Hands-on learning and an understanding of the importance of play keep busy toddlers actively engaged.  

We find the best balance for this age group  is to offer both teacher-directed and child-directed learning opportunities.  The small group environment helps encourage the development of empathetic relationships with friends and trusting relationships with educators.  These are foundational emotional skills that will foster a health transition to preschool when they are age-ready!

As toddlers develop, we encourage self-help skills. Some daily skills our toddlers learn and gain confidence in include hand washing, teeth brushing (temporarily suspended due to COVID-19), self-feeding, dressing, and toilet training.

Your child will follow a structured daily routine.   We hold a daily meeting time and  scheduled morning snack, afternoon snack, lunch, and nap times.  When young children know what to expect they feel safe.  

We will foster and promote your child's growth and development in all areas including:

• gross motor

• fine motor

• sensory

• language

• social emotional

We incorporate the  Massachusetts Learning Standards & Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Infants and Toddlers in our lesson planning.  We also pay attention to what our toddlers are expressing interest in - and build Emergent Curriculum around their interests.  Children naturally learn through play by engaging in and making sense of the world around them. This guided play is self-chosen, enjoyable, and process-oriented

We encourage you to talk with your child about their day - we use Brightwheel (app) to communicate daily with families, provide information and photos of your child's day, and to help inspire those conversations and build a strong home-school connection.

Each day our committment to you is to meet your child - and each child enrolled in ur program - where they are at.  In a toddler environment this can mean many things!  Some examples include:

• if your toddler is experiencing an emotional drop off, supporting their emotional need becomes the priority

• if your child is experiencing big emotions as they work on developing their peer relationship skills, we will focus on guiding and supporting their interactions

Our toddler program is for children ages 15 months through age 3, though for some preschool will begin at 2.9.
We currently have three toddler classrooms:

• Mini Maples (Younger Toddlers - ages 15 months to 2): A full day, full year*  toddler class (7:30am-4:30pm) is licensed for 7 children and at full enrollment  would have a minimum of 2 teachers.  Children can remain in Mini Maples until they are 2.9, or unti they age up to our Older Toddler classroom around age 2.

• Mini Oaks (Older Toddlers -ages 2 - 3):  A full day, full year* toddler class (7:30-4:30)  is licensed for 9 children and at full enrollment  would have a minimum of 2 teachers

• Pinecones @ 316 (Toddlers -ages 15 mos to 2.9):  A full day, full year* toddler class (7:30-4:30)  is licensed for 4 children and at full enrollment  would have a minimum of 1 teachers

• *Summer Care: Children enrolled in our full day, full year program can choose to keep their summer schedule - or modify it for the summer months.  During the summer families our unique summer programming allows families to pick and choose dates of care (in advance) - and they only pay tuition for days they have selected.