DISCOVERY BASED LEARNING

We embrace the concepts of discovery-based learning through play, sensory exploration, creative expression, and most importantly making friends and developing social skills.

We believe that children should experience good old outside playtime complete with games, potato sack races, water play, tricycles, and hands on activities to develop confidence in physical capabilities.

All children are born with a developmental and instinctual desire to connect with nature, explore, discover, and learn.  Through a child’s play is the most effective means of accomplishing this. 

Play fosters the growth of healthy children in every aspect of development – physically, cognitively, socially and emotionally.   It really is food for children’s bodies, minds and spirits!

Caregivers at Ka Hana Pono Daycare facilitate learning by inspiring each child’s genuine curiosity and providing the proper balance of of guidance and freedom. 

By building a foundation of loving playfulness and giving each child respect and responsibility, independent choices can be made that inspire the child.  

In addition, Ka Hana Pono Daycare’s focus on Nature/Environment and Creative Arts offers an enhancement to the basic methods of learning & daycare experiences.

Nature/Environmental Awareness:

During the preschool years, it is important to help children discover what has been termed as their ecopsychological self - the child's natural sense of self in relation to the natural world (Phenice & Griffore 2003).  Some authorities believe that if children don't develop a sense of respect and caring for the natural environment during their first few years, they are at risk for never developing such attitudes (Sobel 1996, Wilson 1996).

It is our goal that children will develop the environmental values to become the future stewards of the Earth who will preserve the diversity and wonder of Nature. 

By gently encouraging our young stewards to develop a respect for all life and nature, we are confident that when these children become leaders and decision-makers, they will impress upon their community the importance of protecting their home environment. 

Creative Arts + Music Music Music

Young children enjoy and learn best when all of their senses are engaged. Arts and crafts combine sensory learning and cognitive development with something tangible that can be taken home and remembered.

Music, sculpture, painting, drama, drawing and creative movement are an integral part of our program.  Learning through the arts is an enjoyable way to enhance brain development, support individual learning, and help children prepare for success in life. 

The arts give a child the freedom to explore, make mistakes, to experiment, & most importantly learn from doing. 

We believe the arts can also inspire a child to feel free to invent, create, and find new ways of doing things.

“Research indicates that a child who is exposed to the arts will have a better chance to grow up to be more creative, imaginative, expressive, confident, self-reliant and critically thinking adult."~ International Child Art Foundation.

WHAT CAN CHILDREN LEARN THROUGH GARDENING?

Ka Hana Pono has a beautiful garden filled with fruits and vegetables that fill the curiosity and stomachs of your children.

Children (and adults) are reinvigorated through gardening, and through our ongoing improvements our gardens begin to produce.

The children see their gardens as a sign of love, work and care. It tells others that they focus on this place with their own physical efforts. Its improvement tells something about their own personal endeavors to stay healthy.

This whole child approach allows each child the opportunity for direct interaction with plants and animals while learning the important aspects of care and conservation of our world.

These fundamental concepts promote hands-on learning, environmental responsibility and self-confidence in children:

Children learn basic skills when they observe how weather affects plants; how seeds sprout; how plants grow; how gardeners cope with plant problems; how soil, water and sunshine interact; how butterflies and other insects play a role; 

how the awaited harvest also foreshadows death.

Gardening fosters responsibility in young children by encouraging them to use their hands to prepare the soil, apply fertilizer, sow seeds, remove competing weeds, add water and harvest the crop. These practices are necessary for a plant to grow to its full potential and produce food.

When children accept these responsibilities, we help them to become caring individuals. And when children experience the loss of plants because of neglect, they learn the tragedies of improperly caring for the plants. Through these real-life lessons in gardening, children develop an appreciation for the value of responsibility.

Scientific discovery abounds in gardens. Animals, insects, worms and other creatures are attracted to plants growing in a garden. Children learn by observing the ecosystem in a garden- bees pollinating plants; worms living in the soil and breaking down organic matter, - working in the soil to make it more fertile and plant reproduction.

Worms produce fertilizer and mulch for plants. An ecosystem thrives in a garden and can be observed daily. Observing the process of growth and change enables children to anticipate and be patient, rather than expecting immediate gratification.

Communication channels are developed as an adult explains the natural processes that occur as plants grow and produce food.

Youngsters express their gardening experiences by talking, writing and drawing. 

Evidence of their hard work unfolds before their eyes in the garden and classroom.

Gardening helps children explore the benefits of completing a task and being praised by a caring adult.

Fruits and vegetables are plant-based food products that extend learning when children locate seeds, peelings and other plant parts while they eat.