Pre-Toddler Program (Reggio Emilia approach/Nido 2)

Our curriculum is designed to guide and develop the social, emotional, self-control, physical and neurological skills needed for future success. Although many academic concepts are introduced, the focus remains on each child’s development and how he/she fits into his or her environment.

Highlights

Communication skills are a vital component of the curriculum as children expand their vocabularies and assign meaning to new experiences. With our Spanish immersion approach, pre-toddlers are rapidly learning a second language as quickly as their native language.

Exploring the world inspires a child to examine, create, and share as he broadens his language through interactions with his teachers and classmates in a safe, nurturing environment. Sensory and repetitive activities transform these new experiences into  knowledge.

Our program also incorporates circle time, music, art and dramatic play to encourage and shape your child’s creativity and imagination. Activities promote the development of physical skills, from running and jumping, to dressing and pre-writing. In our community of exploration, your child can learn, grow and celebrate the world around him/her.

The pre-toddler classroom provides a developmentally appropriate learning environment where children are free to explore and grow cognitively, physically, socially and emotionally. The pre-toddler environment at AEBS is set up to nurture a child’s inherent curiosity by enabling children to explore and discover. AEBS focuses on fostering each child’s self-confidence and positive self-image. The program also focuses on each child’s social skills and instills a positive attitude toward learning.

Curriculum Areas

Practical Life

This area of the curriculum is the bridge for young children between home and school. They are able to do adult activities they see at home while fostering skills to learn to take care of their environment as well as themselves. The aim of these activities is for the child to attain independence, a sense of order, concentration and coordination. Practical life activities include buttoning, zipping, tying, washing ones hands etc. Activities related to environmental care are: cleaning, polishing, food preparation, watering plants etc. Practical life also includes fine motor development such as pouring, cutting, balancing etc. Practical life activities also work on the child’s social development. This includes their interpersonal skill, grace and courtesy, speaking and participating in a group.

Sensorial

In sensorial the child discovers the world around him/her through the use of his/her senses. Children come to know and understand the world they live in through their five senses. Our classrooms have sensorial materials, such as essences to smell, textures, sound cylinders, etc. that will help a child to understand and internalize the concepts of size, shape, color, taste, touch and sound. These materials build the foundation for developing skills in the areas of music, mathematics and language.

Language

The language curriculum focuses on oral language of Spanish immersion learning experiences (singing, finger plays, stories, conversation time) and pre-reading and pre-writing work. Language is built on foundations established in the first two years of life. Materials in the classroom and our native Spanish teachers help them enhance their language abilities and learn a second language. AEBS exposes our students to sounds in the Spanish immersion language that will create dedicated neurons in the auditory cortex of your child’s brain resulting in greater brain capacity.

Math

Children begin their journey in mathematics by going from the concrete to the abstract. The learning experiences are presented in real life scenarios and sensorial exercises which helping children begin their exploration of mathematics. Concrete math materials enable the mathematical mind of the toddler to journey from the concrete to the abstract through manipulation and experimentation. Children first explore the concept of quantity or “how many.” AEBS strongly believes that children build upon each other in a natural progression, encouraging discovery. From there, the child moves on to using symbols or written quantities, and then begins to combine quantities for the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Neuro-movement

AEBS pre-toddler programs embrace the joy of early motor development through the exploration of concept-based creative movement. Based on the “Brain-Gym” program, these teaching techniques delight in the movement through the different routines. The kinesthetic vocabulary encourages age- appropriate neurological, emotional and physical development using movement, rhythm and instruments. It’s a wonderful bonding experience for all. Our program is designed to enhance motor skills, social skills and self-esteem. It also enhances physical fitness, balance, and imagination.

Infants

Early Stimulation Program (Reggio Emilia approach/Nido 1)

We strongly believe that the first years of life are the foundation for a child’s future life performance.

Our Infant Curriculum focuses on offering experiences that enhance exploration in all sensory areas from 3 months to 12 months with milestone development based on research activities that awaken and integrate a child’s neurological system. Sensory based activities assist in developing a child’s social, physical and future academic success.

The main goal of our neurologically and sensory based infant program is to enhance a child’s brain capacity and emotional maturity level.

Highlights

Children develop at their own pace. AEBS supports the research that says that the early stages of development — from birth until around age 3 — determine the person that he/she will be in adult life. This time period is filled with a number of milestones, including talking and walking. To grow productively and effectively during this time, children require support in the development of specific behaviors.

As they move through the early stages of development, children begin to experience the world through all five of their senses.

Learning with Five Senses

Social/Emotional Development:

AEBS provides an opportunity for each infant to develop positive and nurturing relationships with peers, adults, and their environment. Interaction and relationships are one of the most important areas of a child’s early development. All infants need productive and safe relationships. A child cannot learn and grow if he is constantly scared, hungry, thirsty or otherwise stressed. Hugs, kisses, touch and holding as much as possible in the early developmental stages is critical to healthy emotional development. This will deepen the bond between the child and the adult but will also make the child feel safe and content, allowing his/her mind to focus on learning and growing in other areas.

Physical Development:

AEBS provides an environment that fosters growth in gross and fine motor development at developmentally appropriate levels for each infant.

Intellectual Development:

AEBS provides an environment that fosters growth in language, critical thinking, exploration, concentration and sensorial skills at developmentally appropriate levels for each infant.

Language Development:

AEBS provides an opportunity for each infant to develop expressive and receptive language with other infants and caregivers.

Neurological Development

The first three years of life are a period of incredible growth in all areas of a baby’s development. A newborn’s brain is about 25 percent of its approximate adult weight. But by age 3, it has grown dramatically by producing billions of cells and hundreds of trillions of connections, or synapses, between these cells. While we know that the development of a young child’s brain takes years to complete, we also know there are many things parents and caregivers can do to help children get off to a good start and establish healthy patterns for life-long learning. Austin Eco Bilingual School has created an early stimulation program that dedicates individual time to each baby. Babies are exercised in all sensory areas which helps build neuronal connections.

Importance of Early Stimulation

We strongly believe that Early Stimulation is crucial to a child’s healthy development.

There is important new scientific evidence that suggests the first three years of life are much more important in the Long-term development of young children than previously believed. Researchers now confirm that the way parents interact with their young children and the experiences they provide them have a big impact on their youngster’s emotional development, learning skills, and how they function later in life. Touching, holding, rocking, talking, listening and reading, or just playing with a child dramatically influences the young child’s brain development.

Our Early Stimulation Program is in alignment with the sensorimotor stage of Jean Piaget who called the first two years of this stage of life the most important. During this time, an infant’s cognitive development is mainly focused on coordinating sensory information with motor experiences. The cells of the brain are in place, but synapses or connections between neurons will continue to form. Piaget called this the Simple Reflexes phase. Stimulating all five senses can help the child adjust to her own body as it grows and changes and prepare her to face new experiences as she gets older. Our Infant Program follows the latest research in infant development and applies this knowledge in a complete Spanish immersion environment with native speakers of the Spanish language.