Infants and toddlers are one of my favorite ages.  There is SO much they learn through this period of their lives.

Think of it, at 6 weeks, your infant can do little more than eat, sleep, poop and respond to your love and touch.

By 4 months they are trying baby foods, reaching for objects, recognizing familiar faces, rolling over and making noises.

By 6-8 months, they are crawling, babbling, figuring out puzzles. 

At 9-12 months they are trying to walk, supported and unsupported.  They are eating table foods. They have full interaction with others.  They are expressive with their emotions and feelings. 

They comes 12-24 months.  Wow do they grow here.  They learn through play about social interactions, puzzles, songs, dance, and touch.

It is just such a period of growth and development that I feel privledged to be a part of children's lives during this part of their delevelopment.

 My Goals For Your Infant or Toddler

I feel the best way for children to learn is by doing.  By playing.

The primary objective when working with all children is meeting their personal needs.  At this age, that takes most of the day.

Between diaper changes and bottles, your little one will be encouraged through love to make it to those next big milestones.  Rolling over, crawling, walking.

Children at this age learn from a simple game of peek-a-boo.  They learn the different textures of the world.  It is my job to provide them with the opportuniy to do this.

I love to sing and listen to songs.  I may not be the best singer :) but children don't seem to mind.  Singing the same songs daily helps your child remember things.  I love a CD I have called "Color Word Songs." It's all about different colors.  The great thing about this CD is it is great for a mixed age group of children. For example; the first song is red.  It goes like this " R E D red R E D red I can spell red, I can spell red.  Firetrucks are red, stopsigns are red too, R E D, R E D."  Younger children see this as singing a fun song and idendifying the word red with things like firetrucks and stop signs.  Older children are learning how to spell red.  I also have a lot of nursery rhymes set to music and I have puppets of flannel board props to go with them.  The kids love hearing the songs and seeing the characters busrt into life.

If you haven't figured it out from my "Jenn's Book Corner" sidebar, I LOVE books.  I have read to my children every day since they were very little.  (Maybe not quite as much in those post delivery, just coming home, not getting sleep times....)  We will read several times a day.  I have a huge book collection, much to my husband's distain that fills more than my share of the garage.  I also visit the local library weekly.  My daughters and I are working our way down the Newberry and Caldecott award winning books. (See page under Jenn's Book corner for list and reviews).

As we get into the toddler stage, we start getting hitting and biting.  If you have experienced this with your child, you are not alone.  Your child simply doesn't have they words to say, "hey stop doing that."  As a daycare provider, teacher, and role model to your child it is my job to #1 be on top of the situation so these things happen as little as possible and #2 teach your child to use their words to deal with these situations.

In addition to all of these social skills, your child will be exposed to colors, shapes, numbers, the alphabet on a daily basis.  Here at Knowledge Tree, I want the children to learn through playing and by having fun.

As your child is ready I will help with the transition from diaper to potty.  I've helped with many children and would love to help with yours.