Kid Works Children's Center

Call or email for a tour. Info in bio.

Our new 2 year olds are having the most amazing time at Kid Works. They are engaged and loving the hands-on experiences they have. They love finding their calm in our lush, full-of-life garden that keep their interest piqued.

The bunnies and tortoise have helped with any separation anxiety and the amazing teachers have been their safe space!

❤ we love the early childhood years. So much goodness, richness and presence.

Our magical garden!! Our dedicated teacher, Dana, puts so much love here and follows our children's curiosity and challenges them with explorative open-ended questions.

It truly is wonderful to see the wonder in their faces as they discover life in the garden not just with plants...

..let's keep the wonder alive with hands-on learning.

We started our Fall session last week with our new program and it has been a BLAST!

Our 2 year olds have acclimated so so well and have made themselves at home. Tears existed but not anything we couldn't handle and support with love and hugs and plenty of time to adjust.

We have a few more spots open. Hurry before we run out!

Taking applications now!! Limited spots available.

Start with a tour by calling us at 562 438 4904 or emailing [email protected].

If you're looking for a strong start for your 2 year old, in learning through play, in feeling confident and resilient, in building emotional stability and intelligence, in gaining the necessary social skills through experience, cognitive development, sensory experiences, nature inspired learning and all of the amazing early childhood development needs, then we are the place to be.

Our 2 year old program is limited to 10 children with 2 highly qualified and passionate teachers. Call for more information. We are SO excited!!

Spaces are filling up for our 4 hour program, Monday to Friday.

This is so true. We see it all the time. We see that look on our preschooler's faces of complete and utter pride when they can complete an age appropriate challenge.

We also see a capability and confidence in trying new things because they trust themselves.

Yes! 👇🏾

Reasonable risks are worth it in the long run.

Thanks for this Pediatric Medical Center . Needed that.

Back To School Breakfast Ideas

👨‍🌾👩‍🌾We are so proud of our gardening program. Here's what's happening!

We have booklets with the types of creatures we may find in the garden that the children can explore and identify. The look on their faces when they match them up is beyond words! 🤯❤

Sharing is caring...but not when it's forced. Instead of focusing on sharing, we can help children to practice taking turns.

Kid Works can enroll children who are 2 - 5 years old. Please contact us for more info:

CALL: 562-438-4904
EMAIL: [email protected]
WEBSITE: www.kidworkschildrenscenter.com

Have you ever traveled by time machine? We have one. It's amazing. The older children added every detail to this one-of-a-kind creation and had a ton of fun pretending to be time travelers.

Want to see Kid Works in action? Please contact us to set up a tour.

CALL: 562-438-4904
EMAIL: [email protected]
WEBSITE: www.kidworkschildrenscenter.com - LINK IN BIO

Twos are TERRIFIC!! 😍🥰

We are enrolling now in our half-day 2s program. Children do not have to be potty trained, and we can help with that when they show readiness.

Please contact us for more info and to schedule a tour:

CALL: 562-438-4904
EMAIL: [email protected]
WEBSITE: www.kidworkschildrenscenter.com - LINK IN BIO

This!

No cause for alarm. This is 4. ☺️

Note: I don’t mean literal boxes. Although they might do that too. 😉

Four-year-olds (and five- and six- and even seven-year-olds, and maybe three-year-olds, and yes maybe even older depending on your unique child — but here I’m talking about averages and norms) are very black-and-white. They do not understand intricacies and nuances.

They are learning to make categories, a very complicated thing that humans are able to do and hold in their head. They are learning that when you hold up an apple, it also fits into the category of “fruit”, which also fits into the category of “food”, but does not fit into the category of “clothing”. They know so many hundreds or thousands of words by now! All of those words have to fit into larger boxes of some kind, otherwise the process for selecting those words from their memory banks would be so overwhelming and impossible by now.

Most adults don’t have a problem with anything I’ve described so far. It makes perfect sense that children are learning to sort things into categories.

Where adults start having a problem with it is when this categorization starts to overlap around the edges of “things that seem like they have to do with morality” or “things that seem like they have to do with complex societal factors”.

Like…X goes in the category of Good Guy, but Y goes in the category of Bad Guy.

