The Early Years

 

EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT CENTER (ECDC)

 

The early childhood years have a great impact on a child’s future development and learning.  It is this belief that motivates the staff of MSJA’s Early Childhood Development Center (ECDC) to work daily toward a safe and nurturing environment that provides developmentally-appropriate educational practices as defined by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

 

          

 

The Mount’s high quality program with a developmentally-appropriate curriculum lays the foundation that young children must have to be successful learners.

We believe that a viable program comes forth from the child and that our task is to create an atmosphere that helps the child interact with, test, integrate and further expand on the world he or she knows. 

 

Each child is a unique person with an individual pattern of timing and growth, as well as an individual personality, learning style and family background.  Learning in young children is the result of interaction between the child’s thoughts and experiences with materials, ideas, and people.

 

Children move through natural, predictable sequences of development and levels of learning.  This provides a framework within which teachers prepare the learning environment and plan experiences. 

 

Our ECDC program serves three, four and five year old children in a multi-age setting.   Children are grouped according to their age by September 15th:

 

 

- Early Learners: 3 year-old children

- Pre-Kindergarten: 4 year-old children

- Kindergarten Prep:5year-old children



UNIVERSAL PRE-K

 

A Universal Pre-K (UPK) Program is open to 4 year-old children who are City of Buffalo residents.  This is a 2 ½ hour program offered tuition-free for eligible children in collaboration with the City of Buffalo Public Schools.  Parents have their choice of enrolling their child(ren) in either a morning or afternoon UPK class, and may extend their child’s day by enrolling in the opposite half-day ECDC program (with tuition applied for the half-day ECDC Program).

 

 

A flexible daily schedule, and staffing ratio of a maximum of 8:1, provides a positive balance of activities and experiences in our multi-age classrooms. 

 

 

The curriculum is based on realistic and age-appropriate expectations and outcomes within a language-rich environment.

KINDERGARTEN PREP:

 

Mount St. Joseph Academy introduced a Kindergarten Prep Program in September, 2003.  Kindergarten Prep follows the MSJA school calendar, and is in session from September through June. 

 

Children who are four years old and born between September 15th and December 31st are eligible for admission to this class. 

 

Kindergarten Prep offers an integrated developmentally appropriate program in a nurturing atmosphere that gets children off to a great start, lays the foundation for young children to be successful learners, and prepares them for a positive and successful school experience.

 

Kindergarten Prep is housed in the School’s Primary Building and is available as follows:

 

Morning Program (five days) 8:05 am - 12: 30 pm (With an optional extra three afternoons per week 11:30 am - 3:00 pm)

 

Full day program (five days) 8:05 am - 3:00 pm

 

The focus of the Kindergarten Prep Program is to provide conceptual and readiness development activities and materials that will allow the student to reach and excel in the Learning Standards developed in the NYS Curriculum Frameworks. 

 

Goals and activities are planned to build on the individual strengths, needs, and interests of the children.

 

For more information: call 883-1515 or email information@msja.org.