Arcadia, CA
B'Nai Simcha Jewish Community Preschool

B'nai Simcha is a developmental preschool. We encourage children to explore the world while developing small and large muscle coordination, eye-hand coordination, language skills, and a strong sense of self esteem. We want to help children learn that they are capable of working independently, that there are appropriate times and ways to ask for help, and that they can successfully work in group situations while still getting their individual needs met. We want children to experience a wide variety of activities including art, music, movement, water play, manipulative play (i.e. building sets, puzzles, etc.), stories and quiet time. We combine teacher directed activities and child-led interactive play.

When planning the Judaic content of our program we consider both the differences (Conservative, Reform, Orthodox, and secular) and the similarities of the children and families we serve. Our approach is total integration - there are no "Jewish" times or "secular" times. Our goal is to present a program in which developing a Jewish identity is a natural and enjoyable process. We emphasize the rituals as children love tradition and routine, lighting the Shabbat candles each week or decorating a Succah each year are reassuring to children.

A great deal of a child's early years are spent organizing the world around him/her and seeing how he/she fits into it. A child will succeed in school if he/she has good self-esteem and self confidence, understands that there is cause and effect to his/her actions, can participate in a group setting and focus attention to follow directions when presented to an entire group, and knows how to appropriately obtain help when needed. These are the goals of our program which we achieve by placing the children in situations where they can face new challenges, where they are presented with a wide array of experiences geared to their level of expected competency and by avoiding situations that would prove to be overly frustrating by requiring skills and knowledge not yet within their grasp.

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