Infant & Toddler Program

The Infant area is designed to be peaceful, calm, and engaging. We practice physical milestones as we nurture each child’s development. Teachers will narrate daily activities, read, sing, and play on the floor. Simple toys are introduced as our youngest explorers prepare to move into toddlerhood.

The Toddler area is the first introduction to group schedule, circle time, and work time. Beginning Preschool Lessons are selected to fit perfectly with the children’s developmental needs and rotated often. Self help skills are introduced and practiced daily.. It consists of an entryway where each child has a hook or cubby for personal belongings, an activity area, fine motor lesson room, a bathroom with a child-sized toilet, accessible sink and diaper changing area. There is also an activity room for indoor play and gross motor movement. An outdoor fenced-in playground.
Experience has shown that young children enjoy and are capable of successfully participating in a large variety of play-based lessons that are developmentally appropriate for their age and ability level. The toddler environment provides a combination of lessons that have a defined purpose (puzzles, counting materials, vocabulary lessons, practical life lessons such as pouring water or using a baster) as well as creative play materials (a doll house or farm, play telephone), art materials (paint, crayons, glue, paper), and familiar toys or activities such as blocks, cars and trucks, dolls and doll clothes that do not have structure or a defined purpose.

With practice and gentle reminders toddler-age children can be taught and expected to choose and carry a lesson to a table or work rug, work on one lesson at a time, and return a lesson to its place when finished. They can successfully understand the concepts of waiting for someone else to finish their turn, watching but not touching someone else’s work, and sharing with friends. They are capable of working on a lesson with focused concentration for long periods of time. They love to imitate and repeat lessons as shown and will often repeat a lesson many times before being finished with it.