Welcome to Northwoods Child Development Center. Our mission is to provide a happy, warm, nurturing, positive, loving and safe environment that fosters the growth and development of the whole child. We will nurture the joy of discovery and learning in your child. The Philosophy of Norhwoods Child Development Center is to provide quality childcare and preschool education for children of parents who work outside the home. We provide a stimulating learning environment planned to meet the individual needs of the children and parents. Our major emphasis is learning through play. Our approach is to provide a wide variety of opportunities for children to learn by experiencing concepts and ideas. Within our classrooms children can learn from several settings, learning centers, large group activities, small group activities and individual time with the teacher. During "free play" children can choose any of the centers which include: easel painting, blocks and trucks, dramatic play, puzzles, books, music, housekeeping corner, art, dramatics, manipulative learning games, science, literacy, math, water, sand and sensory play. Large and small group learning times use songs, games, language development, and fine and gross motor activities to foster skill development. We take time in our daily schedule for spontaneous discovery of the world around us. Another major emphasis is to provide activities daily to supply good, healthy building blocks for self-esteem and self-confidence. Hopefully, the children can carry this strong image with them wherever they go. We do this by talking about ourselves, respecting the rights of other children and knowing what our rights are. We teach the children to "use their words" to express their joy and their anger. We do not promote violence of any kind and that includes the use of play guns and other weapons for play. We believe that when a child is ready, he/she will learn to read. Usually, they will begin to read when they are 5 or 6 years of age. We do provide opportunities for children to learn readiness skills such as letter and number recognition, sound/symbol association, language and motor development. Also, we provide an awareness of concepts that positively promote the social, emotional, physical and cognitive development of each child. Teachers and assistants are at the school to guide the children in activities and to help foster independence, creativity, initiative, playing positively with others, and problem solving. Most of all they are there to provide a happy, positive, loving and warm environment for the children they care for each day.
