The Bethesda Child Development Center operates a pre-school and before and after school programs in the MOT community since September 2000. The programs follow an academic year schedule aligned with the local school district and an eight week summer session. In order to ensure quality improvement for the children we serve, BCDC’s preschool and before and after school programs participate in the Delaware Stars for Early Success Program guided by the Delaware Institute of Excellence in Early Childhood Education at The University of Delaware. BCDC also values being an active member of the community by utilizing community resources such as participating in local events organized by Middletown Main Street.
Mission Statement
The mission of Bethesda Child Development Center, an outreach of The Bethesda United Methodist Church, is to provide rich academic-based programs that include respect for diverse families and learners while teaching Christian values. We strive to provide inclusive opportunities and enrichment for our learners which they will apply to their everyday lives both in school and in the community.
Vision Statement
The vision of the Bethesda Child Development Center is to provide a well-planned program in a safe environment that engages children led by certified staff who are warm and nurturing and can adapt to a variety of children’s needs. The staff believes that the work they do with children is foundational and matters because it shapes the minds of children and the future of our community. Success with this work gives a sense of pride and accomplishment. The vision of the program is also one that will lead to the future by keeping up with current research and best practice in early childhood education.
Delaware Stars for Early Success
Delaware Stars for Early Success is a Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS), which is a method used to assess, improve and communicate the level of quality in early care and education and school-age settings. It establishes quality standards for programs and provides technical assistance and support to programs involved in Stars as they engage in quality improvement efforts. Delaware Stars is designed as a voluntary system that expects programs to work on improving quality by moving up the Star Levels. Delaware Stars for Early Success is a five-level system, with “5” being the highest rating. With each higher Star Level, a program is required to meet increasingly higher quality standards. The Bethesda Child Development Center has achieved a Star Level 5 designation and strives every day to maintain quality standards at that level.
Curriculum
The Two’s curriculum is research-based and incorporates the five central components of nurturing care and teaching: knowing two to three-year-old children’s abilities, creating a responsive environment, what children are learning, nurturing care, and building partnerships with families. The Creative Curriculum emphasizes providing routines and experiences that are essential to the development and learning of children age 2 to age 3 and explains how to plan intentionally while maintaining the flexibility to respond to the changing interests and abilities of young children. The routines and experiences are developed to focus on objectives for learning that refer to skills, knowledge, and behaviors that matter most to the continuing development and learning of very young children.
The Creative Curriculum for Preschool uses developmentally appropriate practices to match the way children develop and learn in order to promote the optimal learning environment and what they learn. The Creative Curriculum provides expanded content for supporting dual-language learning and includes teacher resource volumes for math and literacy. It defines and incorporates 38 objectives for development and learning that are predictors of school success and aligned to the Delaware Early Learning Foundations and Common Core Standards.
