Our Curriculum
The SMILE program involves the many competencies that allow different approaches to problem solving. The program was developed to insure that each of these competencies are given an equal opportunity to develop.

These areas are:

Interpersonal - the capacity to discern and respond appropriately to the moods, temperaments, motivations, and desires of other people;
Intrapersonal - Access to one’s own feelings life and the ability to discriminate among one’s emotions; knowledge of one’s own strengths and weaknesses;
Verbal/Linguistic - Sounds, structure, meanings and functions of words and language;
Music - The ability to produce and appreciate rhythm, pitch and timbre, and the appreciation of the forms of musical expression;
Logical Mathematical Science - The ability to discern logical/math patterns, long chains of reasoning;
Spatial -The capacity to perceive the visual-spatial world accurately and to perform transformations on one’s initial perceptions.
Emotional - The ability to recognize and use one’s emotions to energize one’s inner self to achieve one’s goals.
Creative - The capacity to discover, explore, process, and open up new vistas for oneself.
Adaptive - The ability to use the experiences gained to adjust and accommodate oneself into new situations.

We incorporate the child’s parents and culture into the program, be-cause It is parents and culture which set values.

We ensure that all programs used by your child will meet his/her individual developmental level and planned curriculum is implemented for every child at every age.

Music enrichment
For children especially, music is a “universal language” and a lot of fun. At the preschool age level, music involves singing, moving, playing musical games — with very little sitting. The music curriculum offers the children new experiences with songs, musical instruments, and rhythm instruments.

Our computer enrichment program
Many of us today look at the computer and wonder what will become of it all! One thing for sure, the children at Little Acorn Patch are growing up with computers, and they will take them in their stride. Children are given the choice for computer time each week. We want the experience to be fun—to capitalize on their enthusiasm for the computer. Our goals are: following direction, making choices, sharing, teamwork, keyboard skills, and developing familiarity with the topics on the educational software provided. Software is varied to meet the age ranges and interests of the children. Pre-kindergarten and kindergarten children are introduced to booting, disk care, and use of control keys to run their favorite programs “all by themselves”.

Progress Reports
Progress reports are prepared four times during the year and two parentteacher conferences are normally scheduled — once in the fall and again in the spring. It is at this time that the child’s progress and program are reviewed as well as results of the Metropolitan Readiness Testing for kindergartners.

Our Kindergarten program
Our kindergarten, accredited by the Commonwealth of Virginia and additionally accredited by the NAECP, provides 180 instructional sessions. The instruction begins at 8:45 a.m. and continues until 1:00 p.m. with a break for lunch and a short rest period. We follow state
guidelines regarding age, to allow for easy transition into the Fairfax County Public School system. Included in the kindergarten program are beginning reading, creative arts, social studies, science, math, language arts, music, and creative movement. A graduation program is held at the end of the school year. Parents will be provided educational records for hand delivery to their child’s first grade.

Our summer camp program
Our summer camp program offers children a thematic curriculum filled with exciting science experiments, a variety of cultural activities, dramatic play, Water play, woodworking, and arts and crafts. The pro-gram runs for 9 weeks—the end of June through the end of August.

Fairfax County Child Find Services
Children grow and develop at different rates. A problem in one or two of the skill areas (body coordination, self-help, knowledge/concepts, speech language, getting along with others, vision/hearing) may not be serious, it is important to be certain. The sooner a delay in development is discovered, the sooner help can be offered. Screening is the first step in identifying children who may need special services.