This is the Program for Young Children (PYC)…
We are...
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Discovering who we are
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Investigating our world
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Respecting ourselves and others
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Solving problems
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Thinking creatively
Children are strong, competent, and born ready to learn.
This is one of the core beliefs of Reggio Emilia, a movement with roots in post-World War II Italy.
This philosophy inspires our Program for Young Children and informs how we approach academic and social-emotional education. We believe that all children shape their own experiences and have innate rights as contributing members of their families and local communities.
Girls are captains in their own journeys of discovery.
Already equipped with knowledge and curiosity, they arrive at school capable of charting a course created through asking questions and taking in the world with all their senses. Our PYC is designed to support and foster girls’ problem solving, decision-making, and creative thinking skills. Teachers serve as helpful co-captains, listening and responding to girls’ curiosity to provoke learning and encouraging joyful discovery.
Young children ask hundreds of questions a day. We welcome every single one.
Our inquiry-based learning experience allows girls to build the foundational skills necessary for math and literacy competency. Our goal is to develop and expand the dispositions of our skillful problem solvers, so they can apply their learnings to an ever-expanding array of challenges—not only in commonly taught subjects in school, but also in their communities, in their world, and in their lives. Our social-emotional education for young children is built around instilling them with key intellectual behaviors that support critical and creative thought.
Columbia House, a stand-alone building on the CSG campus, was intentionally designed to let children lead their own quests for knowledge.
Whether they’re indoors in classrooms and studio spaces or outdoors in their natural playscape, the girls are inspired adventurers, practicing critical thinking skills and learning how to work with others along the way.
Our 100-acre nature preserve, Cynthia’s Woods, also serves as an outdoor classroom for the students at least one week a year.
Teachers nurture their students’ growth as risk takers, problem solvers, and communicators.
Our teachers in the PYC build vital relationships with students and stay with them during their entire preschool experience. Each classroom in the PYC has a co-teaching team. As students transition to Lower School, they are powerful, thoughtful, imaginative, and learners for life.