Early Childhood

Harnessing children’s natural curiosity

Our youngest students love coming to a school where they can begin collaborating with others, expressing original ideas, solving problems, understanding themselves and discovering their abilities.

We strive to ensure the first formal learning experience for these three- and four-year-olds is meaningful, relevant, and joyful in a supportive and high achieving environment.

Our Early Childhood teachers apply their expertise to intermingle learning and play in the right balance. Lessons focused on learning the alphabet, numbers, plants and animals, days of the week are blended with Spanish lessons, art, music forays, and thoughtful library visits.

“I have an open relationship with the teachers, so I know how my kids are doing and they are able to tell me.”

- Current EA Parent

"We take a hands-on approach to learning. We also incorporate activities for our children to build self-esteem, learn to problem solve and get along with others, and engage in rich discussions. We key into their natural curiosity and associate it to scientific practices. Our ultimate goal is for our students to develop an excitement for learning."

- Amy Maly, Early Childhood Instructor

Academic Excellence

In addition to focusing on the educational building blocks of reading, writing and arithmetic, we begin hands-on and in-depth learning at a very young age.

World Languages

All Early Childhood students participate in Spanish instruction during the course of the school week. Spanish classes at each grade level meet 3 times per 7-Day cycle for 15 minutes.

Library

All Early Childhood students attend Library class once per 7-Day cycle. Students are introduced to different literature genres and encouraged to find books to borrow and bring home to share with their families.

Fine Arts

At a young age, we are already striving to help our students discover the joy of the arts as a lifelong pursuit.

Music

Early Childhood music classes encourage students to explore music through play, song, and dance. Students actively create, improvise, perform, and learn about the world around them through music. These young students develop a sense of steady beat, rhythm, melodic direction and pitch.

Visual Arts

The Early Childhood visual arts classes meet for 30 minutes. The classes have a creative learning environment that involves working together, moving around, discussion and having the freedom to try a new approach to their work. The students focus on basic art skills including drawing lines and basic shapes, color, cutting, pasting, and general art awareness.

Beginning in the Early Childhood program, students are offered visual art classes and general music classes.

Program Options

Early Childhood offers flexible programing options.

We strive to ensure the first formal learning experience for our early childhood students is meaningful, relevant, and joyful. We offer a variety of program options for Early Childhood to ensure our youngest students have a positive student experience that is consistent with their development level.

Program options include:

Half Day - 8:15 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
Full Day - 8:15 a.m. - 2:45 p.m.
Three Days - Monday/Wednesday/Friday
Five Days - Monday - Friday

After School Options

Early Childhood students are welcome to stay on campus after school as a part of our Extended Day programs.

Extended Day

Early Childhood students can stay on campus each day until 6:00 pm in the Rider Center Library. Families may sign their students out of EA Extended Day by entering the Library in the Rider Center. Families are billed $10 per hour/per student for EA Extended Day through the Business Office.

Meet Our Early Childhood Faculty & Staff

“We found some wonderful teachers who were caring, engaging, and personalized. You know those once-in-a-lifetime teachers you get? At EA, we got them multiple times.”

Parent of an EA Graduate

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Kiana McDarrah

Early Childhood Assistant

BA, Thomas Edison State University

Working with our youngest learners is a great joy and a chance to see the world through the passionate and creative eyes of a child. Each day at Elgin Academy, I strive to help our students reach their full potential, meeting where each child is developmentally to assist in creating memorable learning opportunities that will grow into a lifelong love of learning.
-Kiana McDarrah

Suzy Ceci

Lower School Spanish, Middle School Spanish & Theater

MA, Universite de Toulouse Le Mirail
BA, Universite Stendahl

When I teach my students to speak French or Spanish, I fancy myself doing a bit more than simply teaching them the skills to express themselves in those languages. I envision myself poking a hole in the language drapery, to enable them to peep at the conglomerate that makes it up: people, culture, land, history, and much more.
-Suzy Ceci

Heidi Hamilton

Lower School PE, Extended Day Coordinator

M Ed, University of Minnesota
BS, University of Minnesota

My hope is that my students will understand the importance of life-long physical activity and fitness. I want my students to enjoy participating in physical activities in the hopes that they will be life-long participants.
- Heidi Hamilton

Joshua Mettille

Lower, Middle, and Upper School Visual Arts

BS, Olivet Nazarene University

I take a student centered approach to teaching visual art by combining the experiences, interests, and abilities of all of my students. My goal is to have students create art that is meaningful to them.
- Josh Mettille