Having a clear, well-established routine is the way to build a self-confident, independent, and organized little one.

Did you know that in today's society the demand for jobs is changing? Computers are becoming so advanced, they are taking over the jobs we once thought were in demand. How are your children going to compete with that? What jobs are going to be available when they are ready to enter the workforce?

Here at Bright Minds International Academy we are not just a culture of learning, we are instilling in children during the early, formative years, powerful critical and analytical thinking skills that cannot be mimicked by computers. We are aware of the evolution of technology, we are also aware of the evolution of the brain and how to maximize it's capacity. We are a team of professionals devoted to expanding the minds of young children, to set the foundation now, that will be the building blocks of their lifelong passion for learning at a highly analytical capacity. Imagine the possibilities!

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Una entidad educativa que se llame de inclusión, es aquel lugar que sirve cierto número de estudiantes que a su vez representan un amplio espectro de estilos y necesidades de Aprendizaje.

Múltiples investigaciones sobre el cerebro, la mente y la educación nos han demostrado que para aprender no existe un método único, o un estilo único y mucho menos un ritmo único. Independientemente de las habilidades, cada uno de nosotros tiene diferentes intereses, experiencias previas, estilos de vida, entornos socioeconómicos, y herencias culturales. Adicionalmente tenemos formas diferentes de pensar y procesar las ideas que nos hacen tener fortalezas y debilidades en diferentes áreas. Esto sucede de igual manera con nuestros estudiantes. La educación entonces, no puede pretender darse con un patrón único, a un ritmo único con resultados similares para todos.

It is well known that people’s behavior is strongly influenced by their learned values, attitudes, goals, and practices - all which are elements of culture. Yet, though education, at its core, is meant to produce the most suitable individuals for society, the active development of culture in children, which entails moral, social, and cognitive skills, is largely ignored in today’s educational system.

When children are born, they base their entire perception of right and wrong on rewards and punishment. Depending on how others react to their behavior, children understand a conduct as acceptable or unacceptable. However as children mature, they begin to acquire autonomy - the ability to make decisions and govern themselves. With this ability, children start making choices not based on fear or desire of a certain consequence, but based on their individual perception of what is right or wrong. Consequently, they start exercising moral and intellectual thought processing - both of which are crucial components of a good culture.

It has always delighted me how children have this amazing sense of “awe” and are able to see and enjoy every minute of their journey in the discovery of the world. Children learn about the world they live in through their 5 senses. They notice the intricate colors and patterns of a butterfly’s wings as it basks under the sun’s heat. They taste the various flavors of an ice cream cone with every bite they take. They smell the fragrance of a flower as it wafts through the air. They immediately differentiate between rough and smooth by touching the underside of a sunflower. Hearing the sound of a bird can stop them in their tracks and immediately make them lose their concentration, generating thousands of questions in them.

We created a Sensory Garden because children need to be exposed to hands on experiences in order to learn through their 5 senses and the sensory garden created the perfect environment to do just that. Rest assured that you don’t need a large patch of land to have a sensory garden. Our sensory garden is located on a patio outside a classroom. Many plants and vegetables lend themselves to container gardening, with some imagination, a little research and lots of enthusiasm you are on your way.

Weston, Fl, September 29, 2009 -- Education First Inc (Edu1st), a company that stands out for its Revolutionary 21st Century Early Childhood Education program , was recently named in the 2009 Inc. 5000 list of the nation’s fastest growing private companies. Inc. magazine ranked Education First No. 46 on the “Inc. 5,000” list of the nation’s fastest-growing privately held education companies. Moreover, Education First was ranked No. 3,693 on the third annual overall list.

Edu1st not only offers an outstanding educational program for children, but also incorporates continuous professional development for its staff by proving them with top of the line training on Thinking, creativity and routines, to keep their team up to date with what is going on in the world, the 21st Century skills and personal and professional growth. Edu1st is also committed to parents, offering on-going parental conferences and workshops open to the community, offering free conferences on the skills needed to be competitive in this century. And last but not least, Edu1st goes beyond offering consulting services to international schools and businesses interested in leadership skills, thinking skills, conflict resolution and strategy for the work force and cultures of learning for the 21st century.

The age of information has come to an end. In the past International Conference of Thinking in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the World acknowledged the beginning of a new era in the history of human development: the Age of Intelligence. We are living in exponential times. In this new era where technology connects the mind and ideas of an individual with the minds and ideas of millions around the world, society evolves at a sometimes frightening velocity. It is pivotal for every segment of modern society to keep up with the other. However, the educational system in the United States still educates under the parameters of an era that ended more than 50 years ago (the industrial age), where children are raised to be workers and not thinkers. If we want our children to be competitive, not only with the person next door, but with everyone else around the world, it is imperative that the U.S. make some serious revision in the education we are providing our children.

• The top ten in demand jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004.
• The amount of technical information is doubling every two years (half of what a student in a 4-year technical degree learns the first year will be outdated by his third year of study).
• Digital information doubles every 11 hours.
• The performance power of computers doubles every 18 months.
• India has more honor students than America has students.

Dr. David Perkins, senior professor of education at Harvard University and director of Project Zero, visited First Steps International Academy and VIP Kids Bilingual Preschool (two Edu1st.Schools) on Friday, May 15th.

Visible Thinking is a research-based approach of Project Zero, from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education. This educational approach, emphasizes the use of thinking routines and documentation to make thinking visible in classrooms and to engage students in deep thinking around the content while also cultivating the student’s disposition towards thinking. Actually, Visible Thinking includes a variety of fun and interesting classroom routines that are integrated with the curriculum content.

Education has always been a topic of conversation for parents. In fact, for many parents it becomes a quest to look for the best education for their children. A similar situation faced a company called Education First Inc, which not only had the vision to find the top models of education in the world, but was committed to bring and apply them in Broward. In 2006, the Edu1st.Schools decided to take the challenge and fully implement the Visible Thinking methodology to teach children from 1 to 5 years old.

There are three important benefits of using this approach with young children. First, the methodology is fun and really engages students, even toddlers where the attention span is really short. Second, modeling the thinking routines helps children develop a structured and profound thinking and exposes them to different points of view. Third, the documentation allows both, teachers to visualize the thinking process of every child through the verbal and non verbal communication, and children to visualize their thoughts and ideas.

Like most moms, I have done many things in life; studied, traveled, worked, got married and had a family. And to be honest, I thought that by having a family late in life I was more ready for all these affairs of being a mother, but I was wrong. One of the biggest challenges I had to face was to find a preschool for my 15 month old son.

I believed that choosing a school was a matter of doing some research with my friends, then online and finally visit the preschools. But contrary to what I had imagined, the more I asked and read about schools, the more challenging my quest turned out. First, the list of requirements I wanted from a preschool was getting longer and longer. Second, most of the schools I visited offered basically the same and third to my surprise, the curriculums were not really designed for the needs and challenges our children may face in this century. So, How do I choose the best preschool for my child?.

My list of requirements included a happy, safe and nurturing environment, a clean and friendly place with degreed teachers. In addition, a school with a strong curriculum, that will be flexible enough to challenge my child but let him be himself. Also, I was looking for an education that would be in sync with my beliefs, and last but not least; since I am not sure what is coming into my son’s future, I wanted a preschool that could offer him the tools and the base to deal with challenging situations in life.