Preschool

Curriculum means a program based on developmentally appropriate activities through play.
While the word curriculum is used for the early child care program, it is not used to represent curriculum as elementary students use it. In school curriculum it describe the skills and concepts to be taught. In early childhood curriculum, it means a program where children are provided for in a nurturing, loving environment where the caregiver responses to the young children's interests and curiosity through play. Therefore the curriculum must be flexible, variable, and adapting, as the child's needs change. Curriculum for the young child is divided into three content areas, that is, knowledge construction, social-emotional relationship building and play development. Knowledge is then broken into four areas of sensori-motor exploration, physical knowledge construction, relational knowledge construction and social knowledge construction.

Importance of Freely Chosen Play

Young children during these early childhood years must be given the opportunities to choose their own toys to play with. It must be freely chosen play. Children will play with toys for longer periods of time if they play with things that they are interested in. Most important to caregivers is not to interrupt children at their play. If they are busy, let them keep at it. When we stop their learning, we reinforce short attention spans. If children are busy creating or experimenting, then the children should be allowed and encouraged to continue to their hearts content. 

Importance of Play

Play begins with children's interests not ours. They learn from their own interests! When children are actively engaged in things that they like, then learning and mastery takes place. They are motivated to master language in order to communicate their thoughts. Children use their play to search for meaning in their world and to make order out of it and to solve problems that they encounter. Children learn social relationships through their play. They are able to develop trusting and secure relationships. It also provides an opportunity for them to learn to get along with others. During play children receive positive and negative responses from the caregiver and develop a sense of self. Therefore learning and mastery of our language, socialization, developing a sense of self and developing trust are all learned through play.