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Child Development Center
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The Child Development Center (CDC) provides full-time care to children ages 6 weeks through 5 years (entering Kindergarten) Monday through Friday from 0600 until 1730. CDC follows the Creative Curriculum philosophy and believes that children learn through play, free flowing creativity, and exploration of their environment. CDC strives to provide children with opportunities to make choices and to experience success in an environment designed to meet all of their developmental needs.
In addition to the infant, toddler and preschool programs we offer, we recently started a pre-K program for Families here at Fort Richardson. This program is called Army Strong Beginnings Pre-K and is one of the initiatives under the Army Family Covenant. Strong Beginnings is a curriculum based approach that will offer more targeted preparation of your children for kindergarten. The Army has taken this measure to ensure that we increase the level of preparedness we provide for your children to be ready for kindergarten. We utilize the Creative Curriculum to include lessons in writing, mathematics and language arts to name a few. Children who participate in Strong Beginnings must meet the age requirement that the Anchorage School District) has for enrollment in Kindergarten at the beginning of each school year (http://www.asdk12.org/aboutasd/faq.asp#kindergarten). The CDC is accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and certified by the Department of the Army per AR 608-10. Each staff member completes a series of comprehensive training addressing every domain of child development (social, emotional, cognitive, language, physical….) to ensure that all children who attend receive care that is developmentally focused, nurturing the overall development of each individual child. A full-time Training and Curriculum Specialist is on staff to support and guide staff through their training process. The Army provides care in a multi-age group setting. Each classroom enrolls children with a minimum age span of 18 months. The concept of the Multi Age classroom is to provide a Family style environment where the children can learn from and nurture each other. Children experience fewer transitions while in the multi-age childcare setting and therefore can bond more closely with caregivers. Children also benefit widely from opportunities to interact with children who are older and younger, learning important principles of citizenship, relationships, respect, patience, and self esteem.
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