Quick! Without thinking, answer these questions: What does caring for a child entail? At preschool and daycare, what needs of a child are being met?
If you’re like most parents or guardians, the first thing that comes to mind is ensuring that the physical needs of the child are met. In other words, daycare and preschool programs are primarily focused on giving the kids a place to be and making sure that they aren’t hurt. After all, caregivers of all kinds — parents, guardians, and our staff — want children to leave our Christian preschool in as good a shape as when they were dropped off!
But caring for a child means so much more than just keeping them physically safe throughout the day. Yes, that’s what we’re required to do by law, but it’s also vital that all aspects of a child are encouraged to grow when they’re with us at our Christian preschool and daycare centers in Justin, and Euless. Let’s take a look at how children are encouraged to grow while in our care.
Social Skills
Some kids are just naturally more social, while others are more shy. We all want our kids to grow up to be outgoing individuals, or at the very least hope that they won’t turn away from social interactions. When kids are with us at our early childhood education center, they’re surrounded by kids every day, which encourages their social growth. We always encourage the shy kids to be a bit more outgoing, while still making sure that they keep the personal space they need for their own unique personality.
Of course, social skills aren’t just about being friendly. There will always be conflict in any social situation — we certainly don’t live in a perfect world — and it gives kids a chance to deal with their interpersonal skills. Being a Christian daycare center and preschool, we’re able to address problems not only from a practical standpoint, but also a moral and religious one.
We also can’t ignore the importance of social skills when it comes to the way that kids interact with adults. Kids who have nannies can have a problem distinguishing between the nanny and their mother, which isn’t something that tends to happen when they are spending more time with multiple adults in their daycare classroom. It’s also a great time for children to become more accustomed to talking to a wider variety of adults than usual, which can help when they reach school age.
Emotional Well-Being
Children go through so many emotional stages in just a short amount of time. And when we say time, we mean that they change through the years and during the day! Their brains and bodies are growing so rapidly that it’s seldom a surprise when they have an outburst.
It’s important for children to realize that most of their emotions are perfectly healthy, and we can help them when they’re having a bad day. It’s good to be able to control emotions without bottling them up, and to encourage them to talk with someone about how they’re feeling. We’ll work with them to let them know that they’re special to us, their parents, and to God.
And speaking of God…
Spiritual
One of the best parts about working with kids at our preschool is that we’re a Christian daycare center. As such, we’re able to solve many of the problems we have by encouraging children to love each other and treat others as God would have us treat them. While many of the parents who bring their children to our early education center are church-goers, they realize that Sunday School only happens for an hour a week and that their children could benefit by having additional Christian teaching every day of the week.
At Kid’s Kampus, we teach kids about God at age-appropriate levels. While infants don’t yet understand language, we still sing them songs about God’s love. Toddlers might not be able to read, but they can understand the books we read to them. Preschoolers can take advantage of their newfound reading ability and make use of the many age-appropriate books we have on hand.
The environment we provide also can’t be ignored. For instance, our students are spending their time in classrooms that have encouraging, Bible-based posters. Crafts will often be based on Bible stories, as will some of the videos we share with them. Simply being surrounded by these on a daily basis can be a great help to a child’s spiritual upbringing.
Mental
No matter if your child is in infant care, daycare, or preschool, there will always be some pedagogy involved. That’s because we’re not just providing daycare — where we take care of the child’s physical growth — but also their cognitive growth every step of the way.
We have a plan for how we’ll take care of them and their mental wellbeing, no matter their age. For infants, there is a focus on communication, whether it’s verbal or sign language. Older kids are introduced to the basics of reading and writing, counting and math, science, music, and art (all age-appropriate, of course). The best aspect is that all of these are presented in a way so that they’re fun, meaning that kids don’t really even realize that they’re learning!
Physical
We’ll end this article as we began it, with the physical development of the child. Of course it’s vitally important that kids are taken care of physically while they’re here at our early learning center!
But physical development goes far beyond just keeping them safe. Kids are growing so quickly during their time with us, and we make sure to encourage this growth with age-appropriate play. All children are helped with both their fine motor skills (hands and fingers) as well as gross motor skills (arms and legs). Whether they’re grasping a bottle, crawling, or learning how to kick a ball into a net, we’re there to encourage the play that will help them master their body.
Because we have seven early childhood education facilities in the Fort Worth area, each is different in the activities — both indoor and outdoor — that kids will have the opportunity to engage in. Make sure to check out the amenities offered by each by checking our Location pages.
Kid’s Kampus: Taking Care Of The Whole Child
We hope we’ve convinced you that Kid’s Kampus is so much more than just child care. Any daycare center can take your child and return them to you at the end of the day, but not every one is going to address the many needs that kids have.
If you’re convinced that our early Christian preschool and daycare center is right for you, we’d love to give you a tour of one of our seven facilities. Contact us today to get on our schedule; we look forward to hearing from you!
