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From the infant learning to clutch a block to the toddler learning to speak, your child’s days are filled with challenges and joys. Cognitively, socially and physically, children seek out stimulus to grow in many directions. At Lola’s Place, we use the Montessori and Gerber methods and our unique environment to ensure these needs are safely and supportively met. And your computerized, detailed daily report will allow you to monitor and engage in this progress.
Your infant has goals—big ones. She wants to grow in abilities from freedom of movement to independent action. At Lola’s Place, the environment has everything needed to safely support these goals. Important to our school is the concept of the “nest”—a safe place from which to explore. It starts with a clean, uncluttered environment: a place to move, a place to sleep, a place to eat and a place for physical care. We then add:
- Open floor space for movement
- Low shelves with materials that encourage visual perception, grasping, batting, kicking and mouthing
- Ample floor space to master scooting and crawling
- Climbing slides and stairs indoors and out
- Safe exploration of the outdoors to experience sensory changes
What you and your child will not see are any devices that confine movement—no bouncy seats, swings or highchairs. Care and attention make it possible to do without these.
One of the greatest needs of children is to foster basic trust within themselves, essential when moving from a bonding relationship to a growing sense of self and independence. As a parent, you help your infant meet his needs every day. Our goal is to participate in this wondrous process of development right along with you.
We echo your careful, respectful response to your infant’s needs, conveying the message of love and acceptance. We have found that continuity with a caregiver is also key in encouraging a sense of trust and growth, so our teachers follow each group of children in their care from infancy through toddler hood.
What is most interesting about your toddler? Everything—but especially, the way she finds interest in all that surrounds her. To be a toddler is to be curious—and Lola’s Place provides a nurturing environment where her drive to explore independently can find a joyful outlet.
Our classrooms features custom-size tables and chairs, sinks and stools, bookshelves and mirrors, indoor and outdoor play areas, all created and positioned to allow independent choice in play. Our study of children’s development has shown us that time matters greatly to toddlers: So we give them ample time to try a new task, to finish play, to try again.
At Lola’s Place, your child will discover the freedom within structure that caters to his developmental needs—and helps him discover new abilities. An enormous amount of learning and change happens in this short time. We invite families to share in this growth, and we complement activities occurring at home, through all these important stages:
- Physical: Developing large muscles and fine motor skills, dressing and undressing, feeding oneself, using the toilet.
- Cognitive: Thinking and solving problems independently, making choices, concentrating, remembering sequences, categorizing, following instructions, developing the senses.
- Emotional: To separate from parents in a healthy way and develop a respectful relationship with a caregiver, to express feelings in words and gestures, to take pride in accomplishments, to develop autonomy and creation of “self,” to begin to respect limits, to begin reasoning about feelings.
- Social: To engage in parallel and cooperative play, to begin to respect limits, to learn to use the tools of daily life and to participate.
- Linguistic: To develop expressive and receptive language, to say “no,” to develop vocabulary, to learn songs and rhymes, to create complex sentences using plurals, nouns, verbs, adverbs and prepositions, to carry on a conversation.
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