We feel that the growth that the children gain from the opportunity to interact and socialize with others their own age is critical to their positive development. Through this interaction each child learns socialization skills, language, and a positive sense of self worth. All of our indoor and outdoor equipment is carefully chosen to augment a toddler’s specific developmental needs. We rotate our
indoor toys to “grow” as the children grow through the school year. Our outdoor equipment is geared to the appropriate physical development for toddlers from that rocky walking stage to wildly running. We also organize our outdoor play area to encourage imaginary play as the toddler evolves from parallel play to more interactive play. We want each child to have the opportunity to become familiar with a variety of media. For example, we like to take one simple item, like a crayon, and see how it works on different colors of paper, different weights of paper, mixed with paint, collaged etc. We use the different seasons and cultural celebrations as inspiration for our art projects. With the enormous variety of cultures present in the bay area and represented by our families, we are always finding new and interesting ways to mix learning about celebrations and art. From Chinese New Year to Cinqo de Mayo, we are busy. We use the study of culture as a jumping off place for our art, and then add cooking, singing and reading stories to fill out the picture.
