The Gardner School makes every effort to be a welcoming and safe environment for each and every child who walks through our doors each day, even the very youngest of them. We customize and adapt our daily procedures to ensure the best possible day for your children – and for you! Here are five ways The Gardner School nurtures our youngest students.
1. We Have Fun…
Infants enjoy their teachers and learning experiences at The Gardner School. We move our bodies, make music, create art, and read books together. We also provide indoor and outdoor spaces for lots of crawling, playing, and physical development. This exploration is further enriched through our Itsy Bitsy Yoga program, which helps children increase their mobility and become more familiar with their body and how it moves.
2. …While We Learn!
The Gardner School uses the Creative Curriculum, a research-backed guide to early learning for young children. In addition to our curriculum, our teachers are dedicated to providing varied and novel activities and experiences for children while creating a warm and comforting environment where they feel safe to explore, practice, and learn. Our comprehensive curriculum works based on observation, assessment, and adaptation in order to help your child reach developmental milestones.
3. We Adapt to Your Child’s Needs
Children benefit from a consistent schedule that is built around their needs. At The Gardner School, our teachers learn your child’s individual likes and dislikes to provide a comforting, enriching environment for them to grow. And every child has a personal space where we can store a special stuffed animal, diapers, and a change of clothing.
4. We Support Infant Communication
As soon as children discover they can create sounds, parents are often greeted with squeaks, grunts, and giggles. These are the first steps toward language development. Giving children another mode of communication while they are developing their language skills is a wonderful way to facilitate additional communication between child and parent. The Gardner School helps do just this by teaching all of our infants American Sign Language, which we integrate into many of our daily activities. This helps our teachers at school as well as parents at home, as their little ones will learn to signal basic desires like “more” or “milk.”
5. We Communicate With Parents
It can be hard being separated from your child for a whole day, but that’s where our TGS teachers step in to keep parents informed about everything that happened with their child during the day. Our teachers communicate regularly with parents through the brightwheel app, which allows for real-time communication between teachers and parents during the day regarding their child’s activities, progress, and needs. These updates include meals, naps, activities, play, and photos. Parents also receive monthly e-newsletters, weekly lesson plan overviews, menus, reminders, and other important notes. With our frequent communications, parents will feel at ease while dropping off their children at school, knowing they will always be in the loop about their child.
The Gardner School Cares
Our dedication to providing excellent care for our youngest students is just one of the many reasons parents choose The Gardner School. If you’re considering new preschool options, we’d love to share more specific ways our programs can help meet your family’s unique needs. You can request more information or schedule a visit to The Gardner School nearest you today.