Pleasant Valley Children's Center

PVCC is dedicated to nurturing "The Whole Child" by supporting their language, social, emotional and physical development. Our curriculum emphasizes social skills, creativity and positive self-esteem through a variety of loosely structured play and teacher-directed activities such as Circle Time, Music & Movement and Science & Nature. Our teachers have a clear understanding of childhood development and can guide children and counsel parents accordingly.

We are small by design, allowing us to maintain a child-to-teacher ratio of never more than 8 to 1. This means children receive lots of individual attention and everyone can get to know each other well. The center has one large main room which we have broken up into smaller cozy spaces to create a variety of play areas, a play kitchen, a block corner, art table, reading area, water or bead table and a table for using small manipulatives.

We have a variety of small classroom pets throughout the year such as: goldfish, butterflies, a rabbit and visiting frogs and salamanders. The center also has a full kitchen that teachers and parents use for preparing snacks, special baking projects or making such things as play dough. Cooking with the children is an important part of our curriculum.

This arrangement creates a safe, relaxed and enriching environment that is "Family Friendly." In practical terms, this means many small things. We are flexible. For instance, we do not require children to be toilet trained before entering preschool. Experience shows that children achieve developmental milestones with gentle encouragement in a relaxed and supportive environment focusing on success rather than failure.

Moving outside, PVCC has a fenced-in playground with a large sandbox area, climbing equipment and ample room to run around and play with outdoor toys.

Daily activities are often connected to the community and the simple activities of daily life such as, visiting the post office, fire department, local hospital or town hall. We take several field trips beyond the local area during the school year to an apple orchard, pumpkin patch or other places of interest. Parents will be asked to volunteer to drive for some of these trips. Parents who have a special field of interest or whose workplace would make a good field trip destination are invited to suggest these to the teacher.

The seasons and the changes they bring are also reflected in our activities, such as, using colored fall leaves or flowers in the spring for crafts. These activities help small children understand the changes going on around them and the ways in which things fits together. Children may use their "Free-Play" time for this kind of special activity that teachers have arranged for the day or may simply play with the other children and toys of their choice.