Museum Learning Makes Its Way into Bright Horizons Early Education Classrooms

March 23, 2021 – Early education and preschool classrooms have come a long way to prepare young children for success and one of the best examples of that is a unique collaboration between the Smithsonian® and Bright Horizons. Launched last year, the collaboration brings the benefits of museum learning into Bright Horizons’ centers across the country.

Museum learning uses objects and collections to engage children and foster curiosity and creativity, skills critical to preparing children for kindergarten and beyond.

Through a curriculum of hands-on, project-based exploration that is exclusive to Bright Horizons, students explore the Smithsonian’s renowned collections of items from history, the arts and the natural world. With the help of the Smithsonian Institution, Bright Horizons educators created a series of project challenges, called Discoveries, which encourage children to make connections between artifacts and objects – a vintage toy airplane, collection of colorful bird feathers, unusual gemstones – and their world.

For example, children are natural collectors. When Bright Horizons teachers show students images of the many ways the Smithsonian’s collections are organized, it sparks their learning, creativity, and wonder.

“Bright Horizons believes that children learn best with meaningful experiences, interdisciplinary and full body and mind engagement,” explains Bright Horizons Vice President of Education and Development Rachel Robertson.

She adds: “With Discoveries, our objective is to give children a glimpse back into history so they can explore their world through a broader cultural and community perspective and in a fresh and innovative way.”

To learn more about Bright Horizons early education and preschool curriculum, visit here.