Education

Education and Early Childhood Development

Our philosophy of education is to meet the child or family at the point of their development and facilitate strategies to build on their goals to reach the next level.  Young children of all ages birth through 5 years, learn best and most naturally when they are allowed to play, discover, experiment and socialize with other children and adults.  

For each child, we consider interests, temperaments, language, cultural background, and learning style and use that to build on a developmentally appropriate program for individuals and classroom groups.  

The overall plan for each child and family is based on the Head Start Child Development and Early Learning Framework, the Badlands Head Start School Readiness Goals, and the SD Early Learning Guidelines.  This foundation develops the child's skills to lead to readiness for entering kindergarten.  School Readiness is an overall expectation of the Office of Head Start in all program elements and for all Head Start programs in the United States.

The Domains, or areas, that we cover on a daily and/or weekly basis are:  Social Emotional, Creative Arts Expression, Approaches to Learning, Language Development, Literacy Knowledge and Skills, Logic and Reasoning, Mathematics Knowledge and Skills, Science Knowledge and Skills, Social Knowledge and Skills, and Physical Development and Health.  Age appropriate mastery in all these areas will lead the child to a successful start in kindergarten and support the family in achieving its goals.