Exploring the Community

Our Methodology & Program Development

Teachers at My Whole Earth Academy nurture and guide children as they develop intellectually, physically, socially, emotionally and culturally. We do this by first recognizing and learning about the family of which the child is a part.

Qualities such as curiosity, confidence, resilience, innovation, a strong sense of empathy and a clear moral compass are taught through group and individual opportunities that present themselves in day-to-day experiences.

Academic principles are explored though a flexible, immersive and integrated program set within a structured schedule. Teaching methods and platforms are varied in order to include many different learning styles, from active, body learners to focused, observational learners to verbal, communicative learners.

At My Whole Earth Academy, we are more focused on supporting your children to discover their process of acquiring knowledge and the methods for applying it to meet their goals, than in telling them what to do. While basic information such as numbers, letters and vocabulary are taught, they are taught within a context of relevant, real-life applications rather than abstract conjecture that leaves your child separate from the meaning and use of such information.

You can be confident that My Whole Earth Academy is a place where your family will find a community partner and family friend who is ready and able to complement the kind, intelligent lifestyle that you are living at home.

Although some conformity exists between children within a peer group, your child will be unique in some way from the other children in the room. Therefore, quality education cannot be developed for the group exclusively. Children in our school are given the opportunity to learn and practice their skills as they are able.

Public interest in the environment, climate change and sustainability is, thankfully, on the rise. So too is the demand from families for high-quality early childhood education. My Whole Earth Academy seeks to meet these demands by offering an innovative curriculum that teaches standard preschool skills and knowledge using topics such as biology, anthropology, climatology, sustainability, environmental responsibility and micro-agriculture as platforms for practical and applied learning.

Our cultural awareness program provides opportunities for your children to learn about the lifestyles and customs of people from all around the world through explorations of food, dance, music and stories. Even our classroom design is intended to raise cultural awareness! Language development in French is also provided in our French Immersion Preschool class by French-speaking Teachers who expose your child to a wide range of French words and phrases. All children’s programs are taught by multilingual teachers who incorporate daily opportunities for children to learn common words from languages from around the world.

Academic subjects such as English, Mathematics, and Science are taught as both immersive and abstract studies. Immersive studies occur when subject matter is a component of an activity and is highlighted by the Teacher to draw the connection to other lessons of the same subject. Abstract studies occur when subject matter is taught without the context of an application.

A wide range of hands-on, relevant, skill-based creative activities such as cooking, pottery, sewing, paper-making and engineering-inspired projects are also taught in our school. These activities are taught in our child-specific manner, offering learning opportunities tailored to each child’s demonstrated abilities and level of maturity. Lessons are related to real life situations and lend themselves to dialogue about the products produced and their usefulness.

Life Skill training is a vital part of a child’s early learning. As such, children spend some time every week helping with domestic duties and preparing snack items to share with their class and school. For children going on to Montessori or IB elementary programs, Life Skill training prepares your child for the level of self-reliance and accountability expected by those models.

My Whole Earth Academy strives to provide your child with a range of experiences and opportunities to develop their social and emotional skills as well. Through the use of Marshall Rosenberg’s Non-Violent Communication methodology, Teachers coach children to use need- and want-based language to express their desires and frustrations.

Our ‘classroom visitor’ program is another way to develop your child’s emotional strength. Each of our two classrooms has unique aspects for children of different ages to explore. Children older than 2½ but under 3 may enjoy scheduled ‘visits’ to the older classroom and older children may also revisit the class they have moved up from. This allows for a broader range of friendships, the opportunity to engage with varied teaching styles and to experiment with the special activities and apparatus that each classroom has to offer.