Cherry Trees Kindergarten

The kindergarten age is one of the most important phases in a person’s life.  In a young child’s smile and laughter you can see the joy and challenge of learning to play, of first finding friends and of discovering the shape of the world.  So much is achieved during this important bridge between home and school.  As children of this age are so sensitive to their environment, both physical and emotional, it is important that they are given the chance to develop in harmonious, beautiful surroundings that are worthy of imitation.  This is one of the first criteria of our kindergarten, and is reflected in the atmosphere of the kindergarten room, the quality of our toys and materials and most importantly in the example the teachers give.

Perhaps the truest reflection of successful kindergarten work comes in the quality and imagination of the children’s play.  Shells or conkers that a child picks up may be tea and biscuits for friends one moment, the tickets for a ride in a bus of lined up chairs the next, or gifts given to a princess: they are a bridge to different lands.  Imitation of adults and friends gradually transforms into a fantasy and play that becomes one of the most distinctive aspects of in the emergence of each child’s individuality.

The fluid active imagination expressed here is a delicate gift.  It deserves time and caring space for its development and is easily hampered through over stimulation, or too early fixation in the abstract alphabet of formal learning.  Once won, though, the nurtured imagination forms a real foundation for intellectual development and the creative, flexible thinking skills needed in adult life.

We believe that what the child experiences through a deep watching and listening, and then trying things out, is better than any formal learning in the years before school begins.