Encouraging Curiosity Through Safe Exploration

Toddlers/Ones

In our toddler class (ages 12 - 24 months), play is how children discover the world around them. Teachers will utilize a variety of activities to stimulate imagination and interests. Teachers will interact with children to explore sights, sounds, and textures in their surroundings. Although children will learn at their own pace, predictable schedules are used to develop trust and lay the groundwork for more advanced academic learning in older classrooms.

Toddlers/Twos

In contrast to the infant and toddler classrooms, 2 year olds begin learning through more thoughtful experiences. Language skills increase significantly, and 2 year olds are able to form mental images for things, actions, and concepts. Children are able to begin solving problems in their head, meaning mental trail-and-error is occurring rather than the manipulation of objects physically.

Our twos classroom has a strong emphasis on developing healthy social and emotional skills, with the addition of simple and introductory academics. A major intellectual limitation at age 2 is the feeling that everything that happens in his/her world is the result of something he/she has done. This means that complex concepts such as death, divorce, or illness may make the child feel that they are somehow responsible.

An important milestone occurring at age 2 is potty training! Every child will begin to show interest in potty training at different times and parents must recognize that this skill will take time for children to master. Children are usually not cognitively ready to use the potty (meaning they associate the need to go with remembering to use the potty) or have the motor skills needed to use the bathroom until age 2. Our teachers work on potty training every single day until it is mastered, with the final goal being fully trained by age 3.