Primary

The Primary environment provides children two and a half to six years old a splendid opportunity for work and play independently as well as in group settings.

Welcome to our Primary Community!

The Primary environment provides children two and a half to six years old a splendid opportunity for work and play independently as well as in group settings. This program is intended to be a three year cycle and is your child’s first introduction to an academic learning environment. While continuing to provide daily practical life skills, we also enrich each child with math, language, science, geography, sensory/motor and cultural studies. The academic materials are designed to gently lead your child from concrete operations into a slow evolution of abstraction. Each child is able to learn and progress at an individual pace that honors her unique strengths and abilities.

At the end of the three year cycle, children are well-prepared to move forward to first grade. This is not just because of the strong academic foundation they have built but because of the social, physical, and emotional skills gained as well. Our graduates are intrinsically motivated learners with a healthy respect for self, others, and the environment.

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THE PRIMARY COMMUNITY

Primary Program

The child enters the Primary Program beginning at 2.5 years, ideally leaving after Kindergarten to transition into First Grade. In the Primary Program, they begin the three-year cycle.

The Work Cycle

In year one of the primary program, the child receives a plethora of lessons in Practical Life (refined movement of control) and Sensorial (refining the senses). They also build their language skills by engaging in discussions, learning vocabulary and how to classify different objects. These help the children to indirectly build focus and increase their ability to work for longer periods of time.

In year two, the child is acclimated and comfortable with their surroundings (we call this normalized). There is an explosion of interests and therefore lessons/works for the second-year child. They continue to move from concrete to abstract, are able to complete multiple steps, and start to explore phonemic awareness with initial sounds of words and letter sounds. These are all using the cursive alphabet. Cursive is used because it connects with the development of a Primary child’s brain. The movements are left to right/top to bottom, more natural for the child, and help lay the foundation of reading words because the letters in cursive are connected.

Academics

In the final year of the three-year cycle, the child solidifies all their lessons that they have learned by teaching them to younger children. The concepts they have learned transform to memory. They also become the leader of the classroom, being the model for the younger children and building great confidence. The third-year child typically has the ability to do long, detailed works, including writing, beginning reading, as well as numeration/quantity and operations in Math! These skills tend to surpass first grade expectations.

Ancillary Programs

We offer additional ancillary programs throughout the year that further increase your child’s learning enrichment opportunities. These programs include HeroKids Sports, Music Together, Yoga and Sign Language.