PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

It is important to have a physical environment that encourages exploration and the physical development of all the children. Children differ in how quickly they develop their large and fine motor skills. Development occurs in stages, each one building upon the previous ones. The rate of this development is less important than the sequence. At SCC we do not pressure or demand that the children excel at every physical task. The goal is to encourage them to want to become more skillful. Most children are so excited when they learn something new they do it over and over again without any urging.

Gross Motor Skills:

Gross motor control refers to the movements of the large muscles of the body. A child starts developing gross motor control from the moment he is born. The baby begins by learning to control his head and torso. He continues on until he has mastered sitting, crawling, standing and eventually walking, running, jumping and all of the activities that an adult can do. At SCC we assist the babies in this development by giving them plenty of tummy time and space for rolling, scooting and eventually, crawling. We also provide age appropriate toys and equipment for them to manipulate and play with. The staff will also help the babies exercise their body and learn new physical skills.

When the child becomes older, he is still developing his motor skills. Play is crucial for children to fully develop both their gross and fine motor skills. We provide plenty of time for play along with open space and many age appropriate toys to gain physical skills on. Supervised rough and tumble play is also allowed because it can be a helpful form of gross motor exercise for those who enjoy playing this way. Some of the gross motor skills that we help our preschool children increase their proficiency at are, running, jumping, hopping, marching, climbing, throwing a ball and going down a slide. These are all gross motor skills that most preschool age children can do. Without reasonable gross motor skills, children often struggle with the fine motor skills that are required for formal school work.

Fine Motor Skills:

As a baby develops increasingly better control of his arms and legs, he begins to develop other skills, such as grasping, touching, feeding himself, etc. These skills require coordination of eyes and hands or "fine motor development." For preschoolers, the fine motor skills they must learn are much more difficult to master than the gross motor skills. The reason is, fine motor development depends on muscular control, patience, and judgment as well as brain coordination. Some of the fine motor skills that we help our preschool children become proficient at are, pasting objects, matching simple objects, buttoning a shirt and zipping a zipper, building with blocks, stringing beads, doing puzzles, controlling a pencil and crayon well, pouring from a pitcher to a glass, cutting paper into small pieces, and cutting food with a knife and fork. These are all fine motor skills that most preschool children can do.

Sensorial:

The sensorial area of our preschool curriculum refers to the development of the child's sensory faculties. It is important to encourage children to develop all of their senses: sight, touch, hearing, smell and taste. By doing this we are helping the child to classify his environment by discerning qualities that are alike and unalike, how they're different, and the relationship between the similarities and differences. To accomplish this we use resources such as the Montessori color tablets, the sound boxes, fabric boxes, the mystery bag, the smelling bottles, and the knobbed cylinders. We also play games such as, "I Spy", and by sitting at the large front room window and listening to see if we can tell when the next car will be coming by. To help the children explore their sense of touch, smell and taste, we let them cut and pick up their own fruit or hard boiled egg. The more the children use all of their senses, the more areas of the brain that are stimulated to assist them in their learning processes.