(@ Walking to 18 months depending on your child’s development)

The Seedlings Early Childhood Education Program includes enrichment programs for Infant Sign Language, Musical Beginnings and Reading Readiness. Developmental milesones are achieved utilizing key elements from the Creative Curriculum for Infants and Toddlers (approved by New Jersey Dept. of Education) which focus on intentionally teaching through play.

Our curriculum addresses an infant’s growth and development by creating strong bonds and encouraging learning through play.  Understanding how young children learn is essential to providing a child care environment which supports an infant’s development. 

Children’s developmental growth is reinforced through teacher-led play.  For example, when focusing on a “Farm Animals” theme, the song of the week could be Old MacDonald, the books read could be Barnyard Dance or Down on the Farm, the plush toys could be animals found on a farm.  Teachers could play auditory and visual games, such as making animal sounds and role-playing different animals and sensory exploration for “soft” could focus on the feel of cotton balls while “baaing” like a sheep.

The mobile infant who is starting to crawl depends on a sense of security as a base for strong interest in exploration.  Exploration is key for infants as they are striving to make sense of the world around them.  They are progressing from hearing to listening, feeling to touching, and from being held to moving around.  And our infant rooms are the perfect, safe environments for little ones to discover their bodily powers as they learn to move, pull up and roll over.

The infant caregivers lovingly implement activities to enable children to bond and connect - developing from having only instinctual behavior to learning basic trust.  Our caregivers encourage language development from giggles to vocalization through imitation.

Every interaction is another opportunity to learn and develop.  Motor, intellectual, social and language development are all closely intertwined.  For example, infants need opportunities to use their bodies freely in order to learn about space, movement and the effects their actions have on objects and the people around them. 

Each week, all areas of development are covered by introducing appropriate activities that address each infant’s individual needs.  As an infant matures, their schedule tends to become more structured and organized.  Nurturing caregivers weave the activity plans into the child’s needs to sleep, eat and to just be held.