Behind the Scenes at Redeemer Day School: The Benefits of our Comprehensive Preschool Program 2 years old through Kindergarten

What makes an excellent preschool?  Is it the curriculum, the facilities, the teachers, the instructional methods, the scaffolding from one grade/age to the next, the leadership? Having been involved in Christ-centered education for over 30 years, I have seen the best of all those facets of schooling. RDS offers families a depth that one can only see if one draws back the curtain. In Christ-centered education, there are principles or standards that are a must: teacher directed instruction, teachers who are mature in their faith-walk and who continue to be teachable, teachers who desire to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit and obey the Lord, teachers who see their work as a calling, teachers who collaborate together for His glory (not their own), teachers whose hearts long to see little ones come to know the Lord and walk in His ways, teachers who have seen the power of our risen Savior work in their lives and in the lives of their own families, teachers who are quick to listen and slow to speak, teachers who know God’s Word and are committed to obeying It, teachers who know and believe in the power of prayer; their immediate reflex is, “Let’s pray.”  This, I see at Redeemer.The hiring and forming of the faculty is the most important work of the leader/director of a Christ-centered institution – whether preschool, high school, or university. Everything flows from the heart and mind of the teacher and that teacher’s worldview. Lesson plans are necessary, but the Holy Spirit is the ultimate Lesson Planner.  A spiritually and emotionally mature teacher incorporates her biblical worldview into her classroom and from that, all else emanates.  The manner in which the teacher receives the opening of her day through Bible reading and prayer, the manner in which she sees how children interact with one another, the requirement of obedience, kindness, thoughtfulness, thankfulness, truthfulness, the orderliness and intentionality of her planning and follow-through, the mindset that sees content (math, science, etc.) as truth woven into our world by a God who is our Creator, who is all-knowing, who is precise and orderly allows for her to proceed with confidence. Absolute truth according to God’s Word is the benchmark for imparting knowledge to a little one. Teaching reverence for our Holy God and His Word is second to none. This, I see at Redeemer.Scope and sequence of curriculum is the flow of instruction from one age or grade to the next.  At RDS, the development of the child is understood from the 2 year-old to the 5/6 year-old (and beyond). While academic skills scaffold from one age to the next, the most important aspect of teaching is the understanding of the child’s emotional, mental, social, and spiritual development. Teachers seeing each child as being made in the image of God with appropriate developmental milestones, allows for great patience and understanding, love and encouragement, not only for the child, but for the parents, as well. This, I see at Redeemer.As we draw back the curtain on the culmination of nearly 150 combined years of teaching, the centrality of RDS is what takes place during devotional times, prayer times and times of curriculum planning and collaboration.  I am looking with fresh eyes, and there is a specialness here; difficult to capture in words, seen with spiritual eyes, and culminating in a shared vision. There’s a unique willingness to value and learn from one another, a unifying of mature hearts and keen minds, a daily dependence upon the Lord. United at the core of their being is this close-knit "family" of teachers who love the Lord and love children, teaching them from a biblical worldview.  I only wish I had a child to drop off here!To learn more about our pre-k and kindergarten programs and teachers, please watch our Sneak-a Peek video [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGaG-A2yJj8&feature=youtu.be&mc_cid=f58f2ed3f8&mc_eid=b6e071ed5a[/embed]