Infant and Toddler
Your baby as an Individual
The way we approach our Infant and Toddler program at Enlightened Play Preschools is very clear. We treat all babies as the individuals they are. While following the parent’s guide to what the child is accustomed to at home, we recognize that all children behave differently with us than they do with parents at home. So, we must follow the child’s needs. Your child may need more food or less at school; your child may need more individual time in a rocking chair or is less affectionate with us than you; your child may need more comfort or more sleep at school. We follow your child’s needs and do our very best to learn, in that specific non-verbal language, what he or she is telling us.
PlaySets
In our infant/toddler room we don’t just feed, diaper, and nap children. We have a full Infant and Toddler program that we call PlaySets, developed by Julie Jenkins Sathe, our Executive Director.
Our program will vary widely depending on how many children are attending and by their varied ages and stages. In theory, PlaySets offers two ‘sets of play’ (activities) that the two teachers offer concurrently, in adjacent areas. This allows the children to choose between the PlaySets offered, with teacher guidance. The offered PlaySets are similar, yet not the same. The young infant/toddler normally has a short attention span. PlaySets works with that limited attention span by providing two supervised PlaySets that will keep their interest for twice as long, and allow the teachers to have a role in creating a safe and stable environment.
Sample PlaySets Program
|
Life Play
|
Folding Washcloths | Bathing Baby Dolls |
|---|---|---|
|
Motor Play
|
Rolling Balls | Dancing with Scarves |
|
Dramatic Play
|
Trying on Hats | Making Faces in the Mirror |
|
Creative Play
|
Pudding Painting | Wet Chalk on Paper |
Infants and Toddlers are so capable of doing many things. It’s sometimes difficult for parents to make room for their own child to try new things. It’s natural because parents are always geared to care for their children. We want them to try, succeed….try….and try again. And our environment is made for it, whereas it is not always feasible or prudent at home.
Nothing wrong with a little mess
At Enlightened Play Preschools, there is nothing punitive in making a mess, spilling, or missing the mark. Trying and trying again, sampling and spitting out, missing the paper, spilling the juice; are all examples of trying again. Standing up and falling down, wanting a toy, and pouring out all the toys to get it are all developmental ways of trying. We allow trying at Enlightened Play Preschools. Children will get dirty, messy and go home with details of their day on their clothing. A little paint here, a little milk there…
We want to prepare you for this. We do ask that children bring extra clothes for the BIG messes; an unexpected vomiting incident while we wait for parent pick-up, a big fall in the m
Come and visit us and see an example of how our program works. It’s only one day and it will be different than the next, of that I can assure you!
Learn more about Enlightened Discipline
Author Julie Jenkins insists that we say goodbye to the naughty mat and call “time out” on timeouts. Leave all those old-school techniques behind. This is the manual for teaching the foundations on self-discipline, common sense and self-respect to young children. Written for every teacher in the early childhood field and every parent with young children.
Click below to read more…
Meet Julie
Julie Jenkins devoted 30+ years to up leveling the way adults teach children about behavior. She put her philosophy into print in 2004 in Enlightened Discipline.
Purchase Julie's book Enlightened Discipline
West Sac Campus
703 West Acre Rd,
West Sacramento, CA 95691
916-371-3301
