Research continuously demonstrates that the experiences in the early years are the most crucial in children’s lives. They are crucial because their brains are building the connections they will use to form their development in all areas. Therefore, at Ivy League Academy we provide opportunities for children to build these connections through a combination of biological traits (nature) and activities that allow them to have experiences with their world (nurture).

As any high quality program, we coo, cuddle, rock and do everything possible to bond with your baby and develop a sense of trust. However, what makes the “Tiny Turtle” program at Ivy League Academy unique is the right combination of loving and qualified teachers, a safe and inviting specially designed classroom, brain stimulating toys and the three (3) different lesson plans with various age appropriate activities that each infant will have endless opportunities to explore and engage age appropriate activities which will be performed with your child depending of the stage of your baby. (3-6 months old, 6-9 months old, 9-12 months old)

Foundations for Success Infant Curriculum

The Foundations for Success curriculum will focus on four foundational areas necessary in order to support infant development: Relationships, Senses and Perceptions, Movements and Language. All activities provided by our teachers are designed to engage your child’s cognitive, social-emotional and physical development.

• Positive relationships formed through warm, sensitive and responsive care of our infant teacher will help your child to feel valued and gain more from his/her learning experiences. Trust and emotional security will be developed as a result of the relationship formed between our infant teacher and your child. This early relationship will provide the foundation that supports exploration of the environment, learning, and the development of social skills.
• The Foundations curriculum provides different strategies for our infant teachers to promote sensory learning. In our “Tiny Turtle” room, both bright and soft lights as well as black and white graphics are used to stimulate your child’s visual sense. The use of sensory materials that your baby will find pleasurable, such as gentle strokes or soft pats, are used to act as motivators for specific behaviors (reaching, clasping, etc). We will use certain various odors to increase the ability to learn, create and think; also, some aromas will be used to boost attention and learning. The infant teachers will use meal times as a time to talk to your child about the variety of textures of the food and how they smell and taste.
• Beginning with “on their tummies” posture, your baby will be allowed to go through fundamental patterns that wire his/her brain for future movement. Our infant teachers promote movements in different ways. They will play quiet and soft music to calm infants and rhythmic music to get them excited about moving. Our teachers will play tapping rhythms, help them perform different exercises or movements, movements that will be an essential means of communication and one of the earliest ways of which your baby will express his/her thoughts and feelings.
• One of the features that distinguish our curriculum from others is the amount of language stimulation that your baby will get receive from both the teachers and the lesson plans. In our infant program, early cognition and language are supported by: plenty of activities that include reading aloud, talking to your baby, looking at his/her face, making eye contact, and taking turns making sounds with your child. The classroom is enriched with a variety of book formats, genres and complexity, books that are displayed on bookshelves making them easily visible; and the use of puppets and story props to be used during teaching time. Print rich-environment (print used for organization, your baby’s name posted; vocabulary words displayed) among other resources will allow your child to experience different ways to promote language.

Environment

Our classroom is divided into two (2) areas that meet your child’s needs:

• Exploring by senses: For both, mobile and non-mobile babies. We will encourage your baby to explore his/her curious nature by trying new things and experimenting with different materials. Our intentional two and three dimensional displays on walls, furniture and ceilings will provide your baby the possibility to explore with many of his/her senses: contrast (black and white) movement (material hanging off the ceiling), people (pictures of diversity cultures and children) sensory materials (to touch) nature sounds (to listen) different tastes (baby food special flavors like mango fruit, guava, etc)
• Gym area: your baby will learn as he/she moves his/her body. There is plenty of room for your child to roll, crawl, pull up, and cruise a space that is safe and inviting. Our high standard health and safety practices ensure that your infant will enjoy a clean, safe and healthy learning environment.

Another quality of our infant room is that each infant is provided his/her own personal crib for those on demand napping times. Our classroom is also equipped with a separate changing and feeding area for your child’s health and well being. Ivy League Academy wants to ensure you that we take every precaution possible to ensure that debris from the outside does not enter our classroom where our infants crawl, scoot and play on the floor. In order to ensure that this is possible, we have implemented a “bootie policy”. We provide shoes covers for all individual entering the room.

Open and continuous communication is an extremely important practice for our teachers. Our goal is to provide you with a sense of security that your precious little one will be well cared for while you are away. We will provide you with a daily report giving detailed information regarding your infant’s day, extra supplies that are needed as well as parenting tips that may be helpful at home. We will also suggest ideas of how you can reinforce at home, what your infant has learned during his or her day at Ivy League. We promote our open door policy and invite you to visit at any time during your child’s day.

We invite you to talk with our Director and schedule a tour and see the difference for yourself!