Our philosophy is to create an effective learning environment that allows for supervised exploration and an individualized approach to enhance each child’s learning ability. Early childhood education is the foundation for learning in a child’s life. The foundation is the basis for learning, teacher experiences, and lasting relationship. Children are constantly developing cognitively, emotionally, and physically and having a secure foundation which allows for that development to increase will have a lasting impression for each child. We believe that the most significant learning occurs in situations that are both meaningful as well as fun. Our responsibility as educators is to provide a warm and safe environment that fosters learning and this type of atmosphere is essential for development. Having a safe environment for children to learn creates trust that will also contribute to exploration.

Individuality is an important concept to have when teaching. Each child has a unique style of learning that can contribute to the classroom and individual progress. Children also come from a variety of cultural backgrounds that add to the uniqueness of the classroom. This learning environment is most effective when there are partnerships and trust developed with the child as well as their family. As a teacher, the importance of effective relationships and communication with families can be very beneficial to the child’s learning and progress. Quality communication can build trust between the lasting relationships that will develop and contribute to the learning environment.

As educators, it is important to be a guide in a stimulating environment that promotes the construction of knowledge and curiosity. There is endless potential that children possess and with some direction and guidance, can provide an opportunity for continuing and growth as well as learning to take place. Our teaching methods will bring out the best in each individual child.

According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) most, researchers agree that play is fun, flexible, voluntary, and intrinsically motivated; it involves active engagement and often incorporates make-believe (Sutton-Smith 2001; Pellegrini 2009; Fisher et al. 2010; Lillard et al. 2013). Guided play maintains the joyful child-directed aspects of free play but adds an additional focus on learning goals through light adult scaffolding (Weisberg et al. 2016). It offers an opportunity for exploration in a context specifically designed to foster a learning goal. As such, it features two crucial elements: child agency (the child directs the learning) and gentle adult guidance to ensure that the child progresses toward the learning goal. Research suggests that guided play is a successful pedagogical tool for educators in a variety of areas (Weisberg et al. 2016). Here, we outline some examples of how guided play can work in the classroom to build specific language, mathematics, and spatial skills.