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Our Programs
Infant
Infants are constantly growing, learning, and changing, which makes these early years critical in developing the tools and skills of learning. That’s why Little Scholars Learning House goes beyond what a daycare can offer and supports infants in absorbing the world around them. Little Scholars Learning House is an environment that is physically safe, cognitively challenging, and emotionally nurturing. Our teachers are kind, respectful and wise, and constantly mindful of the sounds children hear and the sights they observe.
We do this with the following:
A daily schedule based on the needs of the infants, each of whom may have a different feeding and sleeping schedule.
Because infants thrive with stability, our classrooms have a consistent routine with the same staff each day.
We also set clearly defined limits and expectations in order to create a positive discipline model.
By providing time for uninterrupted discovery and development, as well as freedom to explore and interact with each other, Little Scholars Learning House staff lovingly guides our infants to be initiators, explorers and self-learners.
Sensorial stimulation
Sensorial stimulation activities allow infants to discover the world before developing language skills and is the most important component of this earliest curriculum level. At this age, while infants are actively developing language skills, they experience the world primarily through their senses and create new associations that lay a foundation for language and vocabulary. Our curriculum also includes materials that make sounds and encourages interactions with teachers and staff to develop auditory skills. Smell and taste expand as their eating habits evolve and associated language is used. Activities aim towards introducing concepts which are later expanded on in the toddler curriculum.
Movement Rich Environment
Because movement is critical to brain development, we have a movement-rich environment. This includes making the child an active participant rather than a passive recipient in all care-giving activities. Infants initially refine their ability to move their head and control eye movement. They begin to roll over, creep, sit, crawl and eventually walk.
To support these activities we conduct:
Gross-motor coordination activities supported by stairs and a platform, movement mat, pushcart and wall bars.
Eye-hand coordination activities using fine-motor coordination materials such as mobiles, rattles and objects to grasp.
Activities that include threading, bead-stringing, placing cubes on pegs, putting puzzles together, folding and other practical life exercises.
Language Development
Infants are actively absorbing language every moment they are awake. Teachers and staff talk with our infants, explaining what’s happening and what they’re doing near constantly to encourage this.
This means:
They sing together and listen to nursery rhymes.
They experiment with their voices by imitating sounds as they grow.
We’re careful to communicate as infants grow — to “listen” and “talk” with them.
We also use language-building materials such as books, objects and pictures for naming in all of our activities to encourage language-based thinking.
As infants grow in our program, they are introduced to other, basic concepts such as:
Art — Our infants explore their creative and artistic side as they paint, create, glue, work with dough, and participate in a multitude of classroom activities.
Science — Our youngest students explore the natural world through discussions and experiences with the weather, seasons, and life around them.
Math — Our infants explore the concept of numbers for example, when staff count as they do activities in the classroom.
Infant/Nursery Room:
7:00-8:15 Drop off and Free Play
8:15-8:30 Diaper Change
8:30-8:45 Music
8:45-9:00 Clean Up and Wash Hands
9:00-9:30 Breakfast
9:30-10:15 Sensory/Montessori materials
10:15-10:30 Diaper Change and Clean Up
10:30-11:00 Outside or Gross Motor Play
11:00-11:45 Art
11:45-12:00 Diaper Change and Wash Hands
12:00-12:30 Lunch
12:30-1:00 Diaper Check and Story Time
1:00-3:00 Nap
3:00-3:15 Diaper Change
3:15-3:45 Snack
3:45-4:15 Walk Outside or Gross Motor Play
4:15-5:00 Free Play
5:00-5:15 Diaper Change
5:15-6:00 Free Play and Pick Up
Toddler / Young Preschool
Our program invites children on a daily adventure in a safe, secure environment. Tailored to each child’s needs, we give toddlers time and opportunities to immerse themselves in four areas that go beyond what a traditional daycare can offer.
Practical Life Skills
Toddlers develop a sense of self while learning to be independent. We strive to teach independence and confidence at this young age through simple everyday activities like:
- Buttoning
Zipping
Preparing Food
Washing Hands
When promoted as part of the learning process, even simple life skill tasks can lead to greater physical independence and confidence that promotes intellectual exploration and creativity in children, even at the toddler age.
Motor Skills
Students’ fine motor skills, concentration, and eye-hand coordination develop through activities such as pouring, spooning and grasping. They also learn to organize objects spatially. Outdoor playtime and classroom movement exercises promote large motor skills through activities such as jumping, running, dancing and walking.
Sensorial Exercises
Our children advance their sense of touch, sight, sound, smell, and taste. This teaches them concepts such as size, shape, and color. Outdoor adventures let children explore nature through their senses as well.
Other sensorial exercises include discrimination of weight, discrimination of smell, discrimination of taste, discrimination of temperature, and discrimination of shape, all to develop a more robust vocabulary and learn to distinguish between like items, building towards the preschool curriculum.
