CDC EARLY CHILDHOOD CURRICULUM

“Proclaim and Practice the Love of Christ” 

The St. John Child Development Center goals and objectives are tied to the St. John mission statement “Proclaim and Practice the Love of Christ.”  The curriculum is Christ-centered and developmentally appropriate.  Children and families witness the gospel message through the intentional and natural learning processes. The child’s social, emotional, aesthetic, physical, intellectual, and spiritual development are all enhanced through the eclectic collection of early childhood approaches incorporated in the curriculum at St. John CDC.

The St. John CDC embraces the fact that parents are the child’s primary and most influential teachers.  The faculty and staff partner with the parents of the CDC community to care and enhance learning, providing a Christ-centered intentional environment for optimum development. 

All children have their own unique path of development.  They are gifted by God with abilities to learn at their own rate. The intentional environment at St. John provides for individual focus, rather than a checklist that must be obtained at a certain time.  Lead teachers used Nebraska Learning Guidelines as a framework and a tool to provide a complete curriculum.  One in Christ and our own designed “Faith Stories are used as resources to provide toddler and preschool Christian training. 

Project work (using children’s interests to plan the curriculum), theme-based teaching, and the Reggio Emilia approach (preparing an environment that builds on concepts that children know and inspires new discoveries intentionally) are all used to plan the curriculum.  Eat, Play Grow, a curriculum focusing on healthy eating and physical activity is also used as a resource for each week’s planning. 

Assessment is an important part of teaching at St. John CDC.  The tool, GOLD, is used to assess the children two times per year.  Teachers use the results to intentionally teach to the needs of children and the classroom.  Parents are given results that indicate the individual progress of each child.  This progress is tracked from 18 months to age 5.