequential patterns help brain development and cognition, which are building blocks to learning more advanced concepts.