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ALTON: 3839 Humbert Rd., Alton, IL 62002 • (618) 462-8852
EAST ALTON: 163 N. Shamrock Ave., East Alton, IL 62024 • (618) 258-7444
Caterpillars & Ladybugs
(6 Weeks To 2 Years Old)
Our Beginner curriculum is designed to meet the requirements of children who must rely upon others for feeding, diapering, nurturing, and moving from place to place. To provide this added physical assistance and personal care, higher staff to child ratios are maintained depending upon the degree of dependence.
Classrooms for these groups are designed and equipped to protect the health and safety of these children. The classrooms are self-contained to avoid the need for upsetting changes. Their room includes areas for quiet and active play, facilities for sanitary diaper changes, assisted feedings, and protected areas for exploration, crawling, and beginning walking.
Flexible Daily Schedules
Daily schedules for our Beginners are kept flexible enough to provide for the varied needs and demands of dependent children for feeding, naps, and lots of loving. Individual programs are structured for each child based on her or his own developmental needs and achievements. Our primary goal at this age is encouraging and nurturing happy, independent, self-reliant, and secure children. Beginners are naturally egocentric in their thought and behavior. They need much assistance in learning to share, to recognize the rights of their friends, and to control their own emotions and frustrations. Our teachers are trained to look for incidental learning opportunities as the children play. Development of language is another important area of emphasis — children begin to develop their language skills to express their feelings and emotions as we introduce new words to state their wants and need. We foster their desire for independence by teaching them basic self-help skills such as putting on and removing coats and becoming self-sufficient in their bathroom needs and self-feeding. Much of the day is spent exploring personal choices from learning spaces that include a dramatic play area, blocks, books, science, table activities, and access to toys and activities to grow their gross motor skills. Short periods of structured time provide opportunities to introduce art materials, group stories, finger plays, and age-appropriate activities with numbers, colors, and shapes.
Enrollment within this program is limited to full-time monthly enrollments. This limits the exposure of the children to illness and allows for the consistent individual attention so necessary for healthy development.
Frequent assessments by our trained team of child-care professionals are made and based upon their age and development, Beginners will be placed or moved in one of the following groups:
Caterpillars
Beginners 1 - Children, 6 weeks or older, are placed in a group of 4 children to one teacher. Activities for these children, who are in the process of mastering physical milestone skills, will include an individualized program of physical care and appropriate opportunities and activities to develop physically and emotionally.
Beginners 2 - Children, 15 months or older, are placed in a group of 5 children to one teacher. Children in this group are able to eat table food from the school menu, self-feeding and drinking from a cup with minimal assistance. They use walking as a primary means of locomotion and do not use a pacifier. These children must be developmentally capable of mastering the first level of TTLC’s Basic Skills Curriculum. The organization of this program adds some low structured group learning activities and emphasizes social skills and the development and use of language skills.
Ladybugs
Beginners 3 - Children, 2 years or older are placed in a group of 8 children to one teacher. Children in this group are capable of unassisted self-feeding, able to express themselves verbally, can participate in larger groups with more structure, and are developmentally capable of mastering the second and third level of the TTLC Basic Skills Curriculum. The organization of this program adds increasing intellectual challenges with emphasis on developing independent toilet training, self-help and social interaction skills.
