Faculty:

The teachers are committed Christians who have been or are currently being trained in Early Childhood Education. The kindergarten teacher must be certified or certifiable by the State of Florida.  The staff is also required to obtain 45 hours Department of Children and Families (formerly HRS) certification.  Teachers must also maintain at least 10 hours of additional instruction annually.

Students:

Preschool is designed to prepare the child academically and socially for kindergarten.  A child must have reached his or her 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th birthday by September 1st to be eligible to enter the preschool program.  GDS provides an experiential learning program through teacher-directed and child-directed activities that require individual, small, and large group participation.  The Learning Centers' environment promotes skills and concepts development in preparation for elementary school while encouraging problem solving and self-discovery.

Our program focuses on the whole child and provides opportunities for him or her to develop spiritually, socially, emotionally, intellectually and physically through hands-on tasks and a variety of readiness experiences in all areas of learning development.  This program includes Bible study, language development (pre-reading, pre-writing skills), pre-math skills, and center time developmental activities (home living, science and discovery, art appreciation, music enjoyment, cooking and gardening, manipulatives), Social Studies, recess (outdoor play), and separate art, music and computer classes.  The kindergarten program builds on these developmental activities and provides formal instruction in reading, language and math skills.

The kindergarten program (must be five years old by September 1st) includes Bible and memory work, Language Arts (association, classification, sequence, alphabet, writing and reading readiness), Mathematics (sets and operations, sequencing and number skills), center time developmental activities (science, home living, manipulative, social studies, art appreciation, cooking and gardening), Recess (outdoor play), and separate Art, Music and Computer classes.  Curriculum for the four year olds and kindergarten include the Whole Language, as well as Phonics, approach to reading, writing and comprehensive skills development.

Because children are created in the image of God, their spiritual development is the foundational ingredient of our program.  Bible study is a daily aspect of our program, as well as weekly chapel, in which we endeavor to instruct the child in the truths of the Bible and impress upon them that these are not just Bible stories but lessons in life.  The religious instruction that is offered to them provides them with an opportunity to personalize these truths and to enable them to have a personal relationship with the living God, our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.