Milaa’s Upcoming Weekend Program for Children in Toronto Aims to Build Solid Foundation for Learning
(PRWEB) July 10, 2013 -- On a Saturday morning near Toronto’s Forest Hill neighborhood, children are busy running around in a school’s playground. Upon closer examination, children can be found crawling through a colorful tunnel, walking across balance beams, and hopping and jumping across tree trunks. Facilitators are present to ensure the children’s safety. This is Milaa’s weekend program for children.
Milaa is a company that develops early childhood learning events and programs for young kids to build up solid learning foundations. “There are three focuses for the July 13, 2013 event,” says Paul Jan, Milaa’s founder and a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “They are movement, mind, and expression. These make up the crucial foundation for learning at a young age,” says Jan.
According to Jan, movement is not just a physical exercise – it builds the foundation by providing children with the tools they need to be successful. In Milaa’s obstacle course, children have the opportunity to utilize their physical body through activities such as crawling through a maze, walking across balance beams, and hopping and jumping in between tree trunks. “Having an integrated body is like having a comprehensive toolbox,” says Katherine Fulford, Milaa’s Chief Program Designer and Chair of Early Childhood Education at the Waldorf School. “Children will feel like they are empowered to do the work (e.g. sit longer, concentrate better, and think more succinctly in problem solving) because they have the tools they need.”
The mind is developed through Milaa’s interactive story theater activity. These stories are told with the use of natural materials: pine cones, tree trunks, and characters made from all-natural wools to bring life into the story. “The props and characters intrigue the children and enable them to concentrate and create mental pictures in remembering sequence of events,” says Fulford. “Children not only develop clear association between the object and language, they also learn to recall and sequence series of events. All of these are important for complex problem solving, cognition, and mathematics,” says Fulford.
The expression aspect is manifested by means of drawing, painting, and building three-dimensional objects with beeswax. “We introduce the arts and crafts at the end to give children opportunity to recall what they encountered and learned earlier in the day,” says Jan. “Arts and crafts is a great way for children to express what is in their mind, and also as a great way to improve communication, language, and relationship-building skills. We allow children to mix-in modeling beeswax to create three-dimensional artwork to create more vivid and realistic finished products,” says Jan.
The expression aspect is also particularly developed through the task of drawing while standing. “This is one simple activity that brings together the movement and the mind,” says Fulford. “Children with balanced physical development will be able to draw while standing for long periods of time and therefore demonstrate confidence in performing tasks that focus on demand more from the eyes and hands while standing. What the children create in their artwork and how they achieve that will also reveal much about where they are developmentally and are great vehicles for identifying ways to strengthen their learning capacity,” says Fulford.
Milaa’s next weekend program will be on Saturday July 13, 2013 in Toronto’s Forest Hill neighborhood.
About Milaa
Milaa, an acronym that stands for Morality, Intelligence, Leadership, Athletic, and Artistic, was founded with the following principles:
1. Holistic approach enhances learning, especially at a young age.
2. Movement, sensory experiences and the stimulation of the mind are essential for child development.
3. Milaa aims to build a community for parents who appreciate the holistic approach.
Milaa’s vision is to educate parents concerning the importance of the holistic approach to learning, provide the essential sensory experience for a child’s development, and create a community to preserve and advance a child’s development.
Milaa is founded in 2013, and is based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. For more information, please visit its website at http://www.milaainfo.com.
Paul Jan, Milaa, http://www.milaainfo.com, 4162738498, [email protected]
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