Children’s Programs

Our number one goal for the children who enter through our doors, is to share the Gospel (good news) with them. We want every child to know that there is a wonderful Creator who made this beautiful world and who planned out their existence as well. We want them to know how deeply loved they are by their heavenly father and how much purpose he has for their lives. We show God’s love first with our own words and actions. Secondly, we do interactive group discussions and activities that allow us to dive deeper into who God is and what it means to love God and love people.

The five components of Social-emotional Learning are self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. Our goal is to bring this important education to the children of Mocorito in their language. SEL is the process through which children learn and apply the knowledge and skills that allow them to have healthy identities, manage their emotions, achieve goals, empathize with others, create and maintain healthy relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions. We use the Second Step SEL to teach these skills through small group discussions, games, and interactive activities.

Physical activity improves gross motor skills and is directly correlated with cognitive development. The children we work with are from ranches around Mocorito which do not have playgrounds. and though nearby towns do, the playgrounds are always empty during the day. This is because of the intensely hot climate. The metal playgrounds get extremely hot in the sun and are impossible to use during the day. In general, kids mostly come out in the evenings to play when the heat of the day is gone. To provide children with more opportunities for playground fun, we built an indoor playground! In addition, our indoor physical activity program includes trampoline fun, scooter, jump ropes, and many more active games and activities. This is all to help with the gross motor skill development and getting the right amount of exercise for children who live in an area with extremely hot weather.

“Play is the work of a child”. Children need lots of play time! Unstructured play strengthens and increases neural connections in a child’s brain. Play relieves stress and anxiety for children and helps to boost their joy and self-esteem. Play also helps children process the world around them and builds imagination and creativity. Our playroom has a large variety of imaginative and educational toys to engage with that children most likely don’t have access to at home.

Music enhances children’s language development, improves memory, increases creativity, builds teamwork skills, and strengthens mental processing and problem-solving skills. Our music program includes singing, dancing, musical games, instruments, technology use, and creative performances.

Providing children with the time, space, and resources to express themselves artistically boosts confidence, strengthens creativity, builds fine motor skills, and helps children express and understand themselves. Our art time is fun and stress-free! We allow children to go at their own pace, use their creativity, and define their own masterpieces. Sometimes we do free drawing and sometimes we do guided art. Our main focus is the experience, not the outcome!

Sensory play enhances cognitive development, children’s knowledge of the world, and fine and gross motor development. Our Learning Through Senses program mostly consists of exploring various varieties of sensory bins. But occasionally, we use our sensory time to learn to bake or cook something new!

“El Ratón de Biblioteca” means “The Library’s Mouse!” This is the Spanish way of saying bookworm! We want to instill a love for books and knowledge in the children of our community. Most children in Mocorito do not have the opportunity to travel outside of their town much but a good novel can take you anywhere in the world in the past, present, or future! Currently, Mocorito does not have a public library so we are grateful for this opportunity to be able to provide access to a large variety of spanish children’s books for the children to fall in love with. To help foster the love for stories, we like to incorporate puppets, costumes, and technology in our storytelling.

Healthy foods increase cognitive function and the overall physical health of a child. Eating healthy in childhood reduces the risk of developing health conditions such as type 2 diabetes, cancer, heart disease, etc. Many of the children we serve come from low income families so by providing one healthy snack a day we are doing a small part to help these families meet the health needs of their children.