Programs

Cozy Caterpillar (3-12 months)

As you welcome your little one into the world, the Cozy Caterpillar program provides a clean, stimulating, and nurturing environment for your baby to thrive and grow. Sign Language is introduced to help parents understand what their babies see, need, and feel. Most importantly, sign starts your baby learning at a young age to increase cognitive ability and vocabulary. To add, Spring Ahead Children’s Academy makes it easy for parents and staff to communicate to one another using Brightwheel. An active feed of your baby’s daily activities will be at your fingertips to view on demand, to send the teacher a quick reminder about Baby, a teacher’s need for more diapers or wipes, or just capturing a moment with a picture to brighten a parent’s day away from Baby. Infants that are 8-12 months will be taught the pincer grasp a.k.a. “pinchers” which is the coordination of the index finger and thumb to hold an object. While it might be something easy to us adults, this is an important milestone in fine motor development and will be the foundation to holding a fork, spoon, crayon, and eventually a pencil for handwriting in the future!

Cozy Caterpillar (3-12 months)

As you welcome your little one into the world, the Cozy Caterpillar program provides a clean, stimulating, and nurturing environment for your baby to thrive and grow. Sign Language is introduced to help parents understand what their babies see, need, and feel. Most importantly, sign starts your baby learning at a young age to increase cognitive ability and vocabulary. To add, Spring Ahead Children’s Academy makes it easy for parents and staff to communicate to one another using Brightwheel. An active feed of your baby’s daily activities will be at your fingertips to view on demand, to send the teacher a quick reminder about Baby, a teacher’s need for more diapers or wipes, or just capturing a moment with a picture to brighten a parent’s day away from Baby. Infants that are 8-12 months will be taught the pincer grasp a.k.a. “pinchers” which is the coordination of the index finger and thumb to hold an object. While it might be something easy to us adults, this is an important milestone in fine motor development and will be the foundation to holding a fork, spoon, crayon, and eventually a pencil for handwriting in the future!

Toddler (1 year)

As your little baby quickly grows into a curious toddler and starts taking his/her first steps at this age, the Little Duckling program promotes toddlers’ curiosity by using sensory toys, social/emotional support through literature, and active play with small and large muscle equipