Loving & Learning Center

Loving & Learning Center

INFANT PROGRAM

Current [infant] brain research has provided insight into how the brain functions and the importance of early quality caregiving, and shows that secure relationships directly affect the way the brain gets “wired.” Positive, warm interactions stabilize brain connections which support all areas of growth, especially cognitive and social development.”*

Our Philosophy

In order to foster quality care and "best practices" in early childhood education, we at Loving and Learning Center encourage:

* Basic trust in your infant to be an initiator, an explorer and a self-learner.

* An environment for the infant that is physically safe, cognitively challenging and emotionally nurturing.

* Time for uninterrupted play.

* Freedom to explore and interact with other infants.

* Involvement of your infant in all care activities to allow your child to become an active participant rather than a passive recipient.

* Sensitive observation of your infant in order to understand his/her needs.

* Consistency, clearly defined limits and expectations to develop discipline and socialization.

We subscribe to the tenets of Resources for Infant Educarers (RIE). The vision of Magna Gerber’s non-profit organization is that "from the day they are born, all infants are cared for with respect and are seen as unique individuals with surprising capacity to participate in relationships."

Based on this respect, the RIE Approach helps raise authentic infants who are competent, confident, curious, attentive, exploring, cooperative, secure, peaceful, focused, self-initiating, resourceful, involved, inner-directed, aware, and interested.

"An infant always learns. The less we interfere with the natural process of learning, the more we can observe how much infants learn all the time." --Magda Gerber

* Infants, Toddlers, and Caregivers by Janet Gonzalez-Mena, 2007.

The Infant Program

Our infant program can accommodate up to 8 infants from ages six weeks to approximately eighteen months. There is at least a 1:4 teacher to child ratio at all times. Each infant is assigned a primary caregiver who is mainly responsible for that child’s care. Our infant curriculum is developmentally appropriate and designed to meet the individual needs of each child.

Communication

Parents and teachers share a daily journal so that everyone is aware of how the infant’s day was and notations on the child’s eating, sleeping, and elimination habits. In addition, we offer a Loving & Learning Center family newsletter and post lots of interesting and useful information in our Parent’s Place.

Communication between families and staff is vital for your child’s success and happiness at Loving & Learning Center, and fostering a relationship of understanding and cooperation with you is one of our highest priorities. Please feel free to talk to us at any time if you have questions or concerns. If a subject needs more time than a casual conversation, we’ll set up an appointment for a conference with Teri and/or your child’s teacher.

Environment

The infant room is set up to offer your child an enriching variety of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic experiences to explore in a safe and nurturing environment. At naptime, each infant will be comforted by his/her own crib and/or mat with their personal blanket. In our outside play yard, we have a dedicated “baby lawn” with soft, fresh grass and plenty of toys while enjoying the fresh air. From time to time, we’ll go for a walk in our Baby Trolly around the play yard and/or neighborhood.

Daily schedule

Your infant’s natural schedule is our schedule. We attend to your child’s feeding, napping, diapering and play times according to their needs during our day and your home schedules. We will work with you to provide a seamless transition between your infant’s school and family environments.

What we supply:

Infants are eligible and included in the State food program to include infant formula and infant food. If your child requires special formula or infant food that we don’t use, a waiver form will be provided, and you will need to supply your child’s daily requirements. Own formula? Bottles may be prepared at home & brought in daily.

The infant staff will work cooperatively with parents to individualize the infant’s eating pattern. The Loving & Learning Center will not serve food to an infant that does not follow the Infant food program guidelines recommended by the National

Association of American Pediatrics and the USDA.

We encourage and support breast-feeding and will happily accommodate your visits to the center to nurse your baby, and/or bring in frozen breast milk from home.

We supply all bottles, sippy cups, utensils and bibs. If your child uses a special bottle or sippy cup, we will label it and return it to you at the end of the day. We also supply hypoallergenic, alcohol-free baby wipes.

What you supply:

• Diapers
• Rash cream, if needed
• An extra set of clothes,
• A pacifier, if needed
• A small nap blanket (labeled). Please bring in a clean nap blanket weekly to trade for the used one.
• Sunscreen

Loving & Learning Center, 2/08