Funshine Preschool

Philosophy of Funshine Preschool

3440 22nd St. South Arlington VA 22204

703-521-1090

The philosophy of Funshine Preschool is to provide quality childcare and preschool education for children of working parents.  We provide a stimulating learning environment to meet the individual needs of children and their families.  Our major emphasis is learning through play.  Within our classrooms, children can learn from several settings: learning centers, large group activities, small group activities and individual time with the teacher.  Our learning centers offer choices from areas including easel painting, blocks and props, housekeeping/dramatic play, puzzles, books, music, art, manipulatives, science, sensory exploration, and sand and water play.  Large and small group times are used to foster skill development through songs, games, language development, and fine gross motor activities.  Although we use a thematic approach in our curriculum, our staff is sensitive to follow the interests of the child and allow for spontaneous discovery of the world around us.   

Funshine emphasizes daily activities that supply good and healthy building blocks for self-esteem and self-confidence with the belief that the child will carry this strong self-image through out their lives.  Our qualified staff fosters this strong self-image by encouraging children to talk about themselves and their families.  We teach children to have self-respect and to respect the right of others.  Children are encouraged to “use their words” to express their joy and anger.  We discourage violent and aggressive play and toys that often lead to aggressive behavior such as play guns and other weapons. 

Children typically begin reading when they are close to five or six years of age.  We believe children will learn to read when they are ready.  We use the Whole Language Approach to foster a child's development in reading and writing.  In addition, opportunities for children to learn reading readiness skills such as letter and number recognition, sound/symbol association, language and motor development are provided.  A firm foundation and supportive environment is maintained to promote the social, emotional, physical, and cognitive development of each child.   

Our staff, comprised of teachers and aides, guides the children through activities that stimulate creativity, and encourage independence, problem solving and constructive play with others.  The main focus of our staff is to provide a happy, positive, loving, warm environment for the children they care for each day.