Kangaroo Kids International Preschool, Bahrain Buds Kindergarten, has kick started a movement in Bahrain that will transform the face of all kindergartens. The Bahrain This Month team finds out what makes this kindergarten so special.
Picking a kindergarten can be a daunting task for parents. It’s your child’s first step into the world of education, and all you can think of is finding an environment where they’ll be just as loved as they are at home, while learning and developing.
Here’s where Kangaroo Kids International Preschool comes in. The kindergarten’s vision is to “spark human greatness in every single child by discovering and then nurturing each child’s unique gift.”
“We have pioneered ‘a whole new concept’ in learning because the conventional rote system of learning will not equip children with skills and abilities for the new age of information,” explains Kangaroo Kids International Preschool Principal, Diana Patrick. “The iCan learning system has revolutionised early education delivery for young learners, leading the way with groundbreaking pedagogy and learner-centric approach to early education delivery. We prepare our children to not just live but also thrive.”
“We want children to gain knowledge and effectively be able to apply it. Our fantastically planned and executed curriculum design provides an emotionally safe environment that encourages children to reflect, think and apply while having lots of fun. This is why this brand has been a raging success among children and parents,” explains Ms. Patrick.
Future Skills and Habits for the Little Ones
The kindergarten’s curriculum includes strategies and detailed experiential activities that range across the content areas of literacy, mathematics, science, social science, aesthetics, and socio-emotional development. It carefully scaffolds learning to develop the nine future skills and 15 habits of the mind in every child essential for flourishing in life and the careers of tomorrow. “Our children shift from being passive receivers to active readers, evaluators, thinkers, and innovators as they explore while learning,” she says.
According to the World Economic Forum, as the world is constantly evolving and changing, we can neither predict nor plan for how the future world will be for our children. “What we can do is prepare them for it by developing their nine future skills which includes personal awareness, responsibility, global mindset, digital literacy, critical thinking, and problem solving. These future skills will equip children to make choices that will lead towards a life of success and fulfillment,” she explains.
As for the 15 habits of the mind (adapted from Arthur Costa’s work Developing Minds), the kindergarten focuses on children’s persistence, innovation, creativity, and continuous learning, that are developmentally appropriate. “Children as young as two need to be exposed to these practices with deliberate practices and focused attention so they can grow as thinkers and thrive in the face of unprecedented change,” she says.
Ready to Thrive
“We believe that children learn best when they are given a choice and voice within an emotionally safe and fun environment. They blossom when they are nurtured by those who have their best interests at heart and use evidence-based teaching-learning strategies that are supported by extensive research and up-to-date methods,” she says.
Kangaroo Kids understands that 90 percent of brain development happens in the first five years, and believes in making the first five years count. Therefore, Kangaroo Kids has reimagined and recreated new learning experiences for young minds to make their first five years count!
