Held annually in April, the First Baptist Church of Clarendon Child Development Center Passport to Discovery program connects school families, allows for children to teach others, and supports our aim of creating environmental stewards. Throughout the year school families study a specific aspect of an overarching theme. For instance, for the 2017-2018 school year, school families studied Habitats. Habitats that were studied included the tundra, swamps, coniferous forests, and many others. After learning about a specific topic, school families then host a lesson in their classroom. Children visit classrooms, carrying their passport, and through active and participatory learning acquire knowledge on a topic and get a stamp in their passport.

The children who host become the teachers as they share what they have learned over the previous months and guide the visiting children through various activities. The activities are planned and prepared to engage all children in our care. Infants may explore a snow sensory bin, crawl through a jungle, or climb over a mountain. Toddlers may have to find animals hiding in the swamp, spend some time in the hot desert, or go fishing in the islands. The activities planned are developmentally and age appropriate for the children in our care. In the weeks that follow Passport to Discovery, you can hear throughout the halls children boasting about how they taught another child, sharing their favorite activity in which they participated, and admiring the stamps they collected along the way.