(And then the adult’s brain wants to explain, “But Y isn’t really a *bad guy*, and no people are Bad People, there’s just people who make *bad choices*…”)

Or…X goes in the category of Things For Girls, and Y goes in the category of Things For Boys.

(And then the adult’s brain wants to explain, “But things aren’t just for girls or for boys, things can be for both girls and boys, and the gender spectrum is more complicated than just a simplistic and childish binary anyway…”)

Or…X goes in the category of Fair, and Y goes in the category of Not Fair.

(And the adult’s brain wants to explain, “But Y was perfectly right and just for so-and-so, for complicated factors that you can’t understand because you’re 4.”)

And that’s really the thing: They can’t understand, because they’re 4.

It’s developmentally normal for a four (or five or six or three) year old to understand things through a simplistic and childish binary, because they are a child and the world is simple.

As with almost everything I ever post about developmental norms: That *does not* mean that you should never introduce nuance to your child. Or that you can’t teach them that colors are for everyone, not just pink for girls and blue for boys. (I personally have conversations with children all the time about gender norms because I look more or less androgynous depending on what I wear and what society thinks about it!) You can totally talk about these things with your children. You can totally casually reply from the adult perspective that you hold.

(But if you do it all the time, you risk them feeling like you never hear what they’re saying.)

I hear from parents a lot who are super concerned about why their child has picked up good guy/bad guy language. Or “that’s for girls” or “girls can’t do that” language. “They didn’t learn this at home! That’s not what we (read: me, the parent) believe!” I wonder how much of parents’ reaction is feeling anxious about their child expressing a belief that would sound immature or even offensive coming out of an adult’s mouth. But it’s supposed to be immature. They’re immature. They’re not mature. They’re 4.

They will continue to develop nuance as they grow, as their brain physically matures and makes space for nuance. As you continue to model nuance and your beliefs in it. They will learn much more from your modelling than they do from adult lectures! They will learn much more from exposure to a diverse range of ideas in their media and in your friendships and in their available playmates.

And if you want to push back, just make sure you’re hearing them first. Spend the first half of the conversation in “Oh?” and “Hmmm…” and “What makes you think that?” and maybe by casually pointing out the examples of nuance that they already know but might not have assimilated into their categorization system yet.

(i.e., “Oh, somebody told you that only boys can have short hair? What do you think about that? We do know lots of boys with short hair, you’re right…Your brother has short hair…Dad has short hair. Hmm. I can think of a girl with short hair, though. What about Grandma? Her hair is short. I wonder if we know any more… I wonder what makes someone a boy or a girl… Is it really their hair? … Huh… interesting.” with *lots* of pauses for them to interject their own thoughts and reflection and *not* rushing toward your ability to explain your adult perspectives)

There’s no need for alarm. This is 4. This is what 4 does. And the more that you model *not* being an adult who can only put things in boxes, the more that they’ll learn to grow up to be like you.

[Image description: A black-and-white checkered image, with nine squares/checkerboxes on the image. Each square has a word written in it, in the opposite color — black or white — to what the square is. Overall, it reads, “Four year olds learn by putting everything into boxes.” Then it has my watermark, . End description.]

Did you know that there are predictable developmental stages in block play? Children start by building wide, then high, and then after some experience and with cognitive maturation, they will begin to build with in mind.

You can tell this 4-year-old put a lot of thought into his structure!

Want to see Kid Works in action? Please contact us to set up a tour. We have a few spots left for fall.

CALL: 562-438-4904
EMAIL: [email protected]
WEBSITE: www.kidworkschildrenscenter.com - LINK IN BIO

Playing is hard work! 💪💪

At Kid Works, we take full advantage of our amazing outdoor space. For healthy and happy children, just add sun, sand, and water!

Interested in enrolling? Please contact us for more info.

CALL: 562-438-4904
EMAIL: [email protected]
WEBSITE: www.kidworkschildrenscenter.com - LINK IN BIO

TOMORROW! 🤩🎤🎼💃🕺

Alana Banana in concert at Kid Works Children's Center. Only 1 ticket for the whole family! LINK IN BIO.

Kid Works Children's Center
3621 E. Broadway
Long Beach, CA 90803

Strong brows and a full face of color are in this season. 😁

Interested in learning about our play-based and developmental program? Please contact us for more info and to schedule a tour.

