How This Preschool Takes Inspiration from the Bamboo Plant

Strong, resilient, and flexible: who knew bamboo was so cool? Find out which preschool instills a bamboo mentality in its students

So it turns out pandas are onto something, mamas: bamboo is a truly amazing plant. It takes a while for it to get ready to grow, but once it gets going – watch out! Its roots shoot out of the soil, and it grows both quickly and efficiently. Another cool factoid: mature bamboo is resistant to environmental threats because it is flexible and has a highly unique support structure that works in concert with other plants.

Wanna know what’s up with this little science lesson? It turns out bamboo is the official symbol of MindChamps PreSchool, because like bamboo, the preparation and development that take place underneath the soil before the bamboo shoots out into the world are every bit as vital to its development as what happens after. MindChamps believes the same goes for its budding young students!

Click through to see five ways MindChamps brings the bamboo metaphor to life through its proprietary curriculum for kiddos 18 months to 6 years old. And mark your calendars for their upcoming Welcome Days, happening at 30 participating centres islandwide in February and March 2019! Click here to book your welcome day tour, mama!

www.mindchamps.org

Much like the bamboo plant, MindChamps PreSchool programmes introduce and nurture key “foundation skills” through its S.M.I.L.E.S.™ curriculum to a cumulative effect. Ultimately, kiddos build up competence and resilience in all key areas of development – they’re ready to shoot out into the world (or at least to primary school)!

S.M.I.L.E.S.™ stands for the ‘Sensory, Motor (Music and Movement), Intellectual, Linguistic, Emotional and Social’ aspects of a preschooler’s development. This core principle holds that young brains, in their formative stages, need all aspects of the mind stimulated simultaneously – and that all activities, even the most mundane, contain the potential for providing experiences that engage all S.M.I.L.E.S.™ elements.

MindChamps believes there are 10 key roots that provide the learning and developmental strategies that underpin a young child’s mind, social and intellectual growth throughout childhood and into adulthood. This begins with building emotional intelligence, including self-confidence, empathy and compassion, from the very start.

Numeracy Strategies are another key root to development at MindChamps, which show children that there are several possible pathways to the final answer. MindChamps preschoolers focus on the process of arriving at an answer, rather than simply memorising algorithms or equations.

Through fun numeracy activities, children come to understand the logic of numbers, structures and patterns. They also come to develop their own written and verbal language responses to number facts and relationships.

MindChamps incorporates a Nature and Environmental Awareness Programme into the curriculum to teach children the important role they can play in protecting the Earth’s ecology. It’s made relatable and accessible through the exploration of themes like “Me, My Family, My Friends, My Community and My World.”

MindChamps has an Education and Life Philosophy of 100% RESPECT and Zero Fear. With the following 10 values, students bloom into high-achieving, confident, and resilient champions:

1. I am Confident
2. I am Grateful
3. I have Integrity
4. I am Self-reflective
5. I Focus on the Beauty in Others
6. I Embrace Setback as SetUps
7. I Value Feedback as a Seed for Growth
8. I am Creative
9. I am Compassionate
10. I am a Lifelong Learner

To find out more about how your child can become a champion, join in an upcoming MindChamps Welcome Day, taking place at 30 participating centres islandwide in February and March 2019! Click here to book your welcome day tour, mama!

www.mindchamps.org