Our Infant Program is for children six weeks to two years old and comprises of three separate rooms. Our infant and toddler rooms are spacious and serve several purposes. Every parent receives a written daily report on their child’s progress and needs.
Functional – The layout allows our caregivers to provide the quality attention the infants deserve by meeting their most basic needs of eating, sleeping, and diapering. The rooms are equipped with sinks for hand washing and bottle and food preparation. In addition, our rooms are outfitted with cribs or cots for little ones to rest and sanitary diapering surfaces to take care of those little presents left behind.
Education and Growth – Tender Years has been on the Baby Steps program for over three years. This program provides our teachers specifically for babies. These classes educate the teachers on the following:
1) Infant communication techniques
2) Comforting techniques
3) Techniques to stimulate motor skills
4) Techniques to help with their cerebral development
A Baby Steps specialist observes and rates our teachers on a regular basis and with every observation our teachers have increased their scores. In our most recent observation the specialist commented that our teachers had the best language development and interaction with the children she had ever seen.
Infants participate in “tummy time.” This helps strengthen core muscles necessary for the next stage of physical development. Older waddlers and toddlers are allowed the opportunity to explore their world and develop their crawling and walking skills. They have toys ready to shake, roll, bounce, stack, manipulate, and touch. Teachers read and talk to the infants daily to help increase their comprehensive language skills. Music is also a large part of the baby room as the teachers sing and classical music plays while they sleep. With the help of the teachers, the waddlers and toddlers participate in weekly art activities. Large brushes, crayons, markers, and manipulatives help the beginning stages of their fine motor development.
Safety – State regulation requires that infants are not integrated with other students unless there are less than eight students in the building. For the safety of the infants, and to eliminate unforeseen accidents, we extend this regulation to prohibit older children from entering the infant rooms.
Health – Our teachers take pride in keeping a clean environment. Toys and equipment are cleaned and sanitized daily to ensure that germs are not spread. We follow and exceed the state health guidelines for hand washing to include, but not limited to, before and after eating, before entering the room, after diapering, after going to the bathroom, and before food preparation.