Children don’t need ‘preschools’! They need ‘nurturing environments’ that help enhance their all round growth to give them a lifelong foundation of healthy development.

It is a sad ‘fad’ to make children as young as 2 and 3 years hold a pencil and write letters and numbers. It is sadder that at an age when children have not developed their social skills they are interviewed in the name of education. It is ever sadder when children are packed off to ‘preschools’ that focus only on formal teaching and not on learning life skills.

Jumbo Kids has evolved a unique system of education ‘Kiducation', which means, it follows the child's needs according to the growing developmental stage.
The teachers are taught to reason and question any new/old idea before applying it in the classroom; to think from the point of view of the child’s age and needs.
Old songs, ideas, concepts are removed if they confuse or disturb children. Age old nursery rhymes and fairy tales or folk tales are changed or incorporated  to suit present day needs and to bring about positive teaching with them.

At Jumbo Kids emphasis is on all 5 skills necessary to nurture children, namely –

• Physical skills
• Emotional skills
• Communicative skills
• Cognitive skills
• Social skills

Hence the curriculum at Jumbo Kids is developmentally appropriate - which means, it keeps in mind the developmental stage and need of every child and teaches him/her accordingly. Hence a child is motivated to race against himself/herself and improve past performance and not compete with his/her friends.

A unique method is followed in teaching writing: the use of 3 lines instead of the age old four line method for teaching children writing.

In our playschool the 2 year olds learn the Reggio Emilia way which is a time tested playway method used successfully in many countries over the world. The Reggio approach advocates the hundred ways a child can communicate and the need to learn through experiences.

In our nursery the 3 years olds learn arithmetic and sensorial activities and exercises of practical life through the Montessori method.

In our Junior KG, the four year olds follow the Steiner way using the 3 Rs - Rhythm, Reverence and Repetition, gardening and cooking activities that help them for maths and writing of small letters. We do phonics and elocution which enhances the child's speech and spelling.

In our Senior KG, the five year olds follow the Reggio Emilia method and learn to link things together. They also do sight word reading and sentence reading through the Glenndoman way. They do 2-3 letter words and sentence writing. Addition and Subtraction is also done.

This is how we cultivate nine intelligences in our children: (maybe grouped with the intelligence chart?)

1. Linguistic Intelligence
   Dramatisation, Elocution, Role play.
2. Mathematical and Logical Intelligence
   Science experiments, Science feely box, Puzzles, Shape sorter, cooking, gardening, Montessori equipment.
3. Visual and Spatial Intelligence
   Cutting, Lacing and Scissoring
4. Bodily Kinaeshthetic Intelligence
   Parachute play, music and movement, sand and waterplay, obstacle race.
5. Musical Intelligence
   Interactive charts, sound cylinders, musical instruments and songs.
6. Interpersonal Intelligence                
   Lego and Blocks for constructive group play, clean up time.
7. Intrapersonal Intelligence
   Drama time, Morning Message, Reverence.
8. Spiritual
   Caring for Environment, Sharing.
9. Naturalist
   Gardening, uses of water, no circus/zoo - safari's instead.

Starts with Prayers--

We start the day with the national anthem and before snack time children say a few lines about thanking god for the food. No one religion is given emphasis at Podar Jumbo Kids, all are given equal importance.

• Freeplay - where a child is free to choose his activity this is important as providing choices is good for the pre frontal lobe in the brain and  prefrontal lobe controls functions like decision making etc
• Circle time - where children engage in musical play, rhymes, and finger play rhymes that help in impulse control, listening, eye hand control, reading and sequencing
• Activity time - art activities, drawing, craft, colouring, engaging activities like activity sheets, phonic program, numeracy skills development and literacy skills development etc  for holistic development of all senses and skills
• Snack time - diet activates memory , here children imbibe  table manners and healthy food habits
• Show and tell - a child’s urge to explore his world, his environment and get his millions of questions answered is fulfilled in this part of the day
• Outdoor play - water play, sand play, parachute play and   a host of activities that will develop the child’s growing pro social skills
• Wind up and reverence - talking and sharing about ones day and ending it on a note of relaxation and yoga.

 

Some unique activities at Podar Jumbo Kids -

• Water play - essential for fine motor development and relaxed exploration needs
• Sandplay - essential for eye hand co-ordination, tactile experiences and exploration
• Parachute play - helps develop both the fine and gross motor skills, helps enhance the child’s listening skills and ability to follow instructions. Good also for developing pro social behaviour
• Block play With assorted kids of blocks we help the child  enhance his color, shape size and weight recognition; assisting them in hand-eye co-ordination, sequencing, sorting and more.
• Readers make leaders A special reading corner - specific books that a child can spend his time productively looking at pictures and choosing from a number of international publications as well as Indian children’s literature.
• Glenndoman reading - a time tested internationally acclaimed method to develop sight reading skills
• Yoga - for relaxation, rejuvenation, fun and frolic
• Drama/elocution - enhances the growing language development and expression skills
• Art exploration - with activities like painting, collage, drawing, clay art, spray painting, tissue art, warli art, madhubani and much, much more. Kids will have a ball getting paint all over their hands and fingers.
• Field trips - so essential to support the child’s growing exploration needs about his environment.
• Puppet shows - exposes children to essential language skills, promotes thinking skills , engages them in listening to language and essential conflict resolution skills. Puppets engage all the 9 intelligences and are hence the apt ingredient of an early childhood program
• Role play - will engage children to understand the world, their family, people who help them and aid them in understanding the roles that people play and will also develop a child’s growing symbolic play which will help him with literacy, numeracy and other essential skills.