Nurturing the Infant
The caregiver's face and a baby's own body parts—fingers, toes, belly—are some of the most intriguing play toys that an infant can explore. Help him learn about himself and others.
Children learn new words when they talk with others and have time to practice what they hear.
Once babies become mobile, they need safe, open spaces to practice crawling, rolling, pulling up, cruising, and walking. Combining physical movement and music builds powerful brain connections.
Nurturing Learning in One-year-olds
Can one-year-olds truly be creative? If we step away from artistic expressions of creativity for a moment and just think about the essence of creativity, the answer is a loud “Yes!”
The most obvious of all of the many remarkable changes between a child's first and second birthday is that they begin talking. As exciting as those first words are, though, they are only a slice of the language gains that one-year-olds make.
Play is the central activity of young children and is the main way that young children explore, interact with, and enjoy the world around them, whether it’s an infant playing with her toes or a five-year-old playing superhero.
By the time babies have reached their first birthday, they have logged thousands of hours of watching, listening, touching, tasting and smelling everything around them, as their rapidly developing brains have been noticing differences between things.
Nurturing Learning in Two-year-olds
When you think about art with two-year-olds, think about how to create meaningful art experiences that fit well in the busy world of twos.
Verbal communication between or with twos needs a lot of support to succeed, especially when there is a conflict of wills. But twos feel excited and powerful when they’ve succeeded in using words to connect with a friend or caregiver in a meaningful way.
What does play look like in two-year-olds, and how can caregivers support their inborn curiosity and creativity?
The age of two in children can be trying for caregivers, but it’s also an age in which children are gaining a remarkable amount of knowledge about how the world works.
Nurturing Learning in Three- and Four-year-olds
During the preschool years, young children blossom in their ability to experiment with new ideas, including new ways of creating with art materials.
The ages of three and four are busy times for language and literacy learning, including developing the ability to comprehend and tell narratives, becoming much more skilled at conversation, and beginning to understand the mechanics of written language.
Play is self-directed, pleasurable, internally motivated activity that children control. How caregivers support it depends on the age of the child.
Preschoolers are rapidly developing the mental abilities to think in mathematical and scientific ways in order to explore and understand their favorite topics.
