Early Childhood Program Essay

Early childhood education plays an important role in the development of children. Most of the parents pay special attention to the type of the early childhood education program. There are several types of them. According to the data of the National Research Council regarding early childhood education, all the early children education programs have the major goal – to develop the skills which include cognitive development, school readiness, social and emotional development. My goal in this paper is to represent one of the early childhood programs which I have visited and to give its full description.
Early childhood education program’s name: The Head Start Program
Location: Connecticut, USA
Main facts about the Head Start Program
For this project I have visited Head Start Program which is provided by the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The Head Start Program is offered to children of 3-5 years old from those families which have low income and cannot allow themselves to pay for education. Parents are also involved in the process of education. They may act both as the educators and as the participants in the program.
This early childhood education program is a federal funded program which is controlled by non-profit agencies such as community action agencies, local education agencies and others.
The Program’s Philosophy. The Head Start Program’s philosophy is concluded in the following principles:
to provide early childhood education which will help to lay the foundation of getting new knowledge at school. It is much easier for those children who have got some skills in early age to make their knowledge more profound in school.
To provide not only academic child’s readiness for school but also physical, social and emotional development.
To help parents to become better teachers for their children.
Description of the Main Program Components. The Head Start Program includes a lot of different components which are used to achieve the major goal of the program – to provide high quality early children education:
There is a special curriculum which consists of various activities and experiences.
Different teaching techniques are used in order to provide flexibility of the program.
This program includes both indoor and outdoor activities for children in the form of the game.
This program makes it possible to encourage children to express their feelings and opinion and to avoid conflicts.
The help of the parents is included in the curriculum plan.
The environment is rich is the language, math, literacy and science elements.
A lot of physical exercises, included in the curriculum plan help to strengthen health of the children.
All the cognitive activities are combined with physical ones in order to make the process of learning more interesting for children.
It is known that about 9,000 children who live in Connecticut took part in this program last year.
I have visited this program and I can say that all the children are divided according to their age (from 3 to 5). There are several age groups. There are some peculiarities in the curriculum plan in each of the groups.
The staff in the Head Start Program acts as partners to parents who take an active part in the educational process of their children.
The staff includes not only the teachers but also other specialists such as a speech language therapist and a physical training specialist. The parents are invited to become Head Start volunteers in order to learn more about the development of their child and to raise their own self-confidence.
I have visited the classroom where there are 15 children of four years old. They attend classes five days a week. They have an extended day classroom. There are special rules in the Head Start center. For example, when the children come to the center in the morning they are greeted by the teachers and they should leave their home things at special place. The children usually sit in a circle and talk about different things the teacher asks them. They learn to express their opinion and develop their communication skills. They usually plan their work. They have an opportunity to choose among the following activities and subjects: arts, math, science, dancing, reading, learning foreign languages, music, singing, playing games, looking at books and pictures, pretending housekeeping and other activities, and so on.
The children have an opportunity to move around because the classroom is rather large. There is a special place in the classroom where the children exhibit their hand works.
There are gymnasium and a dancing hall where the children feel themselves rather comfortable.
The furniture in the classroom corresponds to the special zones: play zone, educational zone, rest zone.
Cooperative learning is supported by various materials.
There is an individual approach to each child in the group. It helps to find out the talents of children. The process of learning is built in such a way that a great deal of time is spent to engage children in cooperative activities.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, I should say that Head Start Program is considered to be an effective one. A lot of children who attended the classes in early age could develop appropriate skills for getting further education at school.