Language Development
The explosion of verbal language is a hallmark of the toddler years. We help children gain a rich vocabulary through daily conversations and an exploration of literature via books and finger plays. Pre-reading activities include matching, counting, and understanding sequence of events. Children also learn to use and read facial expressions. Toddlers are introduced early and exposed daily to the core components of an educational philosophy, including:
Mathematics – To recite and identify numbers while also coming to understand that numbers have value.
Science – Science concepts are introduced through weekly topics that help to lay the foundation for scientific exploration. Hands-on activities and discussions promote discovery.
The Arts – Toddlers develop self-expression and a passion for the arts by creating unique projects, singing playful songs and reciting fun rhymes daily. These musical and artistic experiences teach children to work on creative expression — with process being more important than product.
Toddler classroom
7:00-8:00 Arrival/Free time
8:00-8:30 Potty Break
8:30-9:00 Morning Meeting/Circle Time
9:00-9:30 Outside Time
9:30-10:00 Morning Snack
10:00-10:30 Potty Break
10:30-11:00 Centers
11:00-11:30 Music and Movement
11:30-12:00 Potty Break
12:00-12:30 Lunch
12:30-1:00 Story Time
1:00-1:30 Potty Break
1:30-3:30 Nap/Quiet Time
3:30-4:30 Potty Break and Snack
4:30-5:00 Free Time
5:00-5:30 Outside/Gross Motor
5:30-6:00 Clean up
Young Preschool
7:00-8:00 Arrival/Free time
8:00-8:30 Potty Break
8:30-9:00 Morning Meeting/Circle Time
9:00-9:45 Potty Break and Snack Time
9:45-10:15 Outdoor Time
10:15-11:00 Centers
11:00-11:30 Music and Movement
11:30-12:00 Potty Break
12:00-12:30 Lunch
12:30-1:00 Story Time
1:00-1:30 Potty Break
1:30-3:30 Nap/Quiet Time
3:30-4:15 Potty Break and Snack
4:15-4:15 Outdoor/Gross Motor
5:00-5:45 Free Time
5:45-6:00 Clean up
Preschool
Little Scholars Learning House’s Preschool program provides a carefully planned, stimulating environment that helps children develop the foundational habits, attitudes, skills and ideas that are essential for a lifetime of creative thinking and learning. It is designed to meet the needs of each individual child. Through a Montessori-inspired philosophy, we recognize each stage of development presents challenges and opportunities to teach children the beginning practices which foster independence and creative lifelong learning.
Sensorial Exercises
Sensorial materials help children learn to distinguish, categorize, and relate new information to what they already know. This process is the beginning of conscious knowledge, spurred when the intelligence works in a concentrated way on impressions created by the senses.
Sensorial activities at this stage build on what children learned in infant and toddler phases, integrating the same types of activities into the rest of the curriculum. Examples include:
Math – We present children with a binomial cube that helps them learn discrimination of color and size and builds a foundation for future understanding of polynomials and volume.
Language Arts – Children are constantly matching concepts such as color and shape to objects to build and grow vocabulary. They also learn to identify consonants and vowels, and begin learning to write through color and texture exercises.
Science – Color discrimination is used to help children identify different parts and concepts of individual animals.
Geography – Touch discrimination is used to help children distinguish between water and land, and later colors are used to help children discriminate between continents, then countries.
Practical Life Exercises
Young children like to imitate adults doing ordinary tasks, by doing this we help children improve their coordination and focus their concentration. They learn to pay attention to detail and develop good work habits.
Physical Geography
Large wooden puzzle maps are immensely popular. At first, students use them simply as puzzles. Gradually, children learn names of countries, geographical facts, and common land formations such as islands and peninsulas. By starting with the big picture and then working down to include smaller details, we create a love for the concepts of geography in our students.
Cultural Units
Little Scholars Learning House allows children to gain an awareness of the world around them by exploring countries, customs, food, music, climate, language and animals. The mission with cultural units are to help students develop understanding, tolerance and compassion for all people.
Arts
Art feeds a great joy children find in creating. At Little Scholars Learning House, children use their imaginations with a variety of mediums, learning that process is more important than the end-product.
Science and Nature
Science stimulates curiosity through discovery projects and experiments, helping children to draw their own conclusions. Our students strive to:
Study the plant and animal kingdoms
Develop a love and appreciation for all living things
Use sensorial exercises focusing on color, touch and auditory discrimination to better understand the living world around them.
Preschool age schedule:
8:50-9:00 Drop off/car line begins
9:00-9:15 Morning greeting/circle time
9:15- 10:00 Work time
10:00-10:15 Snack time
10:15-11:15 Work time
11:15-11:45 Outside time
11:45-11:55 Closing circle
11:55-12:00 Pick Up Line Outside Doors
Remainder of day for other preschool age children:
12:00-1:00 Lunch/Outside time
1:00-3:00 Rest Time/Quiet time
3:00-4:00 Snack and Outside time
4:00-6:00 Learning centers: Children can explore and play in the centers.
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