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HCDC's Curriculum Philosophy

We believe the best way to teach children is by providing them with a Christ-based developmentally-appropriate learning environment. Therefore, all activities will be of Christian character and child-oriented with subtle teacher direction. That is why you will not see many, if any, work sheets at our center.

We will supply lots of developmentally-appropriate learning centers and activities for your child to develop cognitively, physically, spiritually, and emotionally/socially. Your child is offered the opportunity for hands-on learning in special areas such as...

• art,
• language,
• dramatic play
• math,
• science/discovery,
• cultural diversity,
• Spanish
• sign language, and
• music.

Special themes,developmental checklists (for 5 day preschool children), and age-group Scope & Sequence rubrix enable the teachers to prepare lesson plans that are tailored to the needs and development of the children. This is another way we make sure all areas of your child's development are covered. Weekly lesson plans, calendars, and daily schedules will be posted on the parent bulletin board in each classroom.

Tools such as daily forms (younger classes), weekly reports, and monthly calendars are sent home to help keep you informed. Our center's monthy E-newsletter, Applesauce Times, will be sent out each month as another point of communication. This is a good source of information for center-wide activities.

A variety of tools are pulled from to provide a well-rounded curriculum. Our Executive Director, Kristi Martin, has a Doctorate of Education and has written many of our curriculum materials based on current educational research. "Useful Seussful, Preschool Reading School" and "Appleseed Bible" are two of her curriculum publications.  In 2011 we are adopted the Core Knowledge curriculum for our PreK classes.  "Appleseed Phonics" is used to supplement the Pre-K classes to prepare them for Harvest Christian Academy's Kindergarten. Dr. Martin's "Useful Suessful, Preschool Reading School" curriculum is used in our T3 classroom to introduce emergent literacy and phonological awaresness to our toddlers. HCDC has been very successful at preparing our students for the challenges of private school.

HCDC teaches our children about Jesus and the Word of God. We use the following four Christian curriculums for the basis of our Bible units and Chapel time:

• Infants - "Baby Beginnings" by Gospel Light
• Tots - "Boz" by David C. Cook Publishing
• PreK - "Appleseed Bible " by Dr. Kristi Martin
• Summer Day Camp - "Metamorphosis" by Willowcreek

These programs are designed to meet all different learning styles and the attention spans of the age group that they target.

We offer exciting Learning Labs for our PreK children during the school year to provide experiential learning experiences. We currently have an art lab, music lab, Dr. Seuss computer lab. HCDC was awarded an Exemplary Education Program (EEP) designation from the Association of Christian Schools International for the preschool music lab that Dr. Martin designed and created.  We plan on adding a Nature Observation Lab in conjunction with a Schoolyard Habitat garden that we plan to get certified by the National Wildlife Federation.  In the fall of 2012 we will add a language arts lab followed by a science lab in the spring.  Preschool labs are offered to Full-Day and School-Day prek children, but not to Half-Day prek children.

To encourage further exploration of enrichment units, field trips are planned for our School-age classes. HCDC also accesses the community for opportunities to bring in volunteers or special programs to supplement our educational units. Small fees might result to support such opportunities. Our school-age programs have field trips sporadically during the school year and features many field trips during the summer. Children must be five years of age and fully potty trained to go on field trips despite the class they are assigned to.