In an active learning setting, where children actively pursue their personal goals, they explore, ask and answer questions, solve problems, and interact with peers and teachers. When they are doing so, they actually engage in “key experiences”, experiences that children need in order to develop their skills and abilities. There are 58 key experiences in child development for the early childhood years and they are grouped into 10 categories:
- Creative representation
- Language and literacy
- Social relations and initiative
- Movement
- Music
- Classification
- Seriation
- Number
- Space
- Time
The above key experiences lead to:
- Current and long-term social outcomes
- Academic skills needed for school success
These key experiences are the curriculum for our early childhood educational program. High/Scope teachers are guided by these key experiences when planning activities, selecting materials, or preparing events for children.