Cela's Creative Learning Academy, Medical Lake

Here at Cela's Creative Learning Academy, believe that learning starts with families and communities, that every child and family has unique gifts and abilities. Children learn through relationships, play and active exploration, and learn best when they are healthy, safe, and free of hunger. Supporting Children’s Learning We support children’s learning by focusing on the Washington State Developmental Guidelines competency areas; About Me and My Family and Culture, Building Relationships, Touching, Seeing, Hearing and Moving Around, Growing Up Healthy, Communicating and Learning About My World. Our goal is to provide the best prepared environment to children and their families. We strive to provide a safe, healthy, happy and educational environment by thoughtfully preparing activities with the child’s best interest in mind. A well-designed environment guides learning. We provide opportunities for large motor activities such as dancing running and climbing. The small motor activities consist of practical life, sensorial, language, mathematics, botany, and geography lessons. All this is done by presenting the lessons to the child in a way that is non-threatening to him/her. My background is in the Montessori Philosophy as well as traditional childcare philosophy. We use a combination of different proven techniques in child education. We are equipped and trained to work with children in a way that every child gets one on one throughout the day. The children and their families are able to share of themselves, their culture and traditions. Developing Curriculum Numerous hours are spent in the development of the daily curriculum for the children from practical life activities to academics. We strive to provide a multicultural environment rich in learning opportunities by teaching and occasionally taking advantage of other languages available in our community, including but not limited to sign language and Spanish. Using the Creative Curriculum tool to create and implement the curriculum at Cela’s Creative Learning Academy allows for us to plan activities that teach them about their world, who they are as individuals, and how to treat others with love, respect, and kindness. By using Creative Curriculum, We have the flexibility to implement activities based on each child’s strengths, learning goals, and individual interests, making the classroom environment customized to the children, encouraging and supporting their growth across all developmental domains. Creating, planning, and implementing classroom activities such as water play for sensory activities, beading and lacing to develop and strengthen fine motor skills, as well as weekly yoga lessons and field trips within our community help our children understand who they are, and how they can support their community. Our ultimate goal for the children enrolled at Cela’s Creative Learning Academy is to support the whole child which means that each student enrolls in our school healthy and learns about and practices a healthy lifestyle, learns in an environment that is physically and emotionally safe for everyone, is active in learning and has connections to our school and the West Plains community. Each student has access to personalized learning and is supported by qualified, early childhood educators. Each student is challenged academically, preparing them for success while here and beyond. By incorporating these guidelines into our curriculum, we establish the foundation that prepares children for school and life. We believe children are our earth’s precious commodity. From the moment a child is conceived he/she begins a learning journey. I believe children have a greater opportunity to succeed if we, as a people, make the effort to put them first. A good child care and education facility should strive to be informed to the latest early childhood education issues and trends. Children’s guidance should begin with the understanding that all children are not all equal just as we are not all equal. We must strive to teach and care for every child as an individual. It is very important that all children should be educated regardless of gender, age, ethnicity and or social economic status. We welcome diversity because we are all unique. Our philosophy of inclusion…is a very strong one. All children should have access to education regardless of circumstances that are for or against the child and their families. Most of all, we want all children, regardless of financial security, to be able to attend Cela’s Creative Learning Academy, to have a great start in life by experiencing a great early childhood environment and great teaching staff. Furthermore, We believe that if children are cared for and educated by teachers with the utmost genuine care and we make sure that all children develop a strong relationship with us as educators, and secure a relationship with parents, this makes a foundation for a great education program. When a program overlooks or neglects the family’s wishes to comply with their education wishes for their child and the child’s abilities to learn the relationship is forfeited. We should be all about building a relationship with the family and the children.