Our Child Care Center (Infants and Young Toddler Rooms)

Our Infant and Young Toddler rooms have a flexible daily schedule that will accommodate your baby’s needs while steadily preparing them for a more structured schedule. Parents provide baby food, diapers, formula and bottles as needed.

Our flexible daily schedule is as follows:

• Arrival (Curbside Drop-off) and Quiet Play
• Exploration, Baby Exercise, Breakfast/Bottle Feeding
• Diapering/Hand Washing
• Stroller Walks, Outside Play
• Lunch/Bottle Feeding, Baby Exercise, Tummy Time, and Large Motor Activity
• Diapering/Hand Washing
• Reading, Music, and Singing
• Quiet Time (Rock and talk to infants)
• Nap Time
• Diapering/Hand Washing
• Bottle Feeding, Stroller Walks, Outside Play, Baby Exercise, Tummy Time, Fine and Gross Motor Activities
• Rest Time
• Diapering/ Hand Washing
• Reading, Music, and Singing
• Dismissal (Curbside Pick-up)

The Infant and Young Toddler Enrichment Program is typically arranged in centers that stimulate learning and encourage social development. Areas such as Pretend Play, Library, and Music & Art, as well as access to mirrors and instruments, will aid in their growth as a whole child.

Afternoon walks to the Koi pond and Bird Sanctuary further enrich your baby’s curiosity and wonder. Our specialty teachers also provide age-appropriate music and movement for all our babies, encouraging your baby to listen and feel the sounds around them.

Our Creative Curriculum focuses on the whole child development and provides opportunities for your child to develop spiritually, socially, emotionally and physically. Your baby is loved and encouraged to work at his or her own pace.

The Creative Curriculum is a comprehensive, developmentally appropriate curriculum, which includes objectives for children’s development and learning. Babies are encouraged to use their senses to learn about and understand their world. Our nursery teachers balance individual attention with group experiences to ensure that your child is learning in productive ways. Your baby will be exposed to age-appropriate experiences that will engage and inspire!

Language development and listening skills are encouraged through verbal and visual stimulation of color, words, shapes, animals, environment, and music.

Experiential Learning is the process of learning through experience. Teachers will interact one-on-one with the infants and are frequently held or carried to provide them with a wide variety of stimuli and experiences.

Our staff talks to the infants before, during, and after moving the child to familiarize your baby with their surroundings. Each baby follows his or her own unique schedule until preparing for the transition to the Toddler Room.

Gross motor skills

• Chin up in a prone position.
• Turn head in supine position.

Fine motor skills:

• Hands fisted near face.

Self-help:

• Sucks well.

Problem-Solving:

• Gazes at black and white objects.
• Follows face.

Social/emotional:

• Discriminates mother’s voice.
• Cries out of distress.

Receptive Language:

• Startles to voice/sound.

Expressive Language:

• Throaty noises.

Gross motor skills:

• Chest up in prone position.
• Head bobs when held in sitting position.

Fine motor skills:

• Hands unfisted 50% of the time.
• Retains rattle if placed in hand.
• Holds hands together.

Self-help:

• Open mouth at sight of breast or bottle.

Problem-solving:

• Visual threat present.
• Follows large, highly contrasting objects.
• Recognizes mother.

Social/Emotional:

• Reciprocal smiling: responds to adult voice and smile.

Receptive Language

• Alerts to voice/sound.

Expressive Language:

• Coos
• Social smile (6 weeks).
• Vowel-like noises.

