Setting up an early childhood learning environment
Early childhood, defined as the first eight years of life, is now universally acknowledged as the most vital period of an individual’s life – in terms of all the domains of development – physical, cognitive, psycho social and emotional. At the request of the communities, our schools in the tribal communities have set up a play environment for the young children (aged 2.5 – 6 years) to come and explore in a safe, stimulating environment. During this upcoming academic year, this program will be strengthened to become an appropriately resourced early childhood learning environment, which will include contextually relevant activities for the young children. Our endeavour will also be to share our learnings from our experience with the local anganwadis.
The Day Care Centre in the Parijatham Sanctuary School provides a safe environment for young mothers of the local community to leave behind their little ones while they go out for work. This is open from 9 a.m to 4.00 pm for children below the age of five. The children pick and play with toys of their choice and learning material, under the loving care and guidance of Ademma , who is a trained pre-school educator and is from the local community. Their day includes nutritious porridge in the morning, a lunch at noon and a post-lunch nap-time.
