At Benjamin Thomas Academy, your baby will receive personalized care. Our Infant rooms are designed with safety, comfort, low noise and low stress in mind. Allowing a group size of only 4 infants per teacher, the noise level is extremely low providing a calm environment for your child. We also provide nurturing stimulation when your baby is awake and alert, to promote essential development. Babies play, listen to stories, and interact with their teachers. They are only placed in their cribs at naptime or to ensure their safety. They also will get to enjoy outside time, if the weather is favorable.
Activities, Evaluations and Notes
At Benjamin Thomas Academy we pride ourselves on our curriculum. Infant teachers provide multiple activities through out the day to promote physical and mental development. The milestones your baby reaches while in our infant program will insure success once your child graduates to our toddler program.
We offer:
- Physical stimulation: Young babies are developing at a very rapid pace at this stage. We introduce activities to help build and fine-tune basic motor functions. Simple activities such as offering objects at a distance are introduced to enhance movement in small and large muscle groups and promote concentration skills.
- Intellectual stimulation:Through verbal exchanges, playing music, and making various noises, we guide your infant to explore the size, shape, color, texture, movement, position, and sound of different objects. We also assist bottle holding, picking up small objects, and learning to crawl and walk.
- Social development: Through interaction with familiar people babies receive reassurance and nurturing at all times. Our caregivers offer gentle touch and a calm voice. We also introduce sign language to your baby and continue to teach them new signs until the reach our preschool classrooms. By learning sign language your child will be able to communicate before they are able to speak reducing the frustrations of not being able to express their needs.
In order for us to track your child’s developmental progress, we evaluate each child throughout the year. We use these evaluations to plan appropriate curriculum for each classroom. We can review areas that have been mastered, and work harder on areas that have not yet been mastered. Evaluations are available to the parents at any time and copies will be sent home at the end of each semester. We will also schedule parent teacher conferences at the end of each semester. If the need arises please feel free to schedule a parent teacher conference at any point during the semester by contacting the director.
Art Work
At Benjamin Thomas Academy we encourage creativity! Our infant teachers will provide your child with the opportunity to create masterpieces using crayons and tempera paint. Our art supplies are all non-toxic and safe for your child to use. In addition to free art our teachers will send home seasonal art, and hand and foot print art!
Daily Sheets
We want to make sure you know all about your child’s day. Our teachers keep track of your child’s feedings,diaper changes, naps, activities, as well as their disposition on a daily report. A copy of this report is given to you everyday.
Safety
Safety is very important to us at Benjamin Thomas Academy,so we ensure that all classrooms are up to date and that staff is fully trained in license regulations for safety.
- Our cribs meet the new and improved federal safety standards with the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
- Staff is up to date on CPR and first aid training.
- All staff has gone through an extensive criminal background check.
- All outlets are always covered when not in use and if use plugs are not in reach of babies.
- All toys are age appropriate and safe.
- All baby equipment are up to date and safe for use.
Cleaning and Sanitizing
We have incorporated a very thorough protocol to ensure a clean environment.
- We assign each child their very own crib. Your child’s crib will never be used by another child and is sanitized daily. In addition to daily cleaning, sheets are also washed daily using with non-toxic and chemical free laundry detergent. Teachers have extra sets of sheets in the event they become soiled.
- Changing tables are cleaned and disinfected after each diaper change.
- Play mats and toys are disinfected after each use.
- Teachers wash their hands and each infant’s hands before and after meals, after outside time, and after diaper changes.
- In addition to area cleanings during the day, the infant room is thoroughly cleaned every night.