Introduction to a Child-Directed Classroom

When I started thinking about building a Faith-based curriculum for the early childhood classroom, my goal was to create a curriculum that would catch the interest of children 0 - kindergarten. See, I have worked in the early childhood classroom for almost two decades and while the goal is at the heart of the curriculum I have seen and used, the interest it has sparked in our young ones is mild and dulled down, at best.

According to NAEYC.org, 2018, "To fully extend America's promise of a world- class education to the next generation, learning must start well before the first day of kindergarten for all children. Our nation can and must do better to create opportunities that help all children and families succeed." All children deserve a solid platform that includes an opportunity to learn, grow, and be ready to enter school at or beyond their state's kindergarten standards. This includes children of all races, socioeconomic backgrounds, exceptionalities, and circumstances. What we have failed to do is to incorporate the promises of the One True God into our weekly curriculums in a way that leaves children hungry for more, wanting to continue to explore and learn what Christ has in store for them through learning and exploring their classroom environments. My vision is to marry a learning-based curriculum with the love of Christ, in order to achieve a curriculum that sparks the interests of our young children to continue to learn and play in a child-directed, Christ-centered classroom.

Don't get me wrong, there are a variety of excellent Christ-centered curricula available for teachers, but many if not most of those available fail miserably to be number one: interactive, and number two: leave children wanting to know more. How can we best instill this excitement in our young ones? By making the material and manipulatives hands-on and exciting! I don't mean by reading a story and pulling out paper puppets on craft sticks, although this may be what some children like and want to explore. What I mean is presenting the Gospel in a more explorative manner in conjunction with learning elements that help engage your students in your learning objectives while getting them excited about Jesus! Including stories and sensory materials, story buckets, role-playing with dressed-up materials, including a variety of mixed media to spark your student's interests, is absolutely necessary. Creating an environment that appeals to learners of various ages, backgrounds, learning styles, and experience is a must!

I hope that you find the weekly lesson plans interesting, unique, and helpful in presenting a variety of ways to spread the Gospel to our young ones and their families. I hope that your goal is to build not only a firm foundation in your state's learning standards but also a way to get children excited about God's promises!

I have included a Teacher's Guide that is full of templates, guides, and helpful hints to get you started. To see a child grow in the love of Christ and build a firm foundation for their future is not just a great experience to be a part of, but it is also why we choose to be educators.