TNT Kidz Center
What is our Approach?
We believe it is very important for all of our families to understand our Core Beliefs and Philosophies regarding Early Childhood Education. As always, it is our intent to be as transparant as possible regarding all aspects of daily interaction that occur at the center between teachers and students.
This page highlights several different articles that we require all of our families to read. It is our goal to create a cohesive and consistent team with all of our families to support each individual student on their developmental journey.
We are a Risk Based Center
What is a Risk Based Center? We believe learning to assess risk is an essential life skill. The ability for adults to take calculated risks has its roots in early childhood. While we live in an era of limiting risk taking by children, we believe this is counterintuitive to their development. We believe in giving children the freedom to take healthy risks while building their independence and self confidence.
For more information please read the article on Risk Based Play.
Play Based Curriculum
High quality early childhood programs teach children to think creatively so they may succeed in a complex and ever-changing world. Purposeful play is developmentally appropriate and a significant element of any early childhood program. The following emphasizes the importance of play in a child’s intellectual, social, emotional and physical development. Play is a way of learning for children. During a typical day there will be structured and unstructured periods, enabling children to learn through at their own rate.
Values that support learning through play include: Children are viewed as thinkers, reflecting about their world.
Purposeful play is when children learn through the process of their efforts. Children gain knowledge by building on a path of ever increasing knowledge. Children are encouraged to make choices and practice individual decision-making.
All of our programs utilize Play Based Curriculum. For more information please read the Play Based Curriculum Article.
How do we Handle Challenging Behaviors?
We utilize a Nurtured Heart Approach when handling challenging behaviors. The Nurtured Heart Approach® (NHA) is more than just a parenting or educator behavior management strategy. It is a philosophy for creating healthy relationships with the people in your life. Originally created by Howard Glasser in 1992, NHA is being successfully implemented through families, classrooms, foster care, health care professionals, social workers and criminal justice organizations that are seeking successful, early intervention techniques.
The Nurtured Heart Approach consists of a set of strategies that assists children in further developing
their self-regulation and has been found effective with children of all ages. It focuses on transforming
the way children perceive themselves, their caregivers and the world around them. Children learn to
understand that they will receive endless amounts of praise, energy, recognition and reward through
the positive behavior they display and this supports children to build a positive portfolio of themselves,
which we call “Inner WealthTM.”
For more information on the Nutured Heart Approach, please read this article and watch the video below.
We are an ALL Weather School!!!
As parents, caregivers and educators, we feel it is very important to encourage children to play outside in the rain and allow them to receive the many benefits of doing so.
For more information on the Benefits of being an All Weather School, please read this article.
*For more information as it relates to philosophies in individual classrooms, please read the corresponding classes welcome letters found under the programs tab in the menu above*
