NEST Community Learning Center Early Learners Program
Cincinnati Based Non-Profit Providing an Early Academic Program for Young Students in Poverty ContactFrequent QuestionsAt NEST Community Learning Centers, we work with the children and meet them where they are. We follow a preschool curriculum by teaching them their alphabet, sounds, shapes, numbers, and all the things that you do in a very high-end preschool, yet the difference is that our teachers are trauma trained. They’re also trained to understand deficits. Many of our kids cognitively aren’t where they’re supposed to be when they’re three, four, and five. We take that all into consideration when we’re teaching them. Our goal is that by the time they leave us and enter kindergarten, they are kindergarten ready unless they were born with a severe deficit.
A Non-profit Bridging the Gap in Kindergarten Readiness
The human brain is not fully developed until the age of twenty-five. However, it grows the most in mass, 80%, between birth and the age of two. It absorbs the most “information” of its lifetime by about age five. This means that the first five to eight years of a child’s life are the key to future learning, health, and life success. This is why preschool is so important. However, it is not mandatory in Ohio for public school districts to provide a preschool program. A recent Ohio based study followed low-income children from kindergarten through 12th grade with astounding results. (Should we say something brief about results??)
It showed that most children living in poverty start kindergarten two years behind their middle-class peers, and around 80% never catch up.
When children start kindergarten in deficit, it is highly likely they will find themselves in intervention just a few days later; this will take them out of the classroom and so they will miss some of the “whole” classroom experience. Our goal is to make them kindergarten ready to avoid any intervention or missed opportunities for our students.
Our Tutors Providing One-on-One Concept-Based Early Childhood Education
Many of our students have missed out on early experiential concepts that their middle-class peers will have acquired in their early developmental years. Experiences like going to the beach, or the zoo, or a farm; that help build a child’s neuro network with experiential concepts that help with discernment and other executive functioning skills.
Experiential concepts also build knowledge, speech, vocabulary, sensory awareness and social interaction and awareness skills. NEST’s Early Learner Program provides targeted lessons and learning activities with a heavy focus on providing those missed experiential concepts through teaching in a hands-on and sensory rich curriculum along with a typical preschool curriculum of letters, colors, numbers etc.
NEST’s Early Learning Program is unique. There is nowhere else at-risk 3-, 4- & 5-year-old students get this type of curriculum with one-on-one attention delivered straight just steps away from their own front door.
Many of our students missed out on the early concepts their middle-class peers developed in their early developmental years. Concepts like going to the zoo, seeing the beach, or interacting with different types of people. Concepts that are difficult to provide in a traditional group classroom.
Our secret sauce is the integration of different senses. So if we can, have them taste a little bit of salt and say this a salty water and say that’s what the ocean is made out of. Some of the kids are in Head Start. Some of them are in half-day kindergarten, in preschool, or whatever happens to be. And then we will supplement what they’re already doing. Yet nowhere else are they getting this one-on-one attention like at NEST. More large-group classes and organizations don’t have the bandwidth to meet the students one on one.
We are Committed to Behavioral and Academic Success
We get rave reviews for our Early Learning Program from our community kindergarten teachers and early intervention specialists. We’ve been told by kindergarten teachers and staff members that every student that has been through our program and then started kindergarten ready for kindergarten. Plus, behaviorally, they have learned some self-monitoring skills, there is not a high incidence of social outbursts, and their attention span is pretty age typical.
FAQ’s
What is the NEST Community Learning Center Early Learners Program?
The NEST Community Learning Center Early Learners Program is a Cincinnati-based non-profit that provides an early academic program for young students in poverty. They work with children and meet them where they are, following a preschool curriculum to teach them alphabet, sounds, shapes, numbers, and more, with teachers who are trained to understand cognitive deficits and trauma.
What is the goal of the NEST Early Learners Program?
The goal of the NEST Early Learners Program is to bridge the gap in kindergarten readiness for children in poverty, who often start school two years behind their middle-class peers, with around 80% never catching up. The program provides one-on-one concept-based early childhood education and different neurologically and trauma informed care strategies to help our students understand fundamental concepts and meet their academic goals.
What makes the NEST Early Learners Program unique?
The NEST Early Learners Program is unique in that it provides one-on-one attention to students, which is difficult to achieve in traditional large-group classrooms. The program also integrates different senses to help students understand concepts, and its teachers are trained to understand cognitive deficits and trauma.
What outcomes can parents expect from the NEST Early Learners Program?
The NEST Early Learners Program has received positive feedback from community kindergarten teachers and early intervention specialists. Parents can expect their children to be kindergarten-ready and to have improved behavior, including better attention spans and self-monitoring.
What ages does the NEST Early Learners Program serve?
The NEST Early Learners Program serves children ages three, four, and five. Their goal is to make sure that by the time the children leave the program and enter kindergarten, they are kindergarten-ready, unless they were born with a severe deficit that would hinder natural cognitive growth.
How does the NEST Early Learners Program help children who have missed out on early concepts?
The NEST Early Learners Program provides a curriculum that supplements what children are already learning, with one-on-one attention and integration of specially designed neuroglial and academic methods and strategies to help them understand basic kindergarten needed concepts. The program also helps children who have missed out on early experiential concepts by providing experiences that they may not have had, such as going to the zoo, seeing the beach, or interacting with different types of people.
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