Early Childhood Education in Decatur
Smarties Academy offers a comprehensive learning center as a setting for our early childhood education. It includes a green space that is used for outdoor play, water play, and yoga in the summer months. There are gardens where children learn to cultivate herbs and vegetables, and these crops are also used in preparation of their meals. We offer organic meals, which are made fresh in-house, daily, by a trained chef, and delivered hot to each classroom.
With all programs (infants and toddlers through Kindergarten), Smarties Academy uses the Creative Curriculum, which has themes where children explore various concepts and ideas and gradually repeat them. In the preschool program, children are ready for more experiences in math and literacy. Our program builds further upon concepts introduced in infancy. Classrooms are interactive and have a variety or workstations to encourage the development of different types of skills and promote a variety of leaning approaches.
Smarties Academy provides full Spanish immersion for children 6 weeks to 4 years of age. In the older Pre-K classroom, children receive their instruction in Spanish, and they practice an early reading program in both English and Spanish in order to prepare them for Kindergarten.
Our learning center offers children an intimate environment. Our staff to child ratios are smaller than state regulations. Our typical staff to child ratio is 1:4 for infants, 1:5 for toddlers, 1:6 for Twos, 1:7 for pre-school, and 1:8 for Pre-K. We also encourage parental involvement.
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Enrichment Program for Early Childhood Education
Smarties Academy offers an enrichment program to implement an instructional program that aims to promote high engagement and challenging learning opportunities for all children. We emphasizes the importance of providing a broad range of experiences, like yoga, mindfulness, drama, art, cooking, music and movement, fitness, outside play, and more.
Holistic Childcare
Smarties Academy offers a holistic childcare located in the Downtown neighborhood of Decatur, Georgia. We teach, support, and encourage children in their a wide range of activities to promote their healthy development. Children are taught the importance of composting, recycling, and celebrate many environmental activities that are designed to encourage and foster respect for nature.
Children in the older classrooms are provided meals family-style, which helps them develop a range of skills including cooperation, table manners, and fine and gross motor skills. They also participate in weekly cooking classes and learn to cook from herbs and vegetables grown in our gardens. We never use chemical-based cleaners. As a result, we offer good indoor air quality and an environment free of toxic substances. We support the use of cloth diapers, and our high-quality toys are made of wood or recyclable plastic. We pass our compost to local farms. Our approach to holistic education is interconnected in everything we do.
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Learn more about Smarties Academy
Smarties Academy is a full-time, year-round group learning environment for children ages six weeks to five years of age. Smarties Teachers are native Spanish speakers and most are from various Latin-American countries. We also have families from various ethnic backgrounds. The culture and traditions of families and teachers is celebrated in many ways throughout the year. If you would like additional information, you can contact our staff.
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