Method
Smart Baby is a Sensory Gym that seeks the global development of the child from birth!
Who is it for: children between 6 months and 3 years old and their families and children between 4 and 8 years old in Tutoring, where they can review and reinforce school subjects within an innovative methodology.
We use blended methodologies based on scientific investigations on the fields of the Gifted Education, Sensory Education, Psychomotricity, Montessori Method, and Play Based Learning.
Theoretical aspects and how they relate to our practice in
Smart Baby.
Premises of Gifted Education
The groups are always mixed with children between 4 and 8 years old, however, every material is flexible in such a way that they allow extensions and adaptations throughout the game. For example, if the game is in the language area and the challenge is indoor climbing and pick up a card, a child who is working on prewriting skills will be asked to pick up the letter corresponding to the initial sound of the word lion, the primary school child, in the same group and game, will be asked to pick up the card with the pronoun corresponding to my same lion card.
That way, an older child will be reinforcing the school contents of her level but also reinforcing the foundation bases while the little ones develop and have contact with extensions of their own knowledge that will be revisited later in their school life. The task expands the knowledge of one without hurting the practice of the other. As a clear example of adaptation and expansion of a task, fequent practice in Gifted Education.
Sensory Education
Perceiving the surroundings means "to become aware that an object exists, that it has consistency, textures, etc". If we do not elaborate our perceptions, we would not know about the existence of things, we would not be able to name objects, colors, etc. Nothing would be defined or differentiated.
We are surrounded by stimuli and, thanks to perception, we can organize, interpret and give them meaning. We can do that thanks to our sensorial system, but we are not born with it all settled. That's why Sensorial Education is so important.
Intelligence develops from sensory information and motor explorations from the first months. Therefore, it is so important to stimulate and exercise the senses to improve the child's cognition.
In Smart Baby, we stimulate and coach families to support the healthy development of their babies from 6 months to 3 years old when the sensorial system is still maturing and developing and needs proper stimuli to avoid and prevent further developmental problems.
Psychomotricity
Good psychomotor development in the child will be linked to their ability to relate to their environment, it will affect their coordination and learning. Through movement, children explore and experience the world around them and know the limits of their body and capabilities. What provides autonomy, security and self-esteem.
The term "psychomotor skills" integrates cognitive, emotional, symbolic and sensorimotor interactions in the ability to be and to express oneself in a psychosocial context, so it plays a fundamental role in the harmonious development of the personality.
In Smart Baby all programs act through motor exploration, older children from 4 to 8 years, participate in circuits, activities, and mathematical games and development of the Spanish or English language. Babies and their families (6 months to 3 years old) are coached and stimulated to gain and develop according to their natural growth.
Montessori method
The children wear a colored bracelet corresponding to their level of schooling. When enrolling, each family answers a form containing the pedagogical goals that they are looking for their child, which can be completed by the family itself or by the school teacher with 3 stars (or goals) to be worked with the child during the sessions within a certain period of time determined in the same form.
That way we can prepare specific activities for the development of such objectives. And even though it is a moment of free flow, the games are chosen with the purpose to meet the pedagogical goal agreed before.
Play-Based Learning
Play-based learning is essentially learning while playing. Although the exact definition of play is still an area of debate in the academic and scientific fields, many activities can be counted as play. At Smart Baby we consider the use and exploration of several materials with a pedagogical purpose during 2 situations:
-Free play: child-directed, voluntary, internally motivated, and enjoyable.
-Guided game: have a level of adult participation to incorporate or expand additional learning opportunities within the game itself.
Control over play or activity is the determining factor to define one or the other: some activities are described as teacher-directed, such as intentionally planned games, while others are described as mutually directed, where teachers engage without taking over or transforming the activity, in that case, both teachers and students exercise some control over it and at last, there is free-play where the child has total control.
In Smart Baby both modalities described are present, but all the materials have their own intrinsic goals, which means fun, playing, and learning 100% of the time.
