Infant Care: OUR CUDDLY BEARS 1:4 Ratio
Infant Philosophy
We believe that the best way to respond to children is individually. Infants, because they tend to be less predictable and their needs more urgent than older children, demand immediate attention from a caregiver. Infants depend entirely upon adults for physical and emotional sustenance; the quality of adult interactions with them is particularly important.
It is through meaningful interactions that an infant develops her sense of a calm and ordered world. These interactions nurture a child’s trust and help her develop emotionally.
Our Primary goal is to provide a nurturing, safe, and secure environment for our infants. Relaxing music is played and babies are carries frequently by teachers who interact with them. Attentive loving adults always talk to babies especially during routines. They are gentle to baby’s activities and cries. In addition, teachers strive to develop self-help skills with each baby.
This first year is crucial in developing bonds of love and trust with people in their lives. We spend a lot of floor time with our infants to help them become strong, learn and give those opportunities to explore. Parents will receive a daily log of your child’s feeding, sleeping, diapering and learning activities every day, so you can be confident your baby is receiving the care they deserve.
Infant Program
The centerpiece of Coronado Prep Preschool infant program is social contact: infants are held, talked to, looked at (eye to eye), cooed at, touched, stroked and patted. Their actions are mimicked. They are exercised, washed and changed frequently. They are responded to quickly; their cues are read and acted upon without delay. All this human contact encourages babies to communicate and helps them develop the self-confidence to explore their environment.
The infants’ environment allows them to alter and investigate it in ways they choose, when they choose. It is clean, colorful and interesting. There are toys and materials to attract the attention and challenge the ingenuity of infants. The play space encourages mobility and discovery through exploration. The adult is the home base for the exploring infant, the sounding board for vocalization and a helper when things seem too difficult to manage.
We encourage infant children to develop basic competencies. As they do they develop a positive image of themselves. Over time infants learn to express preferences, avoid unpleasant experiences and develop a sense of cause and effect. They learn to group and compare, to understand distance, space and perspective. They imitate sounds and develop ways to relate to others verbally.
As infants cross the threshold to “toddler hood,” we encourage them to explore, socialize, solve problems and use language.
A Typical Day in the Nursery
This infant care program schedule is flexible enough to accommodate individual children’s needs, so times may vary. Feeding, changing and napping routines are interspersed with holding, patting, touching and talking to the children for comfort and stimulation throughout the day.
Our Infant care insures we understand infant development in the most important year of development in a child’s life. Infant development areas include Movement, eye hand coordination cognitive development and communication.
We here at Coronado Prep Preschool understand the enormous impact care givers have on the development of children. We can make positive impacts on all crucial stages of development as well as providing a safe and loving environment.
During their first year, babies start to develop skills they will use for the rest of their lives. The normal growth of babies can be broken down into the following areas:
Gross Motor – controlling the head, sitting, crawling, maybe even starting to walk
Fine Motor – holding a spoon, picking up a piece of cereal between thumb and finger
Sensory – seeing, hearing, tasting, touching and smelling
Language – starting to make sounds, learning some words, understanding what people say
Social – the ability to play with family members and other children
Babies do not develop at the same rate. There is a wide range of what is considered “normal.” Your baby may be ahead in some areas and slightly behind in others
Feeding
We provide a complete report of each infant’s daily intake of solids and liquids to you at pick-up time. You provide a similar report to the staff at drop-off time. Take home copies of these reports are provided daily. If there are any special feeding needs please let us know.
Nursing mothers are welcome anytime. Let us know your schedule so we don’t interfere.
Personal Belongings
Pacifiers, nursing bottles, bottle liners, bibs, nipples and nipple collar assemblies are personal preference items which you must supply. Please remember to mark all personal property you bring to Coronado Preschool.
