12 to 24 months
Toddlers grow and learn every day, thriving and reaching key development milestones as they learn to be on the move. We help your toddler explore the world around him or her and make new discoveries while providing skills as building blocks for a lifetime of learning.
On the Move
If your toddler hasn’t already started, walking is on the horizon as he or she makes moves to explore the world. Our caregivers will support his or her newly found movement until he or she is steady on his or her feet. Our classrooms include soft gyms to support and encourage gross motor skills, including muscle development, coordination, and balance.
Close Connections
When your toddler begins to travel, his or her caregiver will be close behind to provide necessary support. While all caregivers will have interactions with him or her, the majority of interactions will be shared between your toddler and a primary caregiver. This close bond will allow your child to freely explore the world around him or her under the watchful eye of a supportive, encouraging caregiver.
Exploring with the Senses
From painting with pudding to singing and cooing with your toddler, we encourage your child to use all of their senses to learn. Simple, yet educational activities are key to the overall well-being and growth. Your child’s caregiver will observe your child as they explore the world around them and will include sensory exploration activities in their daily experiences.
Curriculum:
- C.O.R.E. Language & Literacy Acquisition Program
- C.O.R.E. Values Character Education Program
- Baby Signs
For more information about our curriculum system, visit our Curriculum page.
[18 to 24 months]
Plenty of hugs, holding, and help will encourage your toddler to develop greater independence through important self-help skills and explore the world around him or her.
Social Development at a Young Age
Especially with children at this age, our caregivers realize the importance of the behaviors they are modeling. We stress “please” and “thank you,” taking turns, following instructions, and considering others. While your child is learning about themselves, we provide an appropriate environment where they can develop positive self-esteem, which is essential to social development. In this classroom, your child will learn how to make friends, share toys, and master other important social-emotional skills.
Language/Cognitive Development
Our Toddler Room reading learning center is filled with books, pillows, bean bags, letter cards, puppets, puppet theaters, and flannel boards to aid your child in language development. We incorporate our proprietary C.O.R.E. Language & Literacy Program to initiate reading readiness at an early age. Our teachers work with your toddler as they gain vocabulary in order to express themselves.
Fine and Gross Motor Exploration
Development of small and large muscles and skills such as rolling from side-to-side and sitting up are a big part of our Infant Room daily schedule. We will help your baby strengthen motor skills by playing with cradle gyms and rattles and crawling over soft cushions. From holding up their heads to pulling themselves up to a standing position, we work with your baby to help him or her acquire these skills.
Gross Motor Development
Exploring outside is a favorite activity for most toddlers and our special toddler age-appropriate playgrounds make running and playing both fun and safe. Our teachers will help your child master soft climbers in the classroom to develop balance and muscle control.
Curriculum:
- C.O.R.E. Language & Literacy Acquisition Program
- C.O.R.E. Values Character Education Program
- Baby Signs
For more information about our curriculum system, visit our Curriculum page.
24 to 30 months
Our toddler curriculum has been designed to enhance your toddler’s learning as he or she makes friends, builds vocabulary to communicate wants and needs, and shares toys. Our caregivers will encourage your child’s independence as he or she explores the world while letting him or her know that someone they depend on is always within reach when support is needed.
Circle Time
During this daily large group interaction, children enjoy singing songs, reading, and doing finger-plays. Concepts are learned through engaging group games and conversations. While circle time is brief with this age group, this part of the day is packed with fun and educational activities such as alphabet, number, shape, and color introduction.
Learning Center Activities
Starting in the Toddler Room, we make use of separate, learning domain focused centers to introduce the structure that they will experience in our K-Prep preschool program. Socially, we will support your toddler as they learn that different behavior is appropriate in different settings.
Exploring with the Senses
Toddlers discover our complex world through their five senses. Sensorial learning is encouraged by providing a stimulating environment that offers time for your child to explore. Days are filled with opportunities to develop creativity using paints, crayons, and play dough. Dramatic play performances such as playing house and dressing up expands your toddler’s imagination and our teachers often partner in their play.
Pedal’s Potty Training Program
We are committed to making potty training a positive experience by implementing a program that is both exciting for your child and easy to use at home as well. Our Woodland Friend, Pedal Rabbit, helps promote healthy choices and good hygiene in our toddlers and preschoolers through our custom Apple Sticker Rewards System. Certificates, cards, and encouragement are provided from Pedal as your child experiences the potty training process. We encourage and invite parents to inform us when they feel their son or daughter is ready to begin our program. Our Toddler Room teachers know that working collaboratively with parents will help us provide each child with fundamentals needed for potty training success.
Curriculum:
- C.O.R.E. Language & Literacy Acquisition Program
- C.O.R.E. Values Character Education Program
- Baby Signs
For more information about our curriculum system, visit our Curriculum page.
Young Preschool: 30 to 36 months
Your toddler is on the brink of becoming a preschooler and we will give him or her the skills needed to be successful in our K-Prep preschool program and beyond. We encourage investigation and emerging skills such as matching, sorting, and pattern identification.
We recognize that learning is occurring at a fast pace and your child is making new discoveries daily. Our exclusive C.O.R.E. curriculum introduces them to a world of learning, growing, sharing, and exploring.
Structured Areas Support Learning
Your child is almost ready for preschool and has an abundance of curiosity to prove it. We will encourage their interest in learning through activity areas. Our teachers consider the interests of the children in their classroom when organizing these spaces and gathering new materials to offer. Our planned areas of the classroom provide a physical structure that allows children to see all of the possible play and learning activities available to them. Through the structure, children learn what actions – building, painting, scribbling, digging, splashing, reading, sorting, and pounding – should occur at which learning center.
Our learning centers include dramatic play, science and sensory, math and manipulatives, reading, writing, blocks and community, art, music and movement, listening, and gross motor. They are intentionally chosen according to the subject areas needed for a well-rounded educational experience.
Friendships and Fun
Small group opportunities in this room allow teachers to teach new concepts while children enjoy the chance to communicate, cooperate, and properly interact with each other. During this age, we introduce our conflict resolution program, which helps your child learn the social skills needed to be successful in group settings. Teachers observe and guide interactions between children allowing students to learn how to recognize the feelings of others, develop problem solving skills, and learn how to respond appropriately to their peers in an assortment of situations. These social skills are important since learning and friendship go hand in hand.
Get Set for School
In this classroom, your child’s teacher will begin leading the class in “Get Set for School” (Handwriting Without Tears®) songs that provide foundation knowledge for future writing skills. One of these songs is “Mat Man.” Mat Man helps your toddler learn body awareness as well as shapes that will become parts of letters when their handwriting instruction begins.
C.O.R.E. Curriculum:
- C.O.R.E. Language & Literacy Acquisition Program
- C.O.R.E. Values Character Education Program
- Get Set for School – Handwriting Without Tears
For more information about our curriculum system, visit our Curriculum page.
