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December 1, 2011

Choosing the Right Preschool For Your Child

Choosing the right learning environment for your child can be a daunting task, especially in the Northern Virginia area where choices are ample. Deciphering through the maze of “advantages” schools offer, including biometric entry systems, video cameras throughout the building, and hair salons, can make you feel dizzy. So what should you do as a parent, and how do you choose the right school for your child? The following are some suggestions you may want to consider.

Making the List: What is important to you and your child?

Every child and every family is different. That is why we have so many choices. No matter what the schools, experts, or your friends say, you know your child best and are the person best positioned to decide the right environment for him/her. Some questions to ask yourself are:

• What is your philosophy on teaching your children, and what child rearing philosophy do you subscribe to? Many parents have heard of characteristics associated with various methods such as Montessori (fosters independence), Waldorf (fosters creativity), High/Scope (fosters personal goals for kids), etc. Teaching methods give you a general sense of how the school teaches, but every school implements their teaching method differently.
• What is my child’s personality and style? Is s/he shy? Is s/he outgoing? Does s/he make friends easily, or do better in a smaller group setting?
• Do you want a rigorous academic environment, more of a social focus, or somewhere in-between?

As you start to explore these questions, you should look beyond the marketing materials and websites of the schools, to explore the staff, learning materials and toys, environment and daily programs, and see whether they meet your individual child’s needs and fit your parenting philosophy. You might consider making a list of 5 to 7 schools in the area that most closely align with your thinking and your child’s needs and personality. Then set out for some visits!

Visiting the Schools: Are you in the right place?

Visiting the schools you are considering for your child is one of the best investments of your time that you can make. This is your opportunity to not just tour the facilities, but to observe classes and teachers, get a sense of the environment, and to test whether your child will do well at the school. This part of the process is where you should heavily rely on your senses and experience in order to make a decision about the school. Consider several things throughout the visitation process:

1. Make several visits to the school, on different days, at different times, and to different classrooms. If a school will not accommodate you for more than a single visit, and if you are highly limited to when you can visit and how long you can stay, it may not be the right school for you.
2. Make a list of questions to ask once you get to the school. Some suggestions include:
• Who is the school director, and what is his/her background? How do they interact with the school’s owners and teachers? Is the director available to answer your questions?
• How are the classroom teachers certified and if they are specialized, such as a Montessori teacher, who certifies them? Montessori teachers can be certified by the American Montessori Society (AMS), Association Montessori Internationale (AMI), or Montessori Accreditation Council for Teacher Education Commission (MACTE).
• Is the school in good standing, with its umbrella organization (such as AMS or AMI) and with the state and local regulatory body?
• What resources for learning do the children have available to them at the school and in the classroom? For Montessori schools such as MCHL, you will want to take a look at each classroom and see that it is equipped with a complete age-appropriate Montessori set of materials for areas of sensorial, practical life, mathematics, language, geography, botany, and science. You also want to consider how often materials are rotated and how rich is the material in the classroom compared to the number of children in the class (i.e. does every child have a reasonable number of choices that they can work on/play with or is there too much/too little in the classroom to choose from).
• Does the school offer enrichment programs (and are they included in tuition)? Enrichment programs include things like Spanish, Music, Computer Lab, etc.
• Are classrooms conducted in a calm and orderly manner? Do children seem happy, focused and engaged in their work? How are the teachers interacting with the children? Are they supportive? Do they direct the children? Are they comforting?
• Find out how frequently the teachers turn over, how long the support staff members have been at the school, and how involved the owners are. These factors, working together, will directly influence the quality of your child’s learning and growing experience.
3. Spend time in the classroom where you child would be placed. If possible, arrange to stay and observe for 2-3 hours. If you visit more than once, bring your child with you and see how he/she reacts to the environment. Visiting close to break time allows your child to interact a bit with the teachers and the children in the classroom, without disrupting the school’s schedule. And this can be a good first indicator of how your child will take to the environment.

Keeping up the partnership

Once you have visited the school, done your research and found the right place, you and your child will hopefully have a great experience. Continue to stay involved by visiting the school and your child’s classroom, talking with the teachers (formally or informally) and participating as much as possible in the parents’ community. Together with listening to your child’s experiences, this is one of the best ways to continue validating that you are in the right school environment. It also allows you, as the parents, to help shape the partnership that you have entered into, for not only educating your child, but ensuring they have a healthy and happy pre-school experience!

