Staff/Child ratio: 1:5
We maintain a 1:5 caregiver to infant ratio at all times to ensure the best care possible. The focus of our infant program is to provide care, love, compassion, and attention to each infant and we do this by always having plenty of experienced and passionate caregivers on staff. Our staff members are devoted to understanding each baby’s unique personality to ensure that they are being cared for in a safe and loving environment.
Our infant nursery is set up with natural elements and soft lighting with separate sleeping areas. We have also designed our nursery so that our staff members are able to see and hear babies at all times. Children are never left unsupervised.
Curriculum
We use a two part curriculum. The first part is based on the South Carolina Early Learning Standards and the Georgia Bright from the Start Standards. The guidelines are important because they help us ensure that we are providing responsive care that is developmentally appropriate. The six developmental domains are:
• Approaches to Play and Learning (APL)
• Emotional and Social Development (ESD)
• Health and Physical Development (HPD)
• Language Development and Communication (LDC)
• Mathematical Thinking and Expression (MTE)
• Cognitive Development (CD).
The lesson plans for the Infant Toddler guidelines are created weekly (based on the current developmental needs of our students) and posted on our parent communication board in our classroom.
The second part of our curriculum is based on the Reggio Emilia approach to learning. This learning concept sees very young children as competent and capable learners, while also placing emphasis on the child’s surrounding environment. By challenging children in an effective and thoughtful way, while engaging their senses, learning becomes a natural and fun state of mind.
We also create an interest based web that will also be posted on our parent communication board. Based upon the current interest of the children in our classroom, this web may be changed weekly, or even monthly. We will branch off from themes and base our art projects, songs, books, finger plays and other activities on these interest themes. Please feel free to ask us about our current theme!