CALL: 562-438-4904
EMAIL: [email protected]
WEBSITE: www.kidworkschildrenscenter.com - LINK IN BIO

ENROLLING NOW!

Come see our preschool in action! Please contact us for more information and to set up a tour.

CALL: 562-438-4904
EMAIL: [email protected]

Kid Works Children's Center Our developmentally appropriate program helps to prepare children for future academic learning through hands-on experience.

Please contact Kid Works to set up a tour and hear all about our brand-new 2s program!

Always make time to stop and smell a . 🌼

The Bungalow class ventured into the neighborhood on a nature scavenger hunt. Our budding naturalists are learning to value all living things by regularly connecting with the nature around us. Environmental stewardship begins at home. 💚

Interested in learning more about nature-based education? Please contact us for more info and to set up a tour.

Call: 562-438-4904
Email: [email protected]

Playing isn’t frivolous, or a waste of time. Play is essential for early development, well-being, and higher order thinking skills. When was the last time you really played?

Mind the Play Gap

The pressure to teach things to your children starts early. The parents of two and three year olds tell me that they feel that they should be stopping their children from playing to teach their children their letters and enrol them in swimming lessons. They tell me that already by the early years of primary school, many children have structured after school activities every day. They worry that if they don’t follow suit, their children will be disadvantaged. They worry that their children will never catch up if they miss those essential early lessons.

It’s odd, because one thing is certain. If, as an adult, I feel that I have missed any part of the things children learn at primary school, it won’t take me long to catch up. If I’ve managed somehow to skip learning about the ancient Egyptians (a topic covered in British primary schools), I can read a book or two and soon I will know as much as your average 8-year-old does after completing their Ancient Egypt topic. Certainly I will know as much as that 8-year-old remembers thirty years later. Even when it comes to basics such as learning to read or numeracy, it does not take as long for adults who did not have the opportunity to learn in childhood to acquire these skills in adulthood. They do not have to go back and complete 7 years of primary education in order to reach the level of an eleven-year-old.

Primary school goes slow, and there’s a reason for that. Young children find formal academic learning harder than most adults. They find all the non-academic demands of school challenging and they aren’t necessarily motivated to learn what they are being taught. For all the talk of children being like ‘sponges’, most of them do not soak up academic knowledge effortlessly. Many of them find it hard to do all the things school requires of them.

There are situations in which young children learn ‘like sponges’, but these are generally immersive situations. Put a young child in a environment where everyone is speaking a foreign language, and they are likely to learn how to speak it more efficiently than an adult in the same situation. Put them in a situation where they can explore and test out hypotheses (like working out how to use an electronic device or games console), and again, they’ll learn more quickly than your average adult who is likely to wait to be told what to do or ask where the instructions are. They are less afraid to get it wrong than adults, and so they dive right in.

So no, I don’t worry about children missing out on early structured ‘learning’ opportunities. I think that can be caught up later, when the child is ready.

What I do worry about is play. I can’t go back and spend my days playing in the way that my children can. If I missed out on playing as a child, it’s not simple to go back and do it in adulthood. That stage in my development is passed. My time for free imaginative play is over. That doesn’t mean I can’t play in other ways, but it does mean that I can’t really get excited or immersed in dinosaur tea parties or role-playing Puss-in-Boots. I can catch up on missed curriculum, but I can’t go back and catch up on years of play.

Yet we don’t think twice about stopping children playing to do the things that we as adults deem important. When we worry about them missing out on early phonics or extra maths, we rarely think about all that playing time they lose when we try to persuade them to sit still and do what they are told. We value adult-led activities over child-led, every time, and our children miss out as a result.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Shout it from the hilltops. Childhood is the time for play.

Illustration: Alex Guillaume under Unsplash

LINK IN BIO!

Calling all movers and shakers! Concert this Saturday! This concert is open to all families of littles.

Please go to the link in our bio to purchase a ticket. Only 1 ticket per family is needed!

LINK IN BIO!

Come see Alana Banana LIVE in concert at Kid Works Children's Center. Tickets are 1 per family with a suggested donation.

Please SHARE with other families of littles. 😄🤩

Here is an example of emergent literacy: This 4-year-old child made a "book" and then narrated her story to the teacher and other children. Notice how she is tracking the lines with her finger, much like how she would when she begins to read words in earnest. This tells us she already knows a lot about books!

