Dear Parents,
From our historic building in Güzelyalı, one of the most distinguished neighborhoods of beautiful İzmir — standing strong since the 1800s — we greet you with a heartfelt “hello.”
With our team of expert Turkish and international teachers, we are excited to begin bilingual early childhood education.
We share your excitement and look forward to this journey together.
My story is a 25-year journey in education, beginning with teaching English at the private college where I graduated, followed by 19 years in management roles as an Elementary School Principal and Preschool Academic Director. For the past three years, I have continued my journey with my own company as an ICF coach, education consultant, and seminar speaker. I am now opening a new path, thinking, “With this experience, knowledge, and idealism, why shouldn’t I bring my dream kindergarten idea to life at the same time?”
Children are our future, children are more precious to us than anything else in life.
There is a saying among theatre people: ‘Once you’ve tasted the stage dust…’ Well, spending years in education is much the same. Designing the best for children, seeing them happy, touching the lives of children and parents, constantly learning from each other gives meaning to life. Now, with years of observation, those who have been through the filter have played a major role in designing this school. The impact of early childhood on all of life, the needs of children according to their age and developmental characteristics, and the knowledge that parents are not alone in their anxieties and internal questioning during their first experiences are the most important factors in creating happy parents, happy children, happy families, and a happy society.
Our primary goal is to raise awareness among our children about learning through movement and play in early childhood, acquiring life skills, pushing the boundaries of their imagination, gaining self-confidence, self-compassion, self-discipline, becoming skilled in self-care, and most importantly, achieving emotional regulation.
Children who are curious, explore, and learn how to learn; children who succeed in critical thinking, self-expression, and being themselves; are more successful in their adult lives.
While it takes a great deal of time to develop awareness in adulthood, cultivating this habit in early childhood through holistic wellbeing and emotional monitoring lays the foundation for our children to enjoy a comfortable adolescence and a happy adulthood, enabling them to make sound decisions and choices.
Forcing children who express themselves freely and have an age-appropriate need for movement to sit for hours trying to finish a book, or imposing strict rules under the guise of “lesson time” to make them follow our own plans, is a waste of effort; it disconnects them from reality. Children have limited attention spans, just as their stomachs have limited capacity for food. Plans can change rapidly in preschool, and activities can vary. Instant revisions may be necessary according to children’s interests and needs. By getting to know the children well and maintaining healthy and continuous observation, our teachers achieve harmony. Every moment spent in preschool is a learning moment. For a sustainable education and teaching life, our first priority is to ensure children’s development with love, without pressuring them or creating school phobia.
Learning does not necessarily have to take place in the classroom. The garden is always a powerful learning space, and there is no learning method as fast and enjoyable as learning through movement.
Every child is unique and special. Every child has their own learning pace. Just like us, their potential, waiting to be revealed, emerges in early childhood education. Children are not a different species; we were all children once. And we still carry parts of our childhood within us. Acting with this awareness fosters mindfulness in all of us.
The foreign language spoken constantly within the school encourages spontaneous learning. Isn’t that how they learned their native languages? With our teachers whose native languages are English and French, they will be one step ahead in terms of pronunciation and will leave here with a solid foundation ingrained in their minds, ready to move on to primary school.
We will nurture children who will enjoy their childhood, support our parents with workshops, and capture healthy bonds and quality time with our parent-child activities. But most importantly, we will raise children who are free but know their limits without overstepping those of others.
Our difference is that, rather than creating diversity just for the sake of offering a variety of subjects, we entrust the work we call subjects to experts in order to do what is necessary for the social, emotional, cognitive and physical development of children, preparing them for life in a way that is appropriate for early childhood. Let us understand that every subject taught must be a skill acquisition that serves the child’s present and future, taking into account the age-specific characteristics of child development.
Let us be aware that the most important 21st-century skills are communication, the ability to express oneself correctly, and presentation ease. Children can read and study as much as they want, but aren’t you tired of people who cannot express themselves and what they do, whose free thinking is restricted, who are afraid to express their opinions, and who give up being themselves in order to gain approval?
I believe you know many people who know foreign language grammar by heart but are hesitant to speak due to a lack of practice or fear of making mistakes.
We will focus more on etiquette, which I observe to be one of the most important shortcomings of today. We will raise individuals who stand out in every situation and in every way in their future environment.
Let us achieve this together.
Let us observe together how school and family bonds contribute to a child’s development.
Our common ground is our children. Let us work together for our children’s future. Let us unite for happy children and a happy future.
With love;
Burçin Kızak
Special İncir Ağacı Head of the Nursery School