Toddler
In the toddler community, our intent is to provide an environment prepared exclusively for children between the ages of 18 through 36 months for discovery and learning. The purpose of the toddler community is to assist toddlers during this special period of growth and their first venture from home. Our toddler teachers prepare the environment with age-appropriate activities that foster the natural desire of the toddler’s innate need for exploration and independence.
Our nurturing, unhurried environment follows the natural rhythm of the child. The toddler can explore and experience at his own social comfort, physical ability and cognitive level in an outdoor and indoor environment. Toddlers typically explore, expand language, create images and ideas, and grow in emotional awareness as a separate person. Thus through observation, study, and preparation our community provides:
Ample space to move and to strengthen equilibrium and motor skills, indoors and outdoors.
Places to explore, crawl through, small spaces to curl up in, and to climb.
Interesting things to examine, solve, observe, and imitate.
Others to play alongside with or to interact.
Secure, introspective adults to help broaden the toddler’s knowledge and sense of well-being while spending part of the morning at school.
Large and small motor activities involving self-help skills, snack preparation.
Activities such as music with movement, art expression, practice with social skills, and caring for nature.
What do children learn in a toddler class?
Current research confirms the importance of learning in the first three years of life. How and what children learn affects them throughout their lifetime. At MSFW, they are learning, among other things:
Trust in the safety of caring adults and classmates .
Confidence that they can communicate their needs and wants then receive a positive response .
Respect for themselves and each other .
Joy in learning.
Our teachers help each child learn to care for their physical needs that are developing at that time such as putting on their coat, toileting, washing their hands and wiping their nose. These practical life skills add to the toddler’s growing need for independence in an encouraging, caring environment set up for success. Emerging coordination is also a consideration of the toddler environment with ample opportunities for both large muscle and small muscle work. The toddler community is designed to harness the toddler’s natural curiosity to explore how things work and develop their vocabulary. Activities are planned to help them socialize in culturally appropriate ways as well as discover how special they are as individuals.
We offer five toddler sessions: Toddler 2, Toddler 3, Toddler 2 Full Day, Toddler 3 Full Day and Toddler 5 Full Day.
Toddler 2 meets on Monday and Tuesday 9:00 am – 11:30 am
Toddler 3 meets on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 9:00 am – 11:30 am
Toddler 2 Full Day meets Monday and Tuesday 9:00 am- 3:00 pm
Toddler 3 Full Day meets Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 9:00 am- 3:00 pm
Toddler 5 Full Day meets daily 9:00 am – 3:00 pm
Lunch and nap time are included as part of all Full Day programs.
