Curriculum   At Woodinville Family Preschool, the educators and curriculum teams plan the curriculum to include six major categories of experience for the children: Sensory experiences The more senses a child can involve in a given situation, the more brain activity takes place, and the more complete his/her understanding will be. Preschool experiences are planned where children are encouraged to see, hear, taste, touch, and smell.   Concrete experiences The more a child explores and interacts with real objects, the more meaningful his/her learning will be. Experiences are planned in which real objects are brought into the classroom or in which children are taken to see actual items to be discussed. By having the concrete experience first, a myriad of mental and sensory images will be recalled in later, more abstract situations.   Opportunities for discovery learning The child's learning is more lasting and complete when s/he discovers something for him/herself rather than when s/he is shown or taught something by an adult. Through his/her own exploration, manipulation, and discovery, the child practices and sharpens mental skills that are at a deeper level than rote learning, a comparatively superficial skill. Specifically, s/he becomes adept at problem solving, reasoning, anticipation of consequences, and synthesis of discoveries into concepts. Experiencing the joy of his/her own discoveries provides an affective component to learning that is an essential base for later learning through intrinsic rather than extrinsic motivation.   Opportunities for divergent thinking Perhaps the most essential mental skill contributing to creativity is divergent thinking. Divergent thinking involves the production of many solutions to a given problem. For example, when you provide your child with a large cardboard carton, observe the many schemes s/he contrives for its use – divergent thinking and creativity at work! Providing daily opportunities for the child to practice divergent thinking skills allows him/her to sharpen his/her cognitive and creative powers.   Emergent literacy experiences and mathematical language and concepts Recent research in the field of early literacy development has demonstrated that the foundation for successful writing and reading is rich oral language experience. For this reason, we encourage one-on-one conversations with children, reading stories to individual children during free play, and teaching songs and rhymes that children can do at home as well as at preschool. We offer materials for children to gain experience in art as a foundation for writing, and we share the joy of books as a foundation for reading. Math concepts abound in the classroom environment and curriculum, whether through the grouping of same color chairs around each activity table, the matching or classifying of items, or the use of different shaped blocks to build a structure.     Opportunities for sharing the expertise of parents As a group, parents of preschool children are the greatest possible curriculum resource. They represent many areas of expertise through their hobbies, interests, and professional skills. Fathers, mothers, and extended family members are asked to share with us whenever appropriate and possible. In the multi-day classes we like to visit work sites of parents who are involved in businesses related to our curriculum themes. In all classes, we invite parents to share with the children their jobs, family rituals, or cultural customs. Please share with us - your sharing enriches our community!