The Sunday Mail
A first of its kind pre-school — Capital Kids — will open doors next term with an introduction of a unique curriculum programme –Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) aimed at exposing children as young as three years to science and technology.
Capital Kids director Ms Monica Chiunda said STEM will help young children to be scientifically minded and be able to determine what career path they would like to pursue from a tender age.
The Sunday Mail Bridge toured the preschool in Eastlea, which is fully equipped with the latest technological gadgets that will help the kids to play and learn. In the science class, there are all forms of microscopes, telescopes, experiment kits and kid sized test tubes while the Math and Engineering classes have math manipulatives, structure and building blocks.
The kids will also be exposed to the latest computers and tablets which have 50 and 20 pre-school programmes as well as a variety of LeapFrog products and smart boards, projectors and TVs.
Ms Chiunda said all the equipment was recently imported from the United States as the pre-school strives to offer world class learning experience for children.
She added : “Capital Kids has an extensive kid’s video and book library for all ages served at this facility. All these facilities are aimed at equipping the kids with the latest technology to enable them to learn while they are also playing. By the time these children get to five, they will be exposed and develop a passion for academic fields they would love to pursue at university.”
But apart from having a science and technology bias, the preschool will also offer junior drum sets, kid size acoustic guitars, keyboards, tambourines, maracas and music players. There is also a facility for outdoor play areas which feature a modern swing set that accommodates 10 kids at a time, a sandbox, basketball hoops, and a geometric dome. Scooters and a variety of other outdoor games are also available.
“Our teachers help students with homework and offer supervised play after all school work is done. We offer Chess, Scrabble, Rummikub, Monopoly and lots of board games. A video library is also at their disposal. Our class sizes are small in order to better focus on individual needs and to measure progress,” she said.
Ms Chiunda further explained that children aged between two and three years will be taught communicate and self-play and group play to encourage sharing. This is when they also start learning alphabets, numbers and science through play, music and videos.
At the age of four, the kids will be learning to count and learn letters of the alphabet and identify numbers and letters while at five years the pre-k class is more advanced than both the preschool classes.
“Activities involving addition and subtraction are introduced. Advanced verbal communication skills and learning new words takes shape. Social development increases and working in groups bring better outcomes and is much more tolerated. Science experiments and more hands-on projects become easier to deal with,” said Ms Chiunda.
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