Mission/Vision Statement
The Union City Day Care Program’s mission is to provide a safe healthy, nurturing, and stimulating learning environment to all children in attendance. Our Program embraces cultural diversity and fosters a love of learning in all children so that they can become self-directed learners and productive community members.
Our vision is to promote the development and individuality of each child by providing a variety of activities geared to the age and developmental level of the child and by implementing strategies and techniques supported by developmentally appropriate practices in their curriculum.
These activities encourage the development of skill in the following areas:
- Gross Motor
- Fine Motor
- Self Help
- Social/Emotional
- Language
- Cognitive
Our Philosophy
T. Berry Brazelton and Abraham Maslow believed that children need their basic needs met, which include safety, belonging and esteem. The Union City Day Care Program is designed to provide age-appropriate high-quality care for all enrolled children. The Primary focus of the program is providing nurturing care and developmental stimulation for children in a safe and warm environment. It is supplemented by good nutrition, health and family support services.
The program’s philosophy, as it applies to the methods advocated for the adult/child interaction, is based upon a confluent model encompassing theories of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky (cognitive development) and Erik Erickson and Stanley Greenspan (social/emotional) development.
The Program’s goal encourages the development of the whole child – socially, emotionally, physically and intellectually - by providing a wide variety of rich, first-hand experiences. The objectives used to reach the program’s primary goals include encouraging the child to learn through play and participating in scheduled hands-on activities.
Children are encouraged to be creative and discover their surroundings. They receive support in their efforts to explore and wonder in order to create enthusiasm for future learning.
The Program provides this kind of early stimulation by fostering knowledge about the world thus adding to the child’s sense of security and confidence, and giving more extensive networks of associations that children can bring to the abstract symbols in which schooling later relies on.
With regard to emotional development, the program provides opportunities for each child to develop feeling that:
- I am a separate and unique individual.
- I know I have value and worth because my teachers enjoy, understand and respect my person.
- I can be different and it’s okay.
- I am cherished even when my behavior had to be limited.
