Our Programs and Educational Philosophy
With true dedication and the overwhelming support from a team of caring, professional staff and caregivers makes Creative Child, Inc. the special childcare and Pre-School center it is today! We opened our doors for business in September of 2006. Our infants, toddlers, and Pre-school children thrive in program enriched curriculum(s), classroom space(s), and spacious, sprawling outdoor landscapes. Creative Child, Inc. has been assessed and rated using both the ITERS (Infant/toddler environment rating schedule) and ECERS (Early childhood education rating schedule) tools. Creative Child, Inc. received a rating for being a 4 star child care center in March of 2019. Creative Child, Inc. has been one of the first participating center based program's in Bright Stars, since 2009.
The age groups at Creative Child, Inc. range from 6 weeks to 4 years of age. There are six classrooms at Creative Child, Inc. which start at 6 weeks ( infant/yearling) and span to our Pre-school 4 classroom. After the child(ren) has reached Pre-school 4, we then provide the child(ren) with Kindergarten enrichment programming at our sister center "Club Creative". ( WWW.CLUBCREATIVERI.COM) See link.
Infant/Yearling Rooms
The first program at our center is the infant/yearling program. This program offers 2 different classrooms. The infant room ranges from ages 6 weeks to about 9 months. The yearling room ranges from 10 months to 18 months. With lots of nurturing, patience, and partnership within the day-to-day care and continuous family communication, we nurture each infant with individuality. Each infant's needs are custom and adjusted to their ever-changing, evolving growth. The infant and yearling caregivers strive to meet these needs daily by building a positive and trusting relationship with parents and guardians as well as the infant themselves. In offering individualized care, staff follow varied feeding schedules, introducing novel foods, crawling and walking guidance, sleep schedules, and emergent peer socialization. The infants and yearlings go outdoors daily * weather permitting* in our spacious baby buggies. The infants and yearling program also offers a range of emergent curriculum activities and experiences such as songs, reading, creative arts, and sensory experiences. ( See Curriculum and Newsletter in our CLASSROOMS button)
Young Toddler and Older Toddler Rooms
Similar to our infant/yearling program, our toddler programs are divided into two classrooms. The younger toddler room accommodates children from 18 mths to 24 mths. The older toddler room ranges from ages 24 mths to 36 mths. We help to guide and develop the child's social, listening, recognition, and gross motor skills through a diversified, creative classroom full of played based interest areas, including creative arts, kitchen area, block area, and fine motor manipulatives. The children spend a vast amount of time outdoors in our spacious playground and baby buggies. Once your child is coming upon 36 months old, they will make the transition from toddlers to preschool. The toddler staff will communicate when these transitions will take place, well in advance so that both the family and child are prepared for the transition.
Pre-school
Preschool at Creative Child, Inc. is also split into two separate age groups. The age groups are Preschool 3 and Pre-school 4. In the Pre-school setting(s) there are different sets of milestones that are met and attained through materials such as markers, pencils, crayons, and scissors. Self help skills are still being fostered and maintained such as knowing how to use the restroom, putting on one's jacket, changing one's own clothing, opening containers, etc. The pre-school children also use experiences in their day to, exercise indoor & outdoor, using logic and spatial strategies , and working on emergent letter and number recognition as well as IDing, and printing letters in their own names. The children also engage in activities to support their social and developmental needs through interest areas and free play areas inside of the classroom and outdoors. The children spend a vast amount of time outdoors in our spacious playground
( see photos in the CLASSROOM section).
Our Pre-school 4 and Pre-K program offers the same goals as Pre-school 3 while also preparing the children for their journey into Kindergarten! The reinforcement of letter and number recognition is taught using various learning approaches through our curriculum and is practiced daily inside of the classroom ( See curriculum in CLASSROOMS section). Self-esteem, social skills, good hygiene, friendship, and much more is taught to these fast learners with lots of positive reinforcement and praise! Seasonal field trips are also planned throughout the year for this age group (pandemic pending). At the end of the school year, we have a festive graduation for the children moving onto kindergarten!