Children grow to see themselves as important and competent individuals when they are nourished by the unconditional positive regard of the caring adults in their lives. Children develop a positive self-image when they are given opportunities to exercise the power of their own choices. Each child needs to experience success through involvement in self-selected learning activities. Children’s spontaneous, self-initiated and self-directed play is the primary vehicle for learning, which is an interactive process. At Lala’s Creative Learning Center, children are given the opportunity to choose from a variety of materials and to actively explore and experiment. In doing so, they are creating their own knowledge from their experiences. We provide materials that are real, concrete, and relevant to the lives of children helps them develop skills they will need to later develop abstract understanding of symbols. Our role is to plan and prepare a stimulating environment that provides challenging activity choices and facilitates children’s engagement in the activities they select. In order to enhance each child’s self-concept and to broaden the experiences of all children, multicultural, non-stereotyping materials and experiences are offered. Parent-teacher partnerships, based on mutual respect, trust, and sharing, facilitate optimal program development.
