Our Creative Caring programs are modeled on the evidenced-based High Scope Educational Research Foundation Active Learning Curriculum.

Active learning is a term that describes the interactive process between the child as learner and the environment. Real learning-active learning-takes place when children see how something is done and them do it for themselves. In active learning, the proper role of adults is to support and challenge their thinking. It means that adults first validate, or support, what children already know, and then challenge them to extend their thinking to the next level.

Our Creative Caring active learning approach is also designed to enhance school readiness for children by providing children with play-oriented, exploratory activities that allow children to make choices, and participate at their own developmental level.

Components of the Creative Caring Curriculum

The Plan-Do-Review components of our Infant-Toddler and our Pre-School programs are important components in the High Scope model for child development and are also what makes the Creative Caring programs stand out from other child care centers.

Plan-Do-Review.
This process involves all the elements of active participatory learning. The abilities children develop as they take initiative, solve problems, work with others, and build knowledge and skills carry over into their subsequent schooling and even into their lifetime patterns of thought and action.

Planning time.The planning part, which takes about 10-15 minutes, begins the plan-do-review sequence. This three-part sequence includes a 10- to 15-minute period during which children plan what they want to do during work time (the area to visit, materials to use, and friends to play with); a 45- to 60-minute work time for children to carry out their plans (or shift to new activities that interest them); and another 10- to 15-minute period for reviewing and recalling with an adult and other children what they've done and learned.

Work time. This is the "Do" of Plan-Do-Review. This is where children carry out their plans. This part generally lasts 45-60 minutes. We call this "work time" because play is really a child's version of work. Calling this segment 'work time' honors the importance of play for children. However, our 'work time" is more purposeful, since our pre-school children have thought about and described their intentions ahead of time. In the course of their play, they encounter interesting challenges and are thus faced with opportunities to solve problems. This play-as-work approach stimulates and fosters child development and learning.

Review time. The Creative Caring pre-school program has a designated 'recall' time, which lasts 10-15 minutes. Children are encouraged to reflect on their actions and what they are learning throughout the day. For pre-schoolers, it is easiest to remember what happened when recall is as close as possible to the actual event.

The Benefits of Plan-Do-Review.
The Creative Caring Plan-Do-Review process is one of the main reasons our pre-school program is fundamentally different from traditional pre-school programs. Most pre-school programs offer 'free choice' activities that are unstructured and have little purpose to them. With Plan-Do-Review, children make plans and then act with purpose and intention to develop specific ideas about what they want to do and how they will do it. During recall time, children take time to think not only about what they did, but also about what they learned. Recall also makes it more likely that the lessons children are learning will be lasting and applied to future actions and interactions. This encourages and fosters child development and learning on a much higher level than what is found at traditional pre-school programs.

Planning provides the following developmental benefits to children: Encourages children to communicate their ideas, choices and decisions. Because adults value their plans, children are eager and motivated to share them. Promotes children's confidence and sense of control. Children come to rely on their own capacity to make decisions, solve problems and turn their ideas into reality. Leads to involvement in and concentration on play. Children who plan engage in more purposeful play and concentrate for longer periods of time than those who do not. Planning creates an adult-child partnership. The child supplies the ideas and the intentions and the adult encourages the child to think about how they will carry them out.

Doing provides the following developmental benefits to children: Enables children to participate in a social setting. As they work, children naturally come together in pairs and groups of different sizes. Provides many opportunities to solve problems. As children develop solutions, either alone or with assistance from adults and playmates, they come to see themselves as competent problem-solvers. Enables children to construct their own knowledge and build new skills. As children develop a new understanding of the world of things and people, they expand their knowledge and skills in literacy, math, science, art and music. Allows adults to observe, learn from, and support children's play. By observing, supporting, and entering into child's play, adults gain insights into each child's development.

Recalling provides the following developmental benefits to children: Exercises children's capacities to form and talk about mental images. Recall encourages children to mentally picture and express their ideas about past events. Consolidates children's understanding of experiences and events. Recall helps children examine their choices and actions and effects these have on objects and people. Extends children's awareness beyond the present. By helping them think about past events and how they were affected by them, Recall enables them to build on what they've already learned and apply it to new experiences. Makes children's experiences available for sharing with others. Recall becomes a shared understanding that helps children develop a sense of trust in their small community.