No matter how it is said, we sure LOVE our moms! From all of us at JECC, Happy Mother's Day! #preschool #daycare #prek #inclusion #mothersday

How Can Yoga and Mindfulness Benefit My Child? Yoga and meditation are more than just silly postures and sleeping on a yoga mat. Practice in yoga aims to foster self-regulation, play, and motor planning skills in addition to building physical and mental strength and flexibility. Through yoga, learning, social play, and exercise can be encouraged and reinforced !I’ve been teaching yoga to children since 2010, and have seen the myriad of benefits it can have firsthand. In yoga

Looking for a quick, cheap, and mess-free science experiment to do with your preschooler this summer? Try out the classic Ivory Soap experiment this week! Last year during summer camp, this activity led to some very excited and engaged little scientists. Head on over to Happy Hooligans blog for instructions! Happy experimenting! #preschool #summercamp #inclusion #science #prek #childcarecenter #centennial

Our friends over at Curly Clues Club have a great children's book recommendation this week that lines up perfectly with JECC's mission and values! "Good People Everywhere" by Lynea Gillen helps give a starting point to talk with your child about differences among people. It inspires "young children to grow into grateful, caring, and giving" individuals." Check out Curly Clues Club blog to read their recommendation of the book. We will definitley be picking up a copy for here!

It is the Week of the Young Child, as celebrated annually by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)! The week honors "early learning, young children, their teachers and families" and celebrates each day with themes like Music Monday, Tasty Tuesday, Work Together Wednesday, Artsy Thursday, and Family Friday. Today, Joshua Academy thought about all the different ways children learn during meal time. From manners (e.g., passing food to each other),

Today we had a special visitor at Joshua Early Childhood Center! Jane Koerbel has over 30 years of experience in working with children and their families. She has her MA degree in Speech and Language Pathology and has held many different positions in schools, clinics, and private practice. Jane created Curly Clues Club as a desire to share tools with parents to interact with their children in order to teach important social and emotional skills. Each month a new theme is intr

One year ago today we opened the doors at Joshua Early Childhood Center! How time flies! What started as one program with two classrooms has grown into two programs, Joshua Early Intervention and Joshua Academy, and five classrooms total. We are so grateful to the many people that have contributed to our growth and success this past year! Joshua Early Intervention is currently full with a waitlist, but public tours continue to be offered every few months for those interested

As a teacher at Joshua Early Childhood Center, I am most thankful that the environment in which I work is built upon the foundations of acceptance, understanding, and compassion. Coming to JECC and seeing our children play together, work together, and teach one another in an inclusionary setting is a beautiful experience that I feel proud to be apart of. The neurodiversity of our students is what makes JECC so unique and allows us to do the things we do. Every child brings a

***Thanksgiving is quickly approaching, and our preschool will be sharing what we're most thankful for! Multiple teachers will be contributing to this series, and you may even see some of our preschoolers' input! *** Thankful for our students! As teachers, there is a lot of time spent on planning and preparing for the many different things we set out to teach each day. It should be noted, however, that our students are the true teachers! The preschoolers at JECC arrive e

At Joshua Early Childhood Center, there is meaning to everything we do. Whether it be what's hanging on classroom walls, to toys in the classroom, even songs sung during transition time; there is purpose to every single part of the day. One particular classroom feature that has more meaning than one may first think is the sensory bin. Not only does the sensory bin capture our senses through touch and site (sometimes smell, too!), but there is also an abundance of learning tha

We were fortunate enough to have Teddy the Turtle from Centennial's own Carson Nature Center visit our preschoolers here at Joshua Early Childhood Center today! All of the classrooms participated in learning about Teddy's protective shell, how he moves, and what he eats. Then the real fun began when we got to touch Teddy's shell and watch him walk! The kids had a blast! Thanks South Suburban Parks and Recreation for this fun and educational visit! #inclusion #learning #centen