Our nature is to nurture because children are our first priority
The Harvest School toddler community in Stone Mountain, Georgia is our budding class of one-year-olds. After graduating from the infant class, our toddler child care program helps the young ones begin exploring the world around them with more independence under the careful supervision and guidance of a nurturing staff of teachers. This exploration is coupled with structured learning activities that are included in the Creative Curriculum.
This curriculum aids us in meeting and exceeding the developmental milestones for our one-year-olds. The cognitive milestones include our children’s ability to identify family members in photographs, enjoys cause and effect relationships, begins to solve problems, mimics adult behavior, sorts shapes and colors, refers to self by name, and learns concepts like size, shape and weight in the context age-appropriate toys and objects in the classroom. A subset of the language milestones include developing an expressive vocabulary, listening and responding to simple directions, and increasing the use of courtesy words. Socially and emotionally, our goal is to help our children learn to share and to show empathy, help them play well together, develop the imagination of each child, and encourage them to perform or lead an audience or community. Some of the physical milestones include turning pages in a book, throwing a ball, walking while holding an object, drawing and scribbling, standing on a balance beam, walking up stairs with help, riding small-wheeled riding toys, and drinking from a straw. The Harvest staff is happy to discuss the breadth of milestones and activities offered to help our children through this development phase.
Beyond fine tuning our toddler’s primary developmental skills, the Harvest enrichment curriculum educates our toddlers on subjects including sign language, hands-on art, and a host of others. By introducing these lessons during the initial learning stages, our children not only learn them more quickly, but are encouraged and engaged to teach what they have learned to others. This process is merely the first step of the outreach and leadership goals that will manifest themselves in Harvest children throughout their educational journey.