Children 24 months to 39 months of age.
“We cannot know the consequences of suppressing a child’s spontaneity when he is just beginning to be active. We may even suffocate life itself.” –Maria Montessori
Richland Academy’s Older Toddler Program provides an environment for growing, active, and curious children. The classroom is specifically tailored to support the young child’s physical and emotional development. This program offers an environment which caters specifically to a toddler’s critical areas of development including personality, trust, thinking, problem solving, and separation. Children will have the opportunity to establish new and bonding relationships with other children and adults while engaging in stimulating activities. While attending the Older Toddler Program, children experience gradual separation from the parent or primary caregiver. This begins by creating a very gentle and slow parting of each adult-child couple. By a process of separation scheduling, the child becomes comfortable in their new environment as they begin to trust other adults in the environment and the children around them.
Parents may choose from the following Older Toddler Programs:
5-Day: Classes meet Monday through Friday from 8:45 am to 11:45 am
3-Day: Classes meet Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday from 8:45 am to 11:45 am
Click here for tuition and fees.
Children enrolled in our Older Toddler Program will have the opportunity to work in the following areas:
Materials in this area of the classroom allow children to practice self-help skills including buttoning, zipping, spooning, pouring, lacing, opening and closing containers, table setting, and dish washing. Children learn to care for the environment as they practice watering plants, using a crumber and broom, and dusting. Through the practical life activities, children begin to develop positive work habits, independence, self-control, and the ability to concentrate. Materials in this area promote the development of fine and gross motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and serve as the foundation for future work in all other academic areas.
The sensorial materials offer children the opportunity to refine their senses. Children are able to explore colors, discriminate sizes and shapes, experience textures such as water, sand, dirt, clay, and play-doh, smell scents from fruits, flowers, and spices and identify and match a variety of sounds. Our daily tasting time further exposes each child to a variety of new tastes and textures in food with which they may not yet be familiar. These sensorial experiences help children to make sense of their world.
Mathematical concepts are presented to children in a simple, concrete, and hands-on way that makes learning fun. Toddlers enjoy being introduced to numbers in books, music and finger plays. Basic counting, number recognition, number matching, and object counting are presented in a variety of activities for children to choose. Toddlers will be given opportunities to recognize and name geometric shapes.
Our language materials offer children many opportunities for conversational speech and vocabulary enrichment as they learn the names of items within their world. Children enjoy joining in conversations, listening to stories, singing songs, and learning finger plays that will nurture their budding language skills. Children also engage with materials that help them to recognize phonetic sounds and to develop their pre-reading and pre-writing skills.
The children participate in a variety of large muscle activities that provide them the opportunities to run, jump, climb, balance, crawl and skip. Indoor gross motor materials are available for children to use throughout the day. Our outdoor environment is a large safe space, which offers the children plenty of room and equipment to further build these important skills.
Art, Music, and Movement
The Art area includes gluing, painting, stamping, coloring with crayons, tearing and cutting paper, and Play-Doh rolling and shaping. Children are given the opportunity to participate in individual and group creative art activities that are specifically created for toddlers. Music and Movement experiences are provided daily. Children are invited to sing, listen to music, participate in finger plays, and take part in whole group motor activities such as marching, following the leader, and walking in a line.
Grace and Courtesy
Throughout the day, there are many opportunities for children to be considerate of others and to practice the give and take necessary in social situation. Good manners modeled by adults within the environment can be used throughout the day as children interact with their classmates during snack, work, and playtime. Our large group tasting time gives toddlers opportunities to develop manners and practice courteous language.
Older Toddler Childcare
Richland Academy offers before and after school Childcare, which is available year round, for Older Toddlers enrolled in our Montessori program. Click here to learn more about our Childcare program.