Programs
Full Day Learning/Care
Ida Barbour Early Learning Center provides a full day of learning for children age 6 weeks until age 4. This program is designed to stimulate development and growth of key language, math, social and motor skills that have a proven impact on future success in school and beyond (see below).
Before & After School Learning/Care
Learning environments for before and after school are available for children up to age seven and are designed to reinforce, supplement and compliment in-school activities and learning. Although we stress social development, the before and after school program is not day care -- it is first and foremost a learning and development program.
Summer Camp
Our summer programs provide an excellent opportunity for children to learn more about the world around them, and include field trips and social activities. For example, this past summer's program featured a family theme based on the Hawaiian culture and strong emphasis on family bonds and relationships. An end-of-camp luau brought children and their families together in a culmination of the summer program's goals.
All of our programs stimulate learning in the following areas and more. This is a list of key skills promoted by the City of Portsmouth Public Schools:
Language Skills
- Listen to and enjoy picture books and nursery rhymes
- Recite several nursery rhymes without help
- Retell parts of a story
- Talk about characters and setting of a story
- Answer questions about a story
- Follow line of print in with finger
- Recognize the difference between a number and a letter
- Recognize some letters
- Sit and pay attention for a short period of time
- Recognize his or her printed name
- Copy some letters
- Describe objects by size-- big, small
- Name some opposites
- Ask and answer simple questions
- Place pictures in sequence-- first, next, last
- Use complete sentences
- Name objects from memory
- Create own stories and tell the meaning of the words and pictures
Math Skills
- Count objects to 10
- Count to 20
- Name the four basic shapes-- circle, square, triangle, rectangle
- Make a simple pattern
- Recognize some numbers
- Name the basic colors
Motor Skills
- Perform self care skills-- dressing, feeding, washing, toilet training
- Hold pencils, brushes, scissors correctly
- Fill and empty an object
- Catch and throw a ball
- Skip, run, jump
- Start and stop an action on signal
- Fit things together and take them apart
- Fasten clothing without assistance
- Use clay or other medium to make models
Social and Personal Skills
- Demonstrates the ability to enter into school routines
- Participate in large and small group related activities
- Know right from wrong
- Take care of own property
- Work independently for a short while
- Play in small groups with other children
- Request things from an adult (going to the bathroom, needing a drink, etc.)
- Share and take turns
- Say first and last name
- Recite phone number and address
- Say parents' proper names
- Name birth date
Children need a variety of skills to become successful students. The skills listed here give some guidance in helping to prepare the children of Portsmouth for school. It is important to remember not every child will be able to do all the skills listed.