Gross Motor

• Sits with trunk support
• No head lag when pulled to sit
• Props on wrists
• Rolls front to back

Fine Motor

• Hands held predominately open.
• Clutches at clothes
• Reaches persistently
• Plays with rattle

Self-Help

• Briefly holds on to bottle

Problem-Solving

• Mouths objects
• Stares longer at novel faces than familiar
• Shakes rattle
• Reaches for ring/ rattle

Social/Emotional

• Smiles spontaneously at pleasurable sight/ sound
• Stops crying at parent voice
• To and fro alternating vocalizations

Receptive Language

• Orients head in direction of a voice
• Stops crying to soothing voice

Expressive Language

• Laughs out loud
• Vocalizes when alone

Gross Motor

• Sits with pelvic support
• Rolls back to front
• Puts arms out front when falling
• Sits with arms supporting trunk

Fine Motor

• Palmar grasps cube
• Transfers objects: hand-mouth-hand
• Touches fingers together
• Begins reaching with both hands at the same time.
• Reaches/grasps dangling ring
• Touches or bangs an object on a table or hard surface.

Self-Help

• Gums/mouths pureed food

Problem-Solving

• Turns head to look for a dropped spoon
• Regards pellet or small cracker

Social/Emotional

• Recognizes caregiver visually
• Forms attachment relationship to caregiver

Receptive Language

• Begins to respond to name

Expressive Language

• Says “Ah-goo·
• Razzes, squeals
• Expresses anger with sounds other than crying

Gross Motor

• Bounces when held
• Sits without support steadily
• Lateral protection
• Puts arms out to sides for balance

Fine Motor

• Radial-palmar grasp

Self-Help

• Refuses excess food

Problem-Solving

• Explores different aspects of toy
• Observes cube in each hand
• Finds partially hidden objects

Social/Emotional

• Looks from object to parent and back when wanting help (such as with a windup toy)

Receptive Language

• Looks toward familiar objects when named
• Attends to music

Expressive Language

• Increasing variety of syllables

Gross Motor

• Gets into sitting position
• Commando crawls
• Pulls to sitting/ kneeling position

Fine Motor

• Bangs spoon after demonstration
• Scissor grasp of cube
• Takes cube out of cup
• Pulls out large peg
• Able to pull an item that is placed vertically in Play‐ doh. 
• Able to hold an object with the pad of the thumb facing the pad of the index finger

Self-Help

• Holds own bottle
• Finger feeds Cheerios® or string beans

Problem-Solving

• Seeks object after it falls silently to the floor

Social-Emotional

• Lets parents know when happy versus upset
• Engages in gaze monitoring: adult looks away and child follows adult glance with own eyes.

Receptive Language

• Responds to come here·
• Looks for family members, “Where’s mama?”… etc.

Expressive Language

• Says “Dada” (nonspecific)
• Echolalia (8 to 30 months)
• Shakes head  for “no”

Gross Motor

• Creeps well
• Cruises around furniture using two hands
• Stands with one hand held
• Walks with two hands held

Fine Motor

• Clumsy release of cube
• Inferior pincer grasp of pellet
• Isolates index finger and pokes
• Pull out three items that are placed vertically in Play‐ doh
• Releases an object into an adult’s hand upon request.

Self-Help

• Drinks from cup held for child

Problem-Solving

• Uncovers toy under cloth
• Pokes at pellet in bottle
• Tries to put cube in cup, but may not be able to let go

Social/Emotional

• Experiences fear
• Looks preferentially when name is called

Receptive Language

• Enjoys peek-a-boo
• Waves “bye-bye” back

Expressive Language

• Says “Dada” (specific)
• Waves “bye-bye”

Gross Motor

• Pivots in sitting position
• Cruises furniture using one hand
• Stands for a few seconds
• Walks with one hand held

Fine Motor

• Throws objects
• Stirs with spoon
• Places small objects into a medium or large container
• Can place multiple medium‐sized objects (i.e. blocks) into a container

Self-Help

• Cooperates with dressing

Problem-Solving

• Finds toy under cup
• Looks at pictures in book

Social/Emotional

• Gives objects to adult for action after demonstration (lets adult know he or she needs help)

Receptive Language

• Stops activity when told ·no·
• Bounces to music

Expressive Language

• Says first word
• Vocalizes to songs