The Program

The program is designed to provide a caring and learning environment for the children enrolled. The function of the center is to expand five developmental aspects of the child in the following manner:

1. To foster the child’s physical well being and safety

2. To nourish and maintain emotional health

3. To foster social development

4. To enhance creativity in the aesthetic and dramatic realm

5. To develop language and cognitive skills

These areas are developed with individual and group goals in mind and they are included in the program each day.

 

Curriculum

Our curriculum is designed to provide the maximum experience for every Infant/Toddler, Two’s/Three’s and Preschooler that enters our program. Activities will ensure that each child is growing, learning and developing in the developmental domains (creative expressions, cognitive, social emotional, language, and physical development). Our teachers are trained to identify a child who may need extra attention. Lesson plans are individualized to ensure that all children are successful.

The curriculum guide that AOLC uses is the Creative Curriculum which allows infants to preschool age children to learn from the environment. The Creative Curriculum builds on Piaget’s theories of development in young children. Piaget believed that all children learn through active exploration of their environment, beginning in infancy by grasping, rolling, pounding, smelling, sucking, and crawling around and over everything they come in contact with, infants and toddlers discover that objects have weight, volume, color, and texture. During the preschool years, children add to what they have learned in those early explorations.

At AOLC, we view children as “Active Learners.” We know that children learn best by doing and it is through active involvement with their environment that they make sense of the world around them. The physical environment of the center is arranged and organized in “Interest Areas.” These areas provide the setting in which children can thrive and learn.

Nutrition

The center participates in and is regulated by the Child and Adult Food Program. We provide two nutritional meals and a snack for young children. All meals are catered fresh daily. Weekly menus will be posted and made available for the parents. Infants and Toddlers will be served as needed. The older children meals will be served “Family Style.” The children and teachers will help in setting the table, serving, and clean-up. Nutritional education opportunities will be integrated into the curriculum, including mealtimes, without interfering with the pleasure of eating. Food substitutions may only be made when supported by a physician’s statement. Your physician will need to sign the Medical Food Exemption Form that is included in the enrollment packet. If your child has food allergies and is unable to certain foods or milk, a statement from the doctor is required to complete the Food Allergy Plan and list food or milk that child is allowed to have. AOLC will try to meet the child’s food allergy but if the cost is too expensive, then the parent will be asked to provide the child’s meals. We are a NUT free center.