We provide a harmonious and inviting learning environment
designed to be an extension of home
where children can grow, learn and have fun!
~*~
Maplewood offers infant through preschool early education and child care.
Our learning philosophy is tailored to meet the developmental needs of the whole child. We mindfully observe the children in our program, reflect and carefully plan explorations to help each child develop core skills that set the foundation for future learning.
As your child grows with us, we will help them develop into lifelong learners, develop a meaningful relationship with the natural world, and become responsible citizens in a global society. We believe these characteristics evolve by becoming part of a greater community of learners, by observing these traits in their adult educarers, and through the love, care, and education from their family.
At Maplewood, we believe that children are intrinsically motivated to learn and that early childhood away-from-home experiences should be child directed, play-based, and supported by an environment designed to enrich the whole child: mind, body and spirit. We believe forming a partnership with our families can help each child successfully transition into our safe and nurturing home-based education and care program.
We educate our children to become global citizens by including a variety of learning projects aimed at Social Responsibility, Environmental Awareness, and Healthy Living Habits. Embedded in our program are nature-based, eco-friendly, healthy diet, socially responsible and anti-bias multicultural content.
- Our Green Initiative, R-cycle Principles, and Respect of Nature Philosophy expose children to daily living habits so they can begin to internalize an environmental awareness. These eco-conscious practices will be underlying themes in our curriculum, activities, experiences and care routines.
- We provide well-balanced nutritional meals prepared on-site using fresh ingredients. Children are often included in meal planning and preparation. We embrace natural living philosophies and practices.
- It is our aim to help children as they internalize good manners and a respect for themselves and others, as well as establish an internal motivation to be involved in social giveback opportunities.
Our teaching methods reflect best practices in the field of early childhood education and stay current by participating in ongoing professional development. We use research supported methods from the full spectrum of leaders in child development and early childhood education.
– Ms.Bernstein, Director of Education and Programming
. Our
Maplewood’s Story
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Ms. Bernstein began designing Maplewood Child Development Center in Fall of 2004. While the current name, location and space could not have been envisioned in 2004, her standards of education and care alongside her vision for a beautiful environment in which infants toddlers and preschoolers could grow, learn and have fun was already in the making. Ms. Bernstein has had many adventures in a variety of early learning environments and programs over the years. She has pulled upon the strongest qualities of these programs and inspirations from the children, colleagues, and parents who have awed her. Along her journey, through countless adventures Ms. Bernstein has built a team of advisers for Maplewood Child Development Center. She has the support and guidance of Early Childhood Professionals from established program directors to early childhood education consultants, child development and brain researchers, pediatricians and nutritionists, as well as professionals in natural living fields to include master gardeners, environmental activists and LEED certification architects. Through extensive conversation, formal training, academic research and independent study in the field of child development, early childhood education, natural living philosophies, Earth science, and conservation Maplewood was to become a reality. Maplewood’s pilot program begun in Chicago’s University Village by The University of Illinois at Chicago’s UIC campus in a family home while the search began for the ideal space to house infants, toddlers and preschoolers.
In fall of 2014, a single family house in Chicago’s Avondale Neighborhood became a home away from home for the youngest members of Maplewood’s families. Then in fall of 2017 MCDC moved to a single family home in Portage Park, just a short walk from the neighborhood’s namesake, Portage Park itself. Ms. Bernstein has since hosted many My Child and I playgroups for infants and toddlers and classes for their parents or carers, taught early education and child caring classes, as well as provided support and guidance to ECE professionals and parents as an ECE Consultant, Conference Presenter, and Parenting Coach.
Contributions from Clare Caro at The Pikler Collection
Pikler® Pedogogy
Three Principles
- Complete freedom of movement.
- The outstanding importance of tactful and respectful care in the relationship of the infant and the adult caring for him is a less well-known yet important element of the Pikler approach.
- Emmi Pikler proved that it is possible to avoid the harm of institutionalization, by putting aside the traditional caregiving practices common in institutions and applying what she had learned from her experiences with normal families.
Introducing the Piklerian Developmental Approach: History and Principles by Anna Tardos
Four Principles
- The value of independent activity
- The value of a special, favoured, affective relationship and the importance of giving it a form suitable to an institutional setting
- The necessity of fostering the child’s awareness of itself and its environment
- The importance of good physical health as a basis for, and, to some extent, of the proper application of the preceding principles.
“These four principles are of equal importance and it is because they are simultaneously and consistently respected that this educational approach has value. If any were to be neglected, it would jeopardize the experience which the child is being offered.
A fifth principle is fundamental to all the others. For Pikler, the independent development of a young child’s movements (free motricity) as his or her exclusive initiative was at the heart of her new vision of young children and his or her relationship with adults and the surrounding world. It was the importance of this freely initiated movement that was her great discovery, along with the role which these initiatives play in every moment of the life of the young child, in every activity, including the moments of intimacy with the adult.”
Educaring® Approach
Why shouldn’t infants get the very, very best that our society can offer?
PHILOSOPHY
Q: What is the Magda Gerber philosophy of infant care?
Magda Gerber (MG): We have a goal, a desire, as to what kind of human beings we would like to have grow up, and to use one simple word, I think authentic, or two words, competent people who feel good about themselves and realistically trust the world, as I do say realistically, not blindly.
Our approach basically is RESPECT. It sounds like an esoteric word, but there are many ways to put respect into action, which is that you respect the baby’s reactions–you don’t want to change a crying baby into a smiling baby; you know that sometimes they have to cry. And you don’t want them to do what they cannot do and be what they cannot be.
Respectfully Yours: Magda Gerber’s Approach to Professional Infant/Toddler Care, Child Care Video Magazine
the Program for Infant Toddler Caregivers developed Collaboratively by California Department of Education and WestEd
© California Department of Education, 1988 – ISBN 0-8011-0753-9
“A child’s optimal development, the emergence of a secure and positive identity, the ability to think critically and resolve problems, the formation of self-confidence and self-esteem, and even health and maturation rely on beneficial interactions with the natural world. This relationship to environmental systems and processes must occur at home, at school, through personal experience and place-based learning. Children need to experience nature in direct, indirect, and representational ways as an integral part of their everyday lives.”
– Stephen Kellert