Infant
Creative Minds Montessori School offers an exceptional out-of-home setting for your infant. Our experienced staff provide personalized and loving care for every child. Close communication between parent and teacher is essential and helps us provide individualized care for your child. We view our relationship as a partnership - we are equally invested in your child's happiness, well-being and development. Parents are invited to visit during the day, we respond to all "check in" calls with detailed information, and you leave with a daily report sheet that records feeding times, changes, and highlights from the day.
Infants are acutely aware of their surroundings. Research indicates that the most important years of human emotional and educational development are the first six years of life. Physical development and mental development are closely linked during this period and infants respond well to external stimulation which lays the foundation for absorption, concentration and learning. We are deeply committed to these developmental principles. Within our safe harbor, infants and beginning walkers enjoy freedom of movement, discovery, and interaction, as they develop gross motor skills as well as confidence. As part of the Montessori curriculum, infants dabble with art mediums, clap and move along to music and songs, begin lessons that encourage sensory and motor development, and enjoy outdoor time every day that weather permits.
Our infant program is committed to promoting quality infant care for children from six weeks to 20 months, based on Maria Montessori's principles. The aim is to accomplish the following:
- Foster the development of basic trust
- Assist in the natural development of personality, based on unique needs and wants
- Respond appropriately to the infant's needs to be loved, respected, and accepted
- Nurture infants through their senses, allowing infants to observe and move freely
- Offer holding and feeding comfort to the infants
- Maintain a routine that will be both flexible to an infants' daily needs, yet predictable so that the infant feels secure in her environment
- Establish a partnership with the family. The family is considered an integral part of the individual's total development
- Develop a stronger sense of self, self-confidence and independence
Practical life: Helping infants learn to drink from a cup and then to eat unassisted
Sensorial: Allows an infant to learn about the world through their senses, response activities and touching and grasping various objects
Language: Language activities and materials to encourage using words, increase vocabulary and conversational skills
Art and Music: Through song and dance, infants have access to a variety of large muscle activities that offer them opportunities to jump, climb, balance, crawl, or skip