This is the power of play. No one made her do this; she is intrinsically motivated to create and then play what it would be like to the author of a story. Of course, this doesn't just happen in a vacuum. She has wonderful adult role models to show her how powerful and fun literacy is. 🥰

Sun + dirt + trucks + friends. Ingredients for a fantastic childhood. 🥰

Interested in seeing Kid Works in action? Please contact us to set up a tour.

CALL: 562-438-4904
EMAIL: [email protected]

Happy joyful sunny Friday! 😎

Few things are more satisfying than a perfect snack harvested right off of the tree. The children have been so patient waiting for these nectarines to ripen. Sweet success! 🍑

Interested in learning more about our child-centered and nature-based preschool? We can enroll children who are 2 - 6 years old. Please contact us to set up a tour.

Call: 562-438-4904
Email: [email protected]

Everyday, children get to connect with nature in our thriving garden which is a part of our outdoor classroom. 🌿🌎

Hands-on experiences grow our young citizens into stewards of our environment.

We have a few spots left for 3 - 5 year olds.

We are also enrolling in our brand-new drop-off half-day program for 2 year olds.

Interested in enrolling? Please contact us to schedule a tour.

Call: 562-438-4904
Email: [email protected]

We are touring prospective families now! Please contact us to join a tour.

Call: 562-438-4904
Email: [email protected]

The Alana Banana Concert Get ready to go bananas at The Alana Banana Concert on July 22, 2023, where Alana's catchy tunes and energetic performance will...

SAVE THE DATE!!!! July 22nd, 2023.

The first ever Children's Concert LIVE, IN PERSON at Kid Works Children’s Center with the amazing .

Keep an eye out for more details!

Moving from controlling parenting to conscious parenting involves a profound shift in perspective and approach.

This shift is largely based on understanding that our children are individuals with their own thoughts, feelings, and needs, and our role as parents is to guide them, not control them.

Our role is to do the work on ourselves, first and foremost! Then, only then, can we parent from a place of connectivity and authenticity. ✨💖

What do you think? 🤔 Is it time to reframe the question?

"When we ask a child what they want to do when they leave school, they will give a specific occupation. It is often a doctor, nurse, lawyer, teacher, firefighter, or something that they know about because of family members or what they see on television.

Kids will choose from a pool of 1% of the jobs that are available to them. As a result, careers experts, like Richelle Staley, from Lourdes Hill College now talk to students about work clusters.

She says, “Work clusters are categories of skill sets that exist in most industries. For example, in the travel industry, there are bus drivers, accountants, and tour guides, and any number of other roles. Same industry, but different day-to-day skills. Thus the roles fall into different work clusters.”

The six clusters discussed at Lourdes Hill College come from Ponder Education. They are shown in the image.

Having a part-time job, or a few part-time jobs over time, enables your child to grow an understanding of what cluster they should be looking at. They learn what they love and loathe!

Which cluster do you belong to? Check out the quiz in this article: https://www.inspiringgirls.info/post/part-time-jobs-teens

The Bungalow class have been working on self-portraits to culminate the end of the school year. It gives everyone a chance to reflect on personal growth and interests, of which family is #1!

These friends are moving on soon to elementary school. 😭😭

Preschool is for learning about how to make friends, wouldn't you agree?

At Kid Works, children have many opportunities to practice playing together, learn how to take turns, express needs and wants, and problem solve when there are disagreements. Rinse and repeat, all day long! 😆

"Baby Sky is getting bigger!"

Our young friends have been observing the baby praying mantis they found last week. Everyone loves babies!

Friendship is noticing when your friend's dress needs an adjustment and lending a helping hand. 😍🥰

We have a few spots left for summer and fall. Please contact us for more information and to schedule a tour.

Call: 562-438-4904
Email: [email protected]

Best to be prepared when you get asked this question by a smaller human. 😅

EXCITING NEWS! 😃🥰🤩

We will be offering a part-time program for 2 year olds this fall.
8 AM - 12:30 PM, Monday to Friday.

To get on our interest list and to schedule a tour, please contact us:

Call: 562-438-4904
Email: [email protected]