Our Approach

How one learns is just as important as what one learns.

There is a reason we treat the journey as carefully as the destination — for a three-to-five-year-old, the road they travel can lead to further destinations.

The Excelementary classroom in Irvine
How it was designed

Built to meet the Young Brain.

Between three and five, the brain is not preparing to learn later — it is building the foundation everything later will rest on. Six design decisions shape our instruction.

Young brain AGES 3–5 Joyful & embodied Calibrated challenge Mastery Visible concepts Thinking frameworks Growth mindset

Tap any of the six to see what it means

Six design decisions
How we teach is shaped by these six decisions about how a three-to-five-year-old brain actually takes information in. Tap one to see it.
How we carry it out

Dynamic Animations to Guide Cognitive Processes.

Our designed visual and audio animations reflect cognitive processes like addition, sound isolation, blending sounds, and more. These animations integrate meaningful visual anchors that help students to recall and understand processes easier and in an enjoyable way. Our lessons guide children to construct these processes directly: language and image paired and timed so the child is doing the building. It is our own design, and the mechanism behind our entire curriculum. See our animations below.

Why it works: children are active constructors of knowledge, and dual coding research shows that language and imagery processed together form stronger, more usable concepts than either can alone. Our curriculum is built to run those processes on purpose.
Why our approach is effective

What this builds in a child.

Taught this way, a child learns durably — and enjoys it more.
This approach provides children a multifaceted, cognitive experience that helps build mastery leading to confidence and a hunger to want to learn more and take on greater challenges. Their willingness to remain with a problem they don’t solve right away begins to grow. Their growing thinking gives greater language to their curiosity.
AgencyMotivationCuriosityGritExcelling
See the curriculum at work in the classroom.
Book a Tour →
Limited enrollment · Irvine, California · Ages 3–5