The primary goal of Penn Family Early Childhood Center is to facilitate, strengthen, and encourage the social, emotional, intellectual, physical, and Jewish life of the young child. The program teaches the whole child by providing activities that emphasize literacy and language (reading readiness), math, science, and motor skill development (fine, gross and graphomotor), including dramatic play, cooking, music, movement, woodworking, art, and block building.
We strive to provide a program that is developmentally appropriate for every child. We believe that young children learn best through play and that the educators’ role is primarily to provide support so that the child’s play becomes as constructive and elaborate as possible. Penn Family ECC program offers many opportunities for play and active exploration within a clearly defined, challenging, non-competitive and nurturing environment. Play is balanced with educator-directed learning moments. Skills spiral throughout the years and those emphasized are carefully selected with developmentally appropriate goals in mind.
At Penn Family ECC, we believe that each child is unique, with his or her own individual pattern and timing of growth as well as individual personality, learning style, and family background. Both our curricula and our interactions with children are responsive to these individual differences. We believe that children are born with a built-in capacity for growth and naturally seek stimulation and variety. Young children learn best through concrete experiences and active participation.
Oral language development is at the core of all our curricula, both secular and Judaic. We work with each child to meet them where they are in their language development and to enhance and enrich their ability to receive language and to express themselves using language. As educators, we know that these skills form the foundation of all later learning. Through rich language and literacy activities, we provide students with experiences they need to be ready to read and, more importantly, ready to learn about the world of literature.
Children at Penn Family ECC learn about their Jewish identity and, through this learning, they take pride in being Jewish. We teach them through daily experiences, rituals, and traditions that define us as a community. Children recite brakhot, listen to Torah stories, and celebrate Shabbat weekly and holidays as they occur. As a community, we aspire to connect our students to Israel and its importance to our people. Children as young as two learn about the Land of Israel through concrete visual, auditory, and tactile experiences. Our social skills curricula reflect the Jewish values of Gemilut Hasadim (acting with loving kindness), Hakhnasat Orhim (welcoming guests), Bikkur Holim (visiting the sick), Bal Tash’hit (not wasting), and Tikkun Olam (repairing the world).
We are a community that listens. We invite communication from parents that helps us know the developmental capacities of their young children, and we share ideas and knowledge with parents to help them understand and support their children’s intellectual, social, and physical growth at home.
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Penn Family ECC encourages parents to take part in the life of the school and synagogue in a variety of ways both in and out of the classroom. In the classroom, parents share celebrations, parent-teacher conferences, and activities such as cooking. Outside the classroom, parents volunteer to help in a myriad of ways, including-serving as Penn Family ECC class representatives, editing the yearbook, and planning events such as the Winter Benefit, Tikkun Olam initiatives, and Vicki K. Wimpfheimer Mitzvah Day.