Infants | Toddlers | Preschoolers
We believe that every child is unique and born with a desire to learn. Our curriculum, materials, and activities are developmentally appropriate and child-centered. Our goal is to keep kids curious and inspire learning by providing fun, hands-on, and developmentally appropriate activities.
Our curriculum is specifically guided by the Washington Early Learning and Development Guidelines. To begin, we have created an assessment system for each age group. These assessments have learning goals clearly identified as well as the area of development that each goal meets. The daily lesson plans directly correspond to these assessments.
Infants
Kidcare Infant Curriculum is based on the principle that all children, even infants, learn best through direct, hands-on experiences with people, objects, events, and ideas.
Early language skills are fostered by ongoing communication between caregivers and infants. Eye contact and positive facial expressions are proven to give babies a sense of security. Extra attention is paid to connect with these special little students. Verbal interaction is ongoing to promote cognitive development.
The relationships formed within our program enhance their social skills as the toddlers and preschoolers interact with them on an ongoing basis and lead by example. This relationship is not only good for the infants but also teaches compassion and caregiving skills to the older children. Each year it is amazing to watch the transformation from infant to toddler and to see them naturally assume their next role as they transition from baby to big kid helper.
Our infants are encouraged to discover the world around them by exploring and playing. They are provided a safe environment to explore freely helping foster fine and gross motor development. Most importantly, they are loved, cuddled, and adored by all. They will receive lots of one on one attention within our small group.
Toddlers
Toddlers are not just small preschoolers. They have very different needs and learning goals. With toddlers, it’s all about exploring and discovering new things about themselves and the world around them. Since a toddler’s world experience is more limited, toddler themes work best when they revolve around something concrete, something they can see and touch. We have created unique learning activities and lesson plans just for toddlers. We work on communication skills, manners, social interaction, problem-solving, shapes, colors, counting, rhyming and much more.
Preschoolers
During the preschool years, our focus shifts slightly as curiosity takes us to new places. Through hands-on activities and fun-filled games, we explore our world and get answers to their many questions. Our first goal is to keep kids curious and inspire learning by providing fun, hands-on and developmentally appropriate activities. Next, I focus on school readiness. In doing this, I have worked closely with both kindergarten and first-grade teachers to align what I am teaching with what they actually need to learn to help them succeed in school. We focus on such things as letter and sound recognition, phonemic awareness (such as rhyming) name-writing, counting, patterning, and initial sight words.