Programs Offered
Love Learning Center offers a full-time program for children ages 12 months-Pre-Kindergarten.
Waddlers (One Year Olds):​
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Our Ones are provided a variety of age appropriate activities. They are introduced to new knowledge and milestones through PLAY and hands-on activities! Learning is provided through indoor/outdoor play, music and movement, art, and sensory exploration. Teachers encourage children to explore and enhance autonomy and independence while providing several activities to develop fine motor and gross motor skills.
Tiny Tots (Two Year Olds):
Our two-year-olds are provided a fun, engaging, and educational curriculum similar to our one-year-olds. They are offered a variety of developmentally appropriate activities in which they enhance their fine and gross motor skills, while developing socially, emotionally, and cognitively. Teachers guide and encourage the children to explore independently, while exposing them to colors, shapes, numbers, letters, days of the week/months, art, etc. Our two-year-olds are encouraged to be independent, self-sufficient, and will develop strong problem solving skills.
Explorers (Three Year Olds):
Our three-year-olds are continuing to develop their social/emotional, cognitive, language and motor skills. Teachers increase their focus on math, literacy, and problem-solving. Teachers provide more exposure and opportunities for literacy development as children become more interested in reading and writing. Children are given endless opportunities to develop the skills they'll need to write, draw, read, and understand numbers and quantity. Teachers encourage children to be independent and work at their own pace, while navigating some of their first true friendships and learning to work together.
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Pre-Kindergarten (Four/Five Year Olds):
Our Pre-K children continue to grow and develop through play, hands-on learning, and engaging instruction. They continue to learn in developmentally appropriate ways, while we encourage them to develop a love for learning new things and new skills. Pre-K children are provided with more opportunities to become lifelong readers, writers, scientists, problem-solvers, freethinkers, and mathematicians. They will be PREPARED for kindergarten- socially, emotionally, cognitively, and physically...and they will be EXCITED for the transition!
Curriculum
Love Learning Center Ballentine uses the South Carolina Early Learning Standards to guide our teaching, as well as a way to observe and growth and development.
We believe the best way for children to learn is through hands-on experiences, engaging provocations, and through play, rather than relying on traditional direct instruction.
We believe it is extremely important to focus on the WHOLE child and ALL areas of development, rather than prioritizing academics alone.
We prioritize independence, self-confidence, and forming relationships among children, teachers, and families.
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More Information from the Standards:
"The SC-ELS Goals and Developmental Indicators describe expectations for what children will learn, starting with infancy and covering all ages through kindergarten entry.
The Goals and Developmental Indicators are divided into six domains:
• Approaches to Play and Learning (APL)
• Emotional and Social Development (ESD)
• Health and Physical Development (HPD) • Language Development and Communication (LDC)
• Mathematical Thinking and Expression (MTE)
• Cognitive Development (CD)
All six of the domains are essential components in the SCELS because all children develop differently. All domains are equally important and overlap is to be expected. The overlap is needed because children’s development and learning are integrated or interrelated. The progress that a child makes in one domain is related to the progress he or she makes in other domains. For example, as a child interacts with adults (i.e., Social Development), she/he learns new words (i.e., Language Development) that helps her/him understand new concepts (i.e., Cognitive Development). Therefore, it is essential that the SCELS address all six domains, and that teachers and caregivers who use the SC-ELS realize that all six domains are related and should not be considered independently from one another."
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Source: South Carolina Early Learning Standards
If you'd like more information about the SCELS & the benefits of play, please check out the links below!
The Value of Scribbling
Before we become writers, we must scribble!
Here are some masterpieces and writing samples to show how we develop writing skills at Love Learning Center Ballentine!
Scribbling is not meaningless...it is absolutely
essential for the development of writing skills.
There are certain writing strokes, shapes, and patterns within a child's writing development that form consistently among the majority of children (for example, a horizontal line, a vertical line, a circle, intersecting lines, triangles, suns, swirls, round human figures, etc.). These are ALL patterns in a child's scribbling and drawing that come before and during the time they are writing their name or trying to write letters on their own. These strokes and movements eventually lead them to copy, or imitate, the letters of the alphabet in their writing and drawing. It is often not necessary to force children to complete tracing worksheets or to force them to write their name before they are ready, especially if we are documenting and keeping track of their writing samples.
At love Learning Center Ballentine, we do not believe it is developmentally appropriate for children to be expected to complete any type of worksheet in preschool.