October 25, 2011

Trick or Treat – I LOVE sweets!

Wondering how to control the candy craving with Halloween just around the corner? Check out a few tips and tricks from MCHL parent and pediatrician, Dr. Sandy Chung.

Dr. Sandy Chung is a board-certified pediatrician practicing in Fairfax, Virginia, and mother of four wonderful children who have attended MCHL. She is author of Dr. Sandy’s Top to Bottom Guide to Your Newborn: Answers to the Questions Every New Parent Asks, and writes a parenting advice blog titled Dr. Sandy: Mom First, Pediatrician Second.

October 4, 2011

Sunny the Sunflower

On the first day of spring, a little sunflower seed named Sunny arrived at MCHL. Before he could say “hello” to all of the children, he was pulled out of his package and pushed under the soft, brown dirt and sprinkled with water. All wet, dirty and alone in the dark, Sunny thought to himself, “I’m not sure I like it here at MCHL”.

A few days passed and soon the little seed sprouted small white roots and a tiny green stem. He pushed his roots like little feet against the dirt and raised his stem as high as he could. Soon Sunny’s head rose to the surface and he could see the sunshine. All at once, he heard the voices of the children as they played on the playground. Sunny looked at the sunlight, the blue sky and the children and he decided, “I think I like MCHL after all”.

As the spring passed, Sunny got a little bigger every day. First, he grew little green leaves and became taller than a grasshopper. Then he was taller than a rabbit. As summer came and it became hotter, the children would bring him drinks in their buckets on Water Day. “That sure is refreshing,” he said to the other flowers.

Soon Sunny began to grow a big, round green head. Higher and higher his head rose toward the sky until he was taller than the children. Dancing in the breeze under the hot summer sun, the sunflower drank lots of water from the children’s buckets until he was the tallest plant in the garden, even taller than the teachers! Sunny kept growing until his big green head became a huge yellow blossom. Everyone marveled at his huge flower and Sunny was very proud of himself.

Then one day, Señora Gomez came to the garden and said, “Sunny, you’re the best sunflower in the garden and you deserve a prize”. So she took Sunny from the garden, put him into her car and drove him to the Lucketts County Fair.

At first, Sunny missed the children at MCHL but when he saw all of the other flowers at the fair, he felt right at home. When the judges came to look at Sunny, he stood up tall and his blossom shone like the sun itself. The judges were amazed and they exclaimed, “Never have we seen such a sunflower as this one. To this flower, we award First Prize”.

Sunny was so happy. He thought, “I’ve got to show my prize to the children at MCHL because after all, it was their water and care that made me grow so tall”.

And that’s how Sunny became Sunny the Famous Sunflower. Luckily, Sunny also made a lot of new seeds to bring back to MCHL. “Please tell the children,” he said, “if you plant me again in the spring in your garden, I’ll grow even taller next summer”.

And if you do, he will.

August 29, 2011

Welcome

We would like to extend a warm welcome to families new to MCHL as well as to the many parents and children who are already part of the MCHL family. September is the “New Year” for all teachers and this last week of August the staff has been updating class lists, coordinating the many schedules (playground, music, Spanish, lunch, etc.) and scrubbing cubbies — in short, getting ready for the 206 little faces who will look up to us on the first day of school.

On Thursday, many of our teachers updated their CPR and first aid training. Other staff members washed toys, cots and furniture so that the rooms sparkled for our new families coming to meet their teachers during the Open House sessions.

But the most important task for the staff this week is to come together and reaffirm our mission to our families:

The Montessori Children’s House of Loudoun strives to create a secure, warm, educationally stimulating environment for young children. MCHL is dedicated to providing a non-hurried, nurturing atmosphere. The classrooms are carefully designed to spark curiosity and foster discovery on the part of the child. Learning occurs in an inquisitive, cooperative and non-competitive atmosphere. It is our mission to recognize the inherent worth and dignity of each child in an atmosphere of mutual respect and kindness. At the same time, it is our mission to develop supportive and caring relationships with the families who entrust their children to our care.

This is the beginning of our 16th year. Just as we promised in 1996, we again look forward to making new friends and are committed to providing the very best of care to all of the children enrolled at MCHL.