Children in our Seeds program are in the beginning stage of growth, and range in age from 6 weeks to 12 months. These students will experience a personalized schedule for eating and resting. At this age children learn through sensory input, so we use an environment enriched with tactile, kinesthetic, visual, and auditory stimulation. All care is provided with a higher staff to student ratio than is required for ODJFS licensure. These seeds may be tiny, but their daily growth is wondrous, and their potential is limitless.

Our Sprouts program begins around 12 months, once a child is walking, and lasts until about 20 months. In this time, our sprouts are all about learning through exploration. We support this drive by offering a language rich environment including nursery rhymes, simple directives, and picture books. If you walk into a sprouts room you might see children working on imitating animal sounds, or an activity geared towards responding to their names, and if you’re lucky there will be some friends at the feeding table socializing. These little sprouts are getting taller, and if you look closely you will see the beginnings of leaves.

Ages ranging from 20 to 28 months, our seedlings need plenty of sunshine, water and warmth. One thing to remember at this stage is the big emotion you’ll see from such little people, and helping them manage tantrums is only the beginning. This is also where your child will learn gross motor skills like throwing and catching, and fine motor skills like turning pages one at a time. Our seedlings will be working on feeding with utensils, and sorting by shape and color. More uniquely this room is where we start to utilize educational technology, and give our kids some natural experiences with classroom pets.

In our saplings rooms we serve children ages 28-36 months. One of our primary goals at this stage is working on toileting and helping your child become more independent with activities of daily living. At this age your child will be so excited to come to class, showing affection for their peers and participating in pretend play are just a few of the experiences they will have each day. We will also work on following instruction, learning their personal information, and building up language to carry on conversations with 2 or 3 sentences. These little saplings are craving nurture, and as roots begin to develop and spread, their blossom becomes more and more inevitable.

Serving 36-48 months, this room has a look and feel like a more traditional preschool class. Students are learning many pre-academic skills they will be building on as they advance to our Grove, then eventually onto Kindergarten. This age is where we start to introduce educational technology such as interactive whiteboards, keeping students engaged and motivated throughout the lesson. This stage is where we are really pushing their creativity, using STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) to shape their mind, and balancing that out learning through play and social interactions. The nursery is where their branches are reaching high and we see the blooming and blossoming in full effect, baring all the fruits.

Now our tree trunks thicken and develop a new layer of bark each year, signifying they are equipped not only to weather the storm, but continue to grow through it. This Pre-K room is geared towards putting the fine point on each and every early learning standard your child will need to thrive in Kindergarten. These kids are becoming more independent, using verb tenses, and sharing stories about home and school experiences to friends and staff. The culmination of all our care and expertise will be on full display each day in the Grove.