Our Philosophy on Teaching and Facilitating a Child’s Learning

Through countless experiences in various classrooms, I've learned what great teaching truly looks like and discovered the importance of reaching every single child to help them grow. On this platform, the suggestions we give you about a teaching approach and general ideas about the learning space, the teachers’ voice and the collaboration needed for teaching and learning come from our philosophy. Children are best prepared for school and long-term career success when parents consistently model important habits: emotional regulation, curiosity and problem-solving, language-rich interactions, responsibility, and resiliency. Our philosophy is based on what we believe great teachers do when working with children to help them grow and thrive.

Our fundamental approach to teaching and learning centers on a simple truth, every child has the capacity to learn and develop, and each one deserves access to meaningful educational experiences that nurture this potential. We recognize that children thrive when they are active participants in their own learning journey. Effective teaching creates interactive environments that cultivate curiosity, build resilience, develop critical thinking skills, and foster a sense of belonging, all qualities that research shows are essential for both academic success and learning that extends throughout a lifetime.

As you work through our lesson plans and activities, you will discover countless moments to do all the above. Learning across all content areas is vital to every child's intellectual and emotional growth. We believe that creating a lifelong learner begins with instilling in them a joy for learning, a desire to explore difficult concepts, seek out new information, and dive deeply into topics that genuinely intrigue them.

Being a lifelong learner is a truly special trait. I count myself as one, and I know my sons are as well. The world holds an infinite amount of knowledge waiting to be discovered, and we now have access to more of it than ever before, that is perhaps the greatest gift of the digital age.

Remember, too, that your children will develop their own interests and passions, and they will often want to explore topics that may not excite you as much. That's perfectly fine. Let them lead. Follow their curiosity, give them the space to investigate, plan, and then, teach you something new. There is no greater joy than watching a child become the teacher.

Model calm problem-solving and non-coercive discipline, rather than harsh or angry interactions. Let children try, fail safely and then try again, and again if necessary. Research on your own how many successful people in all walks of life talk about how their failures taught them the most in life. This is documented by CEOs, athletes, artists, authors, and everyone else you can imagine! When a child is sheltered from failing, they never learn to become self-sufficient or feel that they have any agency.

Parents/Teachers Should Model Important Concepts of Organization and Flexibility

I am a punctual person, and I am a bit of a stickler when it comes to being organized.It is difficult to carry out a project, or a cooking lesson, or a field trip, really anything involving children if you don’t have a plan. Can things get off schedule? Of course, and you can still be successful with your plan. However, there are some key parts to plans that must be considered ahead of time, i.e. having all materials to work on a project, or a recipe, etc. Know ahead of time a basic idea of how to carry out the lesson. You can adlib at times, but you need to know the basic plan.Make sure to also plan for your child helping you to clean up afterwards which leads to the next piece of organization.

It is important to have a place for everything. Baskets were one of my best friends in my grade school teaching days.Keep writing materials together, books in a certain area, blocks, and other building types of materials in another area etc. Logically plan out your space so that you can move around and access materials easily. Always make sure the child helps you clean up the area after a lesson, or at the end of the learning day. It would also be fun for then to assist you in setting up the learning space as well.

It is fine to be spontaneous too!My words might make you think that I don’t support spontaneity or out of the box plans. Not so. You can be more successful when trying something that hasn’t been planned specifically, or is spontaneous, and/or comes from a child wanting to know more about a lesson. IF the world around you is organized, i.e. you know where to find materials easily and quickly any lesson will be more successful.

Parents/Teachers Should Allow the Child to Take Responsibility and Should Model Good Work Habits

Early responsibility that is age and developmentally appropriate are linked to better academic outcomes and behavior over time. When children are given clear expectations, and they are asked to be accountable for them, they learn so much about responsibility, planning, and organizing.

Be persistent with them to not give up on a task. Many lessons are difficult the first few times around for a child. They are for us too. Celebrate the effort and nudge them to keep on working on the task.Resiliency is important to growth.

Validate the child’s feelings, not in a “you poor little thing” manner. Validate by saying what you’re observing. “You seem frustrated with this lesson, I understand.Tell me what part is confusing to you.”

Position yourself as the facilitator of learning, not the “boss”. There should be conversations during lessons and room for many questions and clarification.

Life and career success begins with skills like curiosity, persistence, and creativity. Ask questions about their plan as they are working on projects so that they can verbalize action steps. Inviting children to think aloud helps you learn about how they are making sense of complexity.

Model how you are feeling when you are upset. “I’m going to take a few deep breaths and relax before we move forward with this lesson/activity/project.”

Parents/Teachers Should Model Metacognition

If you are working on a puzzle that is a bit difficult, you might say “I think that this puzzle piece might fit here because….” Showing that you are thinking and talking aloud about it helps the child to focus in on their own thinking.

Discuss steps to a plan for a lesson and activity and talk aloud as you are organizing materials and planning the day. You can add in mentions of time if you want.

Monitor what you are doing during the activity/project. Say, “does this make sense to add this now, or do you think that we have enough time for….”

Reflect after the task is complete. Conversation is important for language development and for reviewing, planning, thinking and more.Ask questions about the activity and have them give their opinions.

Give Them Time to Think and Respond

When you ask a child, a question give them time to think about a response and formulate what they want to say.I know that classroom teachers are often guilty of asking a student a question, then waiting 2-3 seconds and moving to a child that they are pretty sure knows the answer and asking them the same question, or saying, “Can you help Michael?What do you think the answer is?”This can be damaging to the first child for many reasons.

I was taught, then practiced and taught my own students that you should give a child about 10 seconds to respond to a question.When we say 10 seconds it sounds like a very short time, however, count it out.Ask a question to yourself, count to 10 in your head or out loud, and then answer.It seems like a lot longer and, of course, a more suitable amount of time for a child to formulate an answer to a question and respond.

The information above reveals a cluster of future-ready skills highlighted by both educators and business leaders. Beyond the well-known markers of grit and growth mindset, key traits include persistence through failure, a powerful confidence builder along with responsibility and accountability. Importantly, most children don't want to be rescued; when adults consistently step in, it erodes autonomy and self-confidence. Responsibility can be cultivated early through age-appropriate expectations. A two-year-old may not yet grasp tidying up, but a five or six-year-old who has been guided consistently should. That consistency is the parent's role and it makes all the difference.