A Multi-Curriculum Method & ApproachEvery aspect of The Baby Vine has been created with strategic insight, thoughtful intention, and sheer research in order to best serve the children receiving care. The child care environment has been built specifically for the needs of infants and toddlers, each with their own areas and learning environments within the home. The following educational approaches blend the best of intuition and research and are all implemented at The Baby Vine in order to address the various developmental needs for young children as they receive top-quality holistic care.
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Freedom of MovementThis intuitive approach believes that respect and confidence in the child is essential at every age, and every movement has a purpose and is a response to a need for the child’s growth and development. Based on decades of research at The Pikler Institute (Budapest, Hungary), Magda Gerber helped spread this method throughout the U.S. while she founded the RIE (Resources for Infant Educarers) Association. The main objective of this approach is to provide an ideal environment where children are set-up for developmental success and providers are involved and engaged with the child and their individual needs, but with minimal interference, therefore empowering the child as a unique and capable individual. The Baby Vine embodies these elements in caring for children, but is not formally certified.
Children receiving care at The Baby Vine will not be placed in “holding devices” such as a bouncy chair or swing as that can limit the child’s mobility and may place them in a position where they are unable to put themselves into or remove themselves from. These restrictions can affect their natural physical development.
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Conflict Resolution MethodsThese teach and encourage social emotional awareness and emotional control while providing language to identify and communicate feelings in an understandable manner for children. When conflict resolution methods are implemented by children, they follow a process that allows problem solving between themselves with minimal adult interaction and guidance. These tactics can be very beneficial for children because once they are in a formal classroom and school age, they will be expected to have these life skills which enable them to navigate their daily tasks and challenges.
Daily activities such as puppet stories, songs, and books will include topics relating to what emotions are, how they present themselves within our minds and bodies, how to support those emotions and ultimately implement emotional control through role modeling and repetition.
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For more information go to: http://www.cfchildren.org/second-step
Creative CurriculumThe Creative Curriculum for Infants, Toddlers & Twos is a comprehensive, research-based curriculum designed to help teachers and caregivers implement developmentally appropriate practices and offer responsive daily routines and meaningful experiences that nurture learning and development. During these times, responsive care and the intentional teaching provided enables children to develop a secure attachment with the important people in their lives and gain confidence in themselves as learners.
The Baby Vine implements structured lesson plans that are age/stage appropriate such as a color or shape sorting exercises, creative projects tied to story of the week, or a music and movement activity that relates to a topic of study in order to support the cross functionality of the developmental domains.
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For more info go to: http://teachingstrategies.com/curriculum/
Reggio Approach
This approach encourages the pursuit of interests and curiosities children have about the natural environment. By expanding upon those topics tied to Mother Nature, children are eager to participate in learning activities that also support multiple domains for their development. Learning investigations are based on the interests of the child, can be child guided learning, and will adapt as the exploration unfolds. In essence, with the Reggio model, we are not only bringing the wonders of the outdoors inside, but are continuously learning and forming a relationship with the natural environment as we ourselves grow.
If trees are of interest or fascinating to the children, we can learn about the various types of trees, leave sorting and counting, their growth cycle, etc. This allows for the learning investigation to be open ended and adapt based on the natural learning interests of the child.
For more information go to: http://www.mnreggio.org/
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Play-Based Methods
These methods allow for all six educational domains to be met with intentional activities that are fun and often common for children. Informed providers are able to accurately assess as they observe children interacting and engaging in play-based activities, and many life skills are acquired through play-based approaches where the children are able to simply have fun and play.
Children can play with water and water toys at the sensory table together. While playing, they can develop social emotional skills such as sharing, creatively explore role playing, support language by asking to take a turn, work on fine motor skills with small manipulatives, support cognitive and logic development with concepts of larger/smaller/more/less through water play and much more!
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Infant Sign LanguageWhen infants can’t communicate constructively, they can get frustrated, which can then lead to meltdowns and tantrums. Infant sign language is a way to help children communicate what they want and feel supported in their needs. Research suggests infant sign language might give a typically developing child a way to communicate several months earlier than those who only use vocal communication (www.Mayoclinic.org).
At The Baby Vine, the provider will use basic sign language when interacting with the child to support and role model both verbal and non-verbal forms of communication (for things such as hungry, want more, thank you, etc.). There will be key child care phrases that will be used as a way to support behavior guidance (such as calm body, respect others, be kind, etc.) all of which can be shared with the families receiving care.
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