WELCOME TO THE LEARNING EXPRESS BY CAMP MIRAGE
Your child's love for school starts here!
The Learning Express Preschool and Camp Mirage are teaming up! That’s right folks, we are combining our collective strengths and leveraging both organizations' expertise to offer our community a unique preschool/ childcare program that will provide a solid foundation of academics, socialization, and growth! We have the same owners, same directors, same staff, and same resources so it's only natural to merge the businesses to create a more exciting childcare adventure!
This change is reflected in the organization of our school day. All classes run 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM with optional early drop off and late pick at no additional charge. Choose 2, 3, or 5 days per week. Detailed information is offered on the Enrollment page.
It all starts with Preschool!
The Learning Express has played an active role in the Plymouth-Canton community for 30 years. We are a privately owned play-based school housed at The First United Methodist Church in Plymouth, Michigan. Our classrooms follow the State of Michigan Kindergarten State Standards to assure our kiddos are ready for elementary school. We merge several nationally recognized curriculums to help our teachers customize a unique pathway for each child's needs. Our favorites are Amazing Action Alphabet, Handwriting Without Tears, Khan Academy, and phonic-based reading programs. At The Learning Express, we build community. Our students learn how to be part of a classroom, how to relate to others and build skills that will help them be successful in Kindergarten and beyond.
We teach through play!
We believe that socialization holds equal importance with academics and that's where Camp Mirage comes in. We've engaged tens of thousands of kiddos over the last 23 years. Preschool kids love to play, but there’s much more to play than just having fun. Play is essential to a child’s growth and development in both structured and unstructured environments. It stimulates early brain development, promotes creative thinking, improves communication, vocabulary, and language, strengthens self-regulation and social competence, improves physical and mental health, and builds a stronger relationship with educators and peers.
Aside from the preparation academically for elementary school, preschool plays an essential and critical role in children’s overall growth and development. Combining constructive activity-based learning, developmentally appropriate academic curriculum, and play gives us an opportunity to provide our students with an environment that fosters strong collaboration, communication and critical thinking skills, meaningful connection to the content, creative innovation, confidence, academic preparedness to enter elementary school and a whole lot of fun! This is our philosophy for The Learning Express Preschool by Camp Mirage.
THE LEARNING EXPRESS BY CAMP MIRAGE
Preschool & Childcare Programs "Where School Is Cool"
PHILOSOPHY & MISSION
Preparing your children for lifelong learning success!
Everything in our little school has a purpose. Your child will thrive in our nurturing environment, surrounded by other children to socialize and play with. They will learn the fundamentals that prepare them for elementary school, with the support of caring teachers and educators whose goal is to see your child succeed!
Our Educational Philosophy:
• We believe that children acquire knowledge about the physical and social world through playful interaction with objects and people.
• We believe that children learn through a variety of hands-on experiences.
• We believe that an activity-based curriculum can accommodate differences in development and learning styles.
• We believe that teachers are facilitators in the learning process and should be responsive to individual needs.
• We believe that themes provide a way for young children to integrate formal concepts.
• We believe that parent involvement is an important part of an educational partnership between child, parent, and school.
• We believe that children should be treated with respect and dignity.
How We Differ From Public Schools:
• Small class sizes & low student/ child ratio
• A personalized curriculum customized for each child with one-on-one teaching, so students succeed at their own pace. Our teachers pull the best from 6 nationally recognized pre-kindergarten curriculums. We are not required to follow 1 mandated curriculum, which may not suit your child's needs.
• Direct and immediate contact with staff
• No standardized testing
• Unique learning concept! Academics in the AM. Large motor skills, sports, community building, outdoor play, and FUN all afternoon.
• Weekly music program, Lego building room, library, art classes, and technology.
• Canteen (snack store). Each child gets a (free) weekly budget to order healthy snacks!
• Outdoor Oasis, as weather permits, for the afternoons. Every sport imaginable, sand pits, water slides, sledding hills, race tracks, outdoor yoga, nature walks and so much more.