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 Infant Curriculum

Miss Dawn’s Child Care Infant Curriculum was created and designed to be used with infants ages 2 months to 18 months old and their caregivers. It is an outline of what is expected to be covered throughout the year.

 

We now know that the first three years of life are more critical to a child’s development than we ever imagined. Research tells us that more rapid brain development takes place during these years than at any other time of life.

During this period, children are discovering who they are, how others respond to them, and if they are competent. They are also learning how to relate to others, what it means to express their feelings, and whether they are loved. Their brains are being “wired” into patterns for emotional, social, physical, and cognitive development.

 

Our infant curriculum is filled with sound, color, and texture, which captures babies attention and keep them smiling as they learn! Our language-rich curriculum maximizes sensory stimulation and consistently offers brand-new, exciting experiences. The activities in the curriculum are designed to focus on how a baby’s daily routine can serve as the basis of learning throughout the day. Our daily routine includes social interactions which involve bouncing, lifting, clapping, gentle tickles, peek-a-boo and story-time. The influence of music for learning is also highlighted, as the music plays throughout the day we sing to the babies and encourage dancing with the older children. We also create a language environment which focuses on the importance of songs, rhymes, and the introduction of baby books.

The curriculum follows a weekly schedule that focuses on the monthly themes. The themes incorporate language development, tactile stimulation, and motor development. Multi-sensory experiences, exercise and dance movement, music, stories, language and more expand each theme activity.

Our staff members respect each baby’s individuality and developmental agenda, as well as each parent’s cultural background and unique parenting style. Just as we strive to teach the infants, we also learn that infants have much to teach us too.

OUR ACTIVITIES INCLUDE:

We provide an environment with quality educational materials and learning experiences that encourage your baby’s natural curiosity. Our staff implement learning activities based on your child’s developmental stage and interests.

 

• Language Development: plethera of board books, vinyl books, and picture card sets that our staff show and read to the children. Daily exposure to reading aloud stimulates babies’ natural ability to acquire linguistic skills and is an essential element of our program.

 

• Storytelling: Builds upon our goal of maximizing opportunities for language development by exposing children to storybooks, puppets, and soft stuffed animals that can be manipulated to create engaging tales.

 

• Music and Movement: Equipped with musical instruments, toys that make noise when manipulated, and toys that sing! Exposure to music stimulates babies desire to learn, creates feelings of excitement and enjoyment, and encourages babies’ desire to interact with others to follow, sing along and move along with music.

 

• Gross Motor Play: Stocked with activity walkers, large climbing mats, and push and pull play toys, encouraging development of gross motor skills including reaching, object transfer, head raising and sitting upright.

 

• Fine Motor and Self-Help Skills: Using objects such as stacking blocks and reaction toys, this encourages the development of two skill sets. These include fine motor skills, such as grasping, raking with fingers to pick up objects, holding and manipulating objects, and self-help skills, including grasping and holding a bottle while feeding and pulling up to standing position.

 

Daily Reports:

In addition to daily parent staff communication we maintain a daily written log – a Daily Report for each child.  As the day progresses, our staff completes the Daily Report, noting feedings, diapering, naps, daily activities, etc.  The Daily Report is then sent home with each parent at pickup time for review.