Beehive Philosophy and Goals
	Discipline Policy

As a child’s first teacher, parents play an important role in a child’s experience at Beehive.

Parents and teachers at Beehive are guided by the following beliefs about children and learning:

	Each child develops and matures in a unique way.
	Each child’s uniqueness should be accepted and respected by himself/herself and others.
	Every child needs to experience success and find support in failure.
	A child’s self-discipline grows when given freedom within limits.

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Beehive’s education mission is three-fold.

We seek to nurture the whole child. Beehive provides a variety of experiences to meet the intellectual, social, emotional and physical needs of children.

The program is designed to foster positive feelings towards school so that children will leave the program eager to continue learning in both formal and informal settings. Because parents attend Beehive with their children, parents demonstrate to their children the value they place on education and encourage a lifelong habit of learning.

Beehive provides parents with opportunities to increase their knowledge about child development and improve their parenting skills. This is accomplished through making the books in our Parent Library available, scheduling parent meetings and guest speakers, and interacting frequently with other parents and Beehive staff.

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Through interaction with the physical and social environment at Beehive, children will:

	form a good self-concept
	develop problem solving skills
	cultivate critical thinking skills
	become astute observers of their own surroundings
	use their innate inquisitiveness to develop an understanding of the world through their senses, their feelings, and their intellects.

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We believe that the teachers must guide and redirect the children to help them learn to cooperate with their peers. We believe that this can be best accomplished by:

	Having a variety of activities for the children
	Using group management techniques, i.e. "1, 2, 3, Eyes on me," singing a song during a transition
	Limiting the number of children in each area to avoid crowding
	Maintaining an excellent adult-to-child ratio
	Speaking positively with the children if their behavior is inappropriate
	Giving praise for appropriate behavior
	Redirecting children to other activities

Teachers and working parents will model acceptable behavior towards each other and towards the children.

Children will be encouraged to articulate their problems and be helped to understand the natural consequences of their behavior.

Teachers and working parents will step in immediately if they feel a child is in danger of hurting themselves and/ or others by their behavior.

Parents will be counseled when a child’s inappropriate behavior persists. If a problem cannot be resolved the child could be dismissed from the program.

Any form of hitting, corporal punishment, abusive language, ridicule, harsh, humiliating or frightening treatment is contrary to our philosophy.

Parents are required to read A Guide to Discipline, written by Jeannette Galambos Stone and published by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, and to attend the Beehive Parent Workshop to increase their understanding of how to teach children respect for themselves and others at Beehive.

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