LAC Early Childhood Center, a Manhattan-based day care center, recently moved from the Upper East Side to Greenwich Village. The center, which previously only offered preschool programming for ages 2-5, began offering a nursery program for ages 3 months to 2 years in January, in addition to its regular preschool program.
The early childhood center follows a creative curriculum for all ages designed to engage students by promoting independent play and problem solving through monthly themes that are coordinated around the classrooms.
Children in the nursery program learn through a variety of activities and are encouraged to be active in the classroom. They take part in circle time so they can socialize with each other and practice daily lessons together. They are also given hands-on activities to help develop their sensory processing.
STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) is another critical part of the center’s curriculum, according to Tricia Lay, infant and toddler education director. Teachers customize STEAM lessons and create age-appropriate activities. For example, if a particular theme is apples, preschoolers would cut the apples in half, count the seeds inside, do artwork such as stamping, and even grow plants from the seeds used during the lesson. Younger children in the nursery program would do a modified version of this lesson.
“They would maybe look at the apples and talk about them in the lower levels,” Lay says. “Maybe put the groups together, the red apples together, the green apples together. That would be like sorting.”
All teachers at LAC Early Childhood Center are certified or have degrees in early childhood development or psychology, and they all work to provide a nurturing environment for their students, according to Lay. “We teach to the whole child, emotionally and physically, in addition to the academics,” she says. “We do our best to provide stimulating activities that can help children develop to best of their ability.”
LAC Early Childhood Center offers half-day and full-day hours for all ages. Before-school and after-school care is also available.
Registration is now open.
Main image: LAC Early Childhood Center provides children with a variety of hands-on activities that help develop sensory processing.
Courtesy LAC Early Childhood Center
