Child Care Center
Snapshot
Our Room
Children are cared for and nurtured in a homelike, predictable space using natural materials and soft colors. It’s a warm, inviting setting that allows a child to find joy in practical and meaningful work, such as cleaning, cooking and building.Outdoor Exploration
Outdoor time is a daily experience except in the most inclement weather. Our child care program has a strong connection to nature, bringing children into the natural world for wonder, observation, and play. Planting, caring, and harvesting food from our gardens instills patience and curiosity as we reap what we sow. A protected area is provided for crawlers and infants.Lunch & Snack
The children are nourished with nutritious, wholesome snacks and meals. Food is made lovingly with the highest quality local, primarily organic, sustainable ingredients. Food is shared family style with children and caregivers and manners are modeled and imitated. Nursing mothers are encouraged to come anytime they wish to nurse and/or to leave expressed milk with the child's teacher. Bottle-fed babies are held while feeding.Diapering Care
Diaper-changing is considered a special time for connecting with the caregiver and may include a special name song created for each baby or a simple nursery rhyme and a gentle massage. Through the interaction with the caregiver, the child will be encouraged to be active in clothing onself; for example, by learning to lift its own bottom for diapering or pulling on its own socks when capable.Free Play
Children play most of each day. Imaginative play is enriched through singing, music, story telling and artistic activities. Basic finger and foot games are also a daily experience. Infants and children may play and interact with wooden, cotton, shell, stone, woolen, silk and metal toys in a safe, interesting play space.
Little Lights Child Care Center
Little Lights Child Care Center is a LifeWays inspired center that works within the Waldorf philosophy. A LifeWays environment is based in human interaction which promotes healthy sensory integration and the encouragement of a child’s natural development phases.Children from 3-months through 4 years of age are welcome to our Child Care Center. We offer yearly full-time care, from 7:30 am - 5:30 pm. Our low child to adult ratios in a mixed age group setting creates a sibling community for learning and teaching. This reduces children’s competition for adult attention and care. It fosters positive social behaviors like sharing, turn taking, helping, empathy, and the ability to wait briefly for the needs of others to be met prior to his or her own.
Respect is a fundamental tenant of our philosophy. From the earliest interactions, we foster a child’s respect for themselves, for others, for materials and for the environment. The teachers are models of appropriate behavior. They guide the children with love and respect, realizing that they must serve as models worthy of imitation. There is a consistent rhythm to the childcare day that supports the security and therefore the development of the child.
Our Little Lights Child Care Program values children and childhood. We believe that childhood is a special, magical phase of life that cannot be repeated. It is a time to be honored and protected. Children should be supported in their slow discovery of the world, themselves and others, and not be overexposed to the hurry and pressure of the adult world.
Email us at LittleLights@threeriverswaldorfschool.org for more information.
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