Sweet Pea's Child Development Center

WELCOME TO Sweet Pea's Choosing Sweet Pea's for your child is one of the most important decisions you will ever make. The years your children will spend here are crucial. It is during these years that children form their personalities, and they develop attitudes about themselves, about others and about life. At Sweet Pea's we focus on these developments, which will set the pattern for the rest of your children’s lives. Sweet Pea's is deliberately located in our home. We take pride in the homelike, non-institutional atmosphere here. In our school we focus on loving and enjoying one another, and discovering about the world we live in. We consider ourselves partners with you in helping your children be safe, healthy and aware of all the wonders of life. We consider ourselves an extension of your home and we welcome you gladly into ours. We believe it to be the responsibility of all adults to safeguard children. This means communicating with one another and understanding the best interests of children. We are involved in the lives of your children and we believe that what happens at home and the relationships between you and your children and their friends and families are critical to your children’s ability to function here in a group setting. Talk to us. We want to know about the happy things, the “boo-hoos” and the developmental “victories” they experience at home. We welcome you to the family of Sweet Pea's. Share with us. Bring your ideas, talents and concerns. Work with us toward our common goal: healthy, happy and safe children. They are the hope of our future.
MAJOR GOALS To build a positive self-image. To develop self reliance. To develop positive social interaction. To enhance cognitive growth and positive attitudes toward learning. To develop constructive decision-making patterns. To learn appreciation of other human beings both like and unlike themselves. To find personal growth through emotional expression. To stimulate physical development within the personal limits of each child.
READINESS ACTIVITIES Although Sweet Pea's does not stress academic achievement at the preschool level, we do recognize the need to provide children with mentally stimulating and concept building activities. Tasks which require remembering, classifying, ordering matching and verbalization are the groundwork for later learning. Concepts including symbols, letters, numbers, shapes and colors are explored and experienced. Children are also encouraged to develop their physical motor abilities: such as hand-eye coordination, visual perception and small muscle skills.
	ART The purpose of art at Sweet Pea's is to expose the child to various media. The experience of doing is important, not the finished product. Using and experiencing different shapes, colors and texture is the process by which learning occurs. Crafts are a different activity planned to teach the child to follow instructions or to learn a particular skill. We want each child to appreciate his own unique creation. It may look like a piece of crumpled tissue paper to an adult, but it is very important to him. He wants to see you recognize it.
LANGUAGE ARTS AND DRAMATIC PLAY Mastery of the spoken English language makes learning everything so much easier. Dramatic play allows the child to experience various roles and try out new identities. It also has a therapeutic value as it provides a safe outlet for acting out fantasies and fears.
MUSIC AND DANCE Music is another basic part of your child's pre-school experience. At Sweet Pea's your child will be exposed to such concepts as rhythm, creative movement, language development, voice and body control, auditory discrimination and listening skills.
SCIENCE Science teaches your child how to learn. Not how to be taught, but how to learn! He asks questions, and finds alternative solutions. He devises, tests, experiments. He observes the effect of what he does. Planned science activities occur during "Focus", but "what if" is the best teacher of all, and children are encouraged to discover. DISCIPLINE We use a variety of techniques to teach children to control their own behavior. We respect the individual differences among the children that exist as a result of both heredity and environment. Difficult behavior doesn’t mean that the child is intentionally misbehaving or that the adult is inadequate. Usually it’s merely a child testing the boundaries of what’s okay and what’s not. Our goal is to teach the child the boundaries in a consistent fashion so the child can stop testing them and learn to trust them. We use natural and logical consequences for misbehavior. If a child throws food, he leaves the table after he picks it up. If a child deliberately rams a tricycle into another child, he loses the privilege of riding it. We set effective limits, tell the children what they are, and consistently reinforce them. The limits don’t change at Sweet Pea's.