Parkside Preschool and Daycare in Chico

More Opportunities to Learn and Grow!

In addition to our standard theme based curriculum, Parkside offers enrichment programs that allow all age groups to learn while playing and exploring creative outlets.  We do add new programs periodically as the children’s interests change and new opportunities present themselves.

• Yoga
• Gymnastics
• Cooking and Nutrition Classes
• Spanish
• Sign Language
• Music
• Physical fitness (everything from dance to basketball)
• Gardening
• Park Walks and Exploration

To learn more about the programs available for each age group at Parkside arrange a visit to talk with our school director.  Here are some highlights and benefits of the programs.

Yoga (with Maureen Crowley)

Maureen Recieved her yoga teaching certification from the Santa Barbara Yoga Center. She is now bringing to the North State her "heart centered" approach to teaching yoga. For more information about her program visit http://www.yogadreams.com/

Here in her own words are the "Top 5 Benefits of Children's Yoga:

1. Encourages creativity & imaginative thinking
2. Develops balance, focus, & strength
3. Teaches body awareness & healthy lifestyle choices
4. Offers a non-competitive environment to exercise & grow

 Gymnastics (with Maria King)

Maria, formerly at Athletics Horizons, is now teaching gymnastics to our Parkside kids. Her qualifications are impressive!  She competed in gymnastics for 10 years (age 7-17) and has been coaching gymnastics for 16 years (ages 18 months to adults). 

Gymnastics is a creative sport for children that builds positive self-esteem in a child and helps him feel good when achieving goals. Gymnastics provides a way to exert energy and build physical fitness.  Starting at a young age, gymnastics will positively affect a child's growth and development.

Gymnastics helps prepare young children for school, "Gymnastics and early childhood movement education is directly attributed to developing neurological pathways in students and promoting reading readiness.”  Gymnastics also has been found to increase the attention span and communication skills in children. These are two skills necessary to succeed in school.

Cooking

The Cooking classes are intended to help children learn some basic concepts of good nutrition and to help children enjoy preparing food.

The second aim of cooking classes it to help young children develop "readiness skills", such as vocabulary and language development, understanding of numbers and letters, and small muscle coordination

It is encouraging to see children grow in self-confidence as they learn to do this grown-up thing...cooking!

Spanish (with Isela Camillo)

Miss Isela is now teaching Spanish to our children. The Parkside kids will be exposed to music, colors, numbers, alphabet, basic human body parts, common phrases and greetings, and stories.

Learning a second language not only provides the benefits of being more competitive in a global economy but research shows that learning Spanish also improves reading, vocabulary and comprehension in English. In addition, learning Spanish has been shown to improve math abilities.  Learning a second language is amazingly stimulating for the brain and may help a child’s development in many social and academic areas.

Art (with Carob Bradlyn)

Miss Carob is teaching the Discovery Club kids to utilize the basic elements of art (i.e. line, color, line, shape, pattern, and texture.  Her lessons encourage creativity and self-expression while giving children a sense of accomplishment; improving concentration and fine motor skills; confidence building. Miss Carob was recently hired to teach art at Inspire, a local charter high school.

Mr. Jake’s Music (with Jacob Sprecher) Mr. Jake, a Chico based music teacher, and drummer of the “Yule Logs”, enriches our preschool fine arts program with his love of the tonal art. Music is a beautiful, creative world of sound, culture and history, not the least of which is beyond 2-5 year-olds capacity and interests. They are capable of and hungry for so much more than the classic forms of early childhood musicality relegated to the singing of “Old MacDonald” and “Wheels of the Bus”. Whether dealing in blues, jazz, rock ‘n’ roll, reggae, Latin, Afro-Cuban, soul, stringed instruments, percussive instruments, rhythm, rhyming, songwriting, or any other extension of music’s endless world, preschool children are eager and ready to learn!

Physical Fitness

Our goal is to promote lifelong physical fitness by introducing the children to enjoyable activities that they can play with their friends and families.  They don’t even realize they are engaging in physical fitness because they are having so much fun!  The PE program includes various games and activities that are mainly non competitive and no-elimination.  During free play the kids are allowed to play competitive games but are well supervised so a spirit of good sportsmanship prevails.

 Gardening

Check out our year round garden in the corner of the playground.  The children are experiencing how fun it is to feel the dirt, inspect insects, and to watch a seed transformed into food.  These children will realize that a carrot is more than a bullet-shaped orange thing that comes in a plastic bag. 

We are seeking to provide the best possible nutrition and physical activity environment for the children at Parkside.   Gardening with the children enhances our program to promote healthy eating by serving appropriate foods, cooking & nutrition classes, and role modeling good eating behaviors.

Animal of the Month

Miss Tina, owner of Two by Two Ranch & Petting Zoo, comes monthly to educate our children about farm animals.  The interaction between the children and animals is magical.  From the first squeals of delight to the final pats and waves “goodbye” the kids are intrigued and captivated by their special visitors.  Their favorite so far were twin baby goats. www.twobytworanch.com

Park Walks and Exploration

We take full advantage of having Bidwell Park at our doorstep!  This program is designed to provide outdoor recreation activities and foster awareness of nature in a fun, safe, and caring setting.  Our program includes short nature walks, animal habitat exploration, visits to the Nature Center, art activities.  We also encourage respect for Bidwell Park, its animals, and its visitors.