Learning Through Living
Children enter the Youngest Children's Community program between the ages of 16 and 18 months, if walking. The child of this age is a sensorial explorer facing important developmental issues of separation and attachment, autonomy, and functional independence. A small, close, caring community, led by an adult who is educated and trained to guide them, gives the children the opportunity to follow the sensitive periods of this stage of development and accomplish its developmental milestones. Many areas of activity are needed for the child to satisfy the internal demands of this age.
The environment for toddlers is beautiful and is meticulously prepared to meet the need of the small individual, because, at this age, the child’s absorbent mind functions unconsciously, taking in everything whole, without a filter, and making it an indelible part of the child’s deepest self. The human characteristics of intelligence, memory, will, independence, language, and movement are all rooted in what the unconscious absorbent mind experiences in the environment during this period of life.