Early Childhood Education

In order for one to gain an understanding of an early childhood environment, one must put them inside one. People really do not understand what takes place everyday if they do not sit back and observe the interaction amongst the children and the staff. I observed a class at A Child's World- Doylestown. A Child's World is located at 2001 South Easton Road, Doylestown, PA 18901. The building is brand new, they just moved in June 2003, however A Child's World has been in business for 10 years and they have two other locations, Newtown and Oxford Valley.

A Child's World serves children from the age of six weeks to six years old. The building is a nice size; it has five classrooms, which are divided into two different classes. This building has three centers on top of the ones located in each classroom; they are Gross Motor, Domestic, and Nature World. Each classroom has it's own bathroom with toilets, sinks and diaper changing stations, they also have a kitchen area with refrigerators, sinks and microwaves.

A Child's World mission statement is as follows, " A Child's World was created to provide the highest quality child care education for pre-school aged children. Open ended programs designed to teach children how to think, problem solve and be creative, which will give children the foundation for a life of learning. A Child's World is dedicated to the mental and physical development of children as well as the well being of the child and his or her families" (ACW Parent Handbook Pg. 5).

The classroom I observed was the Teeter-Tot room, it is actually the only room besides the baby room that does not share with another class. The children in this class are all turning two; they will all be two by July. The physical environment was awesome; as soon as you walked into this classroom you were hit in the face with children's artwork. It is plastered all over the walls of the room, no matter where you looked whatever was hanging up was something that was created by the children in that room. The teacher explained to me that there is a monthly calendar that goes home and on that calendar each week is a different theme. During that week the children will create different projects that go with that theme; at the end of the week the teacher takes all the children's work and creates a bulletin board with it.

The classroom is divided into several different areas; the first area is the eating and art area, in this area the children will have circle time, produce art projects and lastly eat any meals in this area. The rest of the classroom is divided into several small centers; such as housekeeping, where the children can cook, clean or perform any type of household chore, construction materials, where children can build using blocks or use dump trucks and other types of construction vehicles, sand and sea table where children can experiment with sand and water, and lastly there was the reading corner which was a bucket full of books surrounded by pillows and stuffed animals, this is where children can come and relax to get away from it all and read a good book.

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