Infant/Nido Community
All of our schools and child care centers offer Infant Programs for children six weeks and older. Each classroom provides a nurturing, enriching environment designed to spark curiosity and support early exploration, with plenty of time for cuddles, reading, language development, and motor skill activities. Our Infant Community teachers are experienced, compassionate, and patient, and they take great joy in guiding children through their earliest milestones and discoveries.
To learn more about availability or to join our waiting list, please contact us.
“The greatness of the human personality begins at the hour of birth.”
– Dr. Maria Montessori
INFANT COMMUNITY PHILOSOPHY AND PROGRAM PLAN
The foundation of our education and learning philosophy is that each child is an independent thinker and naturally gravitates towards areas of interest. Trained early childhood education teachers are aware of these patterns displayed by the children in specific learning categories and will foster those interests.
Since children are receptive and curious, it is the Montessori philosophy that embraces that independent thinker and allows them to make choices on their own while the teacher, who is trained to spot those choices, enables further advancement of specific interests. We believe that a Montessori education provides students of all ages with information in a way they can understand it and enjoy, where learning can be fun and tailored to each child’s unique learning style.
We have designed a classroom to facilitate and foster the advancement of those specific interests, whether they are: language, sensorial, gross motor development, music and more. Toys, games and learning exercises make the transition seamless from mere “playing” to actionable learning.
Program Objectives
Our Infant Community offers a program that allows your infant to experience the joy of learning while preserving the spontaneity, initiative, and curiosity inherent in them. Each child is treated as an individual and allowed to develop at their own pace while being supported and encouraged to grow in the areas of independence. Our Infant Room also understands the deep emotional needs of infants and provides a loving and nurturing environment where they can thrive.
We are proud to have a diverse group of children from various cultural backgrounds and teach each child to respect their cultural background.
Our experienced caregivers will help you and your children make the transition to child care by providing personal attention to your infant’s needs. Your baby’s schedule and feeding habits will be respected. Each child receives a daily report via Sonnet Connect (an app for parent communication), so you will know what your baby did during the day, and you will also receive photos and videos of your baby throughout the week.
DAILY SCHEDULE
The Infant Community activities offer both quiet and active times throughout the day. Infants engage in both free play and teacher-guided activities. The materials and activities we provide are designed to develop each child intellectually, physically, socially and emotionally. Activities include holding/touching, making eye contact and communicating with babies as much as possible; talking and singing to babies; tummy-time as a time to encourage infants to achieve mastery of their bodies through self-initiated motor behavior such as rolling and sitting. Older infants will be encouraged to feed themselves and encouraged in their development of self-help skills; encourage and support each older infant’s developmental achievements such as pulling up self, walking and climbing; listening and responding to infants as they begin using language. View our daily schedule.
There are three primary areas of our Infant Community:
Movement Area
You will find a mirror; wall bar; pushcart; movement mat; materials for hand-eye coordination such as threading; cubes on pegs; shape sorters; puzzles and more. Toys are simple, lightweight, and easily washable. We do have rattles, action/reaction toys, cuddly toys, toys to mouth (i.e. teethers), nesting cups, etc.
Practical Life
The practical life area includes materials for folding, sweeping, dishwashing and water play, hand washing, window cleaning, and more.
Language
The language area includes miniature objects, language nomenclature cars (parts of the body, family members, pets, components of the neighborhood, the school, and the home), books (fiction, poetry, nonfiction), spoken vocabulary enrichment exercises, and other activities including art and music experiences.
