What is the I EPICS curriculum? A parent’s plain-English guide

Every preschool talks about their “curriculum”. Most of it sounds the same in brochures. So here’s the honest version of what I EPICS — the curriculum your child would learn through at iPlay iLearn — actually means, and what it looks like in a Tuesday morning classroom.

What the letters stand for

• I — Inspire. Every theme starts with something that grabs a child’s attention. A story, a song, a strange object on the circle-time mat.
• E — Explore. Children touch, sort, open, pour, dig. The theme becomes something they experience, not just hear about.
• P — Play. Guided and free play. A “shop” corner becomes a maths lesson. A “kitchen” corner becomes a language lesson. Learning through play is not a slogan — it is the whole engine.
• I — Interact. Children turn to each other. Negotiate turns. Share a paintbrush. This is where social skills actually develop.
• C — Create. By the end of each theme, children make something with their own hands — a collage, a song, a dance, a painted stone.
• S — Share. Children present what they made to their class, their parents, or each other. This is where confidence is born.

A week on the theme of “The Sea”

This is what a real I EPICS week looks like, for a 3-year-old Nursery classroom:

• Monday — Inspire: A story about a little fish who lost its way home. Shells passed around at circle time. Ocean sounds in the background.
• Tuesday — Explore: A tray of sand, water, tiny plastic sea creatures. Children sort by colour, by size, by “big fish / little fish”.
• Wednesday — Play: The dramatic-play corner becomes a boat. Life jackets. Fishing. Children make up their own rules and invite each other in.
• Thursday — Interact / Create: Two-child teams paint a shared ocean mural. Negotiation, colour-choice, the occasional paint spill.
• Friday — Share: Each child picks their favourite part of the mural and tells their classmates about it in one sentence.

What’s NOT in I EPICS

Let’s be honest about this too:

• No worksheets before Upper KG.
• No sit-still-for-30-minutes lessons.
• No rote memorisation.
• No grading. No ranking.

The curriculum is just a framework. The actual learning happens when a 3-year-old looks up at a teacher, asks “why?”, and the teacher pauses to answer properly.

Why we built our own curriculum

After 16 years in Medavakkam, we had filled out enough checklists that came with standard curricula. Every classroom is different. Every class has a child who needs to be pulled in and a child who needs to be given space. A framework — not a script — is what actually works. I EPICS is that framework.

See it in action across our four programs — Play Group, Nursery, Lower KG, and Upper KG — or read our comparison of play-based learning vs worksheets.