Toddler Learning Community

Our intent, in the toddler community, is to provide an environment prepared exclusively for the characteristics of children between the ages of 18 through 36 months for discovery and learning. The purpose of the toddler community is to assist the toddler during this special period of growth and their first venture from home. The toddler teachers prepares the environment with age appropriate activities that foster the natural desire of the toddler’s internal need for exploration and independence.

Our nurturing, unhurried environment follows the natural rhythm of the child. The toddler can explore and experience at his own social, physical and cognitive level in an outdoor and indoor environment. Toddlers typically explore everything around, are expanding language, are able to create images and ideas, and grow in emotional awareness as a separate person. Thus through observation, study, and preparation, our community provides:

• Ample space to move and to strengthen equilibrium and motor skills, indoors and outdoors
• Places to explore, crawl through, small spaces to curl up in, and to climb
• Interesting things to examine, solve, observe, and imitate
• Others to play alongside with or to interact with
• Secure, introspective adults to help broaden the toddler’s knowledge andsense of well-being while spending part of the morning at school
Large and small motor activities involving self-help skills, snack preparation,exploring manipulatives, music with movement, art expression, practice withsocial skills, and caring for nature are some of the experiences offered in the toddler community.

What do children learn in a toddler class?

Current research confirms the importance of learning in the first three years of life. How and what children learn affects them throughout their lifetime. At MCH, they are learning, among other things:

• Trust in the safety of caring adults and classmates
• Confidence that they can communicate their needs and wants then receive a positive response
• Respect for themselves and each other
• Joy in learning

The teachers help each child learn to care for their physical needs that are developing at that time such as putting on their coat, toileting, washing their hands and wiping their nose. These practical life skills add to the toddler’s growing need for independence in an encouraging, caring environment set up for success. Emerging coordination is also a consideration of the toddler environment with ample opportunities for both large muscle and small muscle work. The toddler community is prepared taking into account the toddler’s natural curiosity to explore how things work and develop their vocabulary. Activities are planned to help them socialize in culturally appropriate ways as well as discover how special they are as individuals.

We offer two toddler sessions, Toddler 2 and Toddler 3. Toddler 2 meets on Monday and Tuesday while Toddler 3 meets on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Both classes meet from 9:00 to 11:30 a.m. The daily schedule for the classes is usually:

9:00 Arrival in toddler courtyard, weather permitting

10:00 Transition to indoor environment (Musikgarten on Tuesday/Thursday)

11:00 Group time-examples include: music and movement, conversation, reading books, rhymes and finger plays

11:30 Departure in toddler courtyard, weather permitting