Our Classrooms

Infant Room

The ECC provides a warm, nurturing and interactive home away from home. By having higher standards and a smaller class size, we are able to provide a low ratio and quality one-on-one time. The experiences in the first year of a child’s life are the building blocks for learning and social development. It has been proven that quality interaction between infants and their caregivers helps to strengthen developmental skills.

At The Early Childhood Center, it is our belief that infants need an important balance of activities and self-exploration. Because all children develop at their own pace, it is important to provide a variety of activities and opportunities to discover their environment. All of our rooms implement our HighScope philosophy.

• Our infant room is for children ages 6 weeks to approximately 15 months.
• Infants’ schedules are set by either the infants themselves or the parent’s requests.
• Monitored separate nap room for infants allows for a peaceful rest time.
• Each child has a primary caregiver who bonds with them daily.
• Environment includes: soft lighting, classical music, one-on-one interaction and constant verbal communication between infants and teachers to increase language and brain development.
• Parents provide diapers, wipes, and crib sheets.
• Parents provide food and formula. ECC provides meals after 1 year of age.
• To provide consistency for the children, this room is based on full-time enrollment only.
• 1 to 4 caregiver/infant ratio with only 8 infants maximum in the room.
• Bi-annual child assessments and parent/teacher conferences

Toddler Room

First steps, new words, exciting challenges ~ Being a Toddler is a wonderful thing! This is a time when so much positive growth in all areas occurs. At The Early Childhood Center, we embrace this age and allow our children to embark on many new adventures with our hands to hold and our hearts to enter.

Encouraging children to problem solve, make choices and socialize with peers, strengthens their self esteem and promotes independence.

Our Toddler Room uses weekly, age appropriate themes to promote language, communication skills, social and emotional growth, along with early cognitive skills and development.

• The ages in this room range from approximately 15 months to 2-years old.
• 1 to 4 teacher/child ratio with only 8 children in the room.
• All children have a primary caregiver, which enables them to establish a bond with that caregiver.
• The ECC provides a nutritious breakfast and lunch, along with morning and afternoon snacks.
• The Toddler Room introduces a flexible, yet consistent daily routine, based on HighScope.
• The children take naps on their own cots between 1 and 3 p.m. Parents are responsible for crib sheets.
• Bi-annual child assessments and parent/teacher conferences

Our Preschool Room

Being a Preschooler means many new and exciting changes for your child! Exploration of the environment gives way to a heightened understanding of the world around them. Developing vocabulary leads to being able to express themselves better. Though active learning and play are still important factors in their lives, in Preschool the academic focus becomes more evident and clearly defined.

Getting your child ready to attend kindergarten is important to our teachers. Through social interaction and an active learning environment, along with the learning of life skills, children will become more independent and self confident. Our Preschool curriculum is based on the nationally recognized HighScope curriculum. The HighScope Educational Research Foundation was founded by Dr. David Weikart. The HighScope approach is based on key learning indicators (KDI's), not traditional preschool themes. It is an active learning environment that provides the children opportunities to make plans and follow through with those plans. This curriculum also focuses on developing the children’s critical thinking skills. We like to call it our “Hidden Agenda” curriculum, the children are learning while doing activities they think are just for fun! There is at least one, and usually many, purposes behind everything the teachers say and do. If you would like more information on The HighScope Foundation please visit the website at www.highscope.org.

• Ages in the Preschool Room range from 2 thru 5 years.
• 1 to 5 teacher/student ratio in the morning and up to a 1 to 8 in the afternoon.
• The 24 children are placed in 5 small groups lead by their primary caregiver.
• The ECC provides a nutritious breakfast and lunch and morning and afternoon snacks.
• Children nap on their own cots from approximately 1-3 p.m. Children who do not nap are given quiet activities to do on their cots during this time.
• We offer a few select spots for part-time students: 2 days or 3 days a week. Please refer to our tuition page for pricing details.
• The Preschool Room offers many extracurricular options such as Spanish, Computer Explorers and intergenerational experiences.
• Bi-annual child assessments and parent/teacher conferences

Our Pre-Kindergarten Enrichment Program

In addition to our Preschool Curriculum, we offer a kindergarten preparation class for ages 4 - 5 years. This class concentrates on the specific skills needed to start kindergarten. It is held one hour a day, five days a week, September through June. We offer a Pre-K Summer camp in July and August. This program runs daily in the afternoon from 1:00-4:00 p.m. Our Pre-K teacher provides the children with a wide variety of hands-on projects using the research based HighScope curriculum. Along with their daily journal, the children study the foundations of math and reading with phonics. The combination of these approaches has proven to be both fun and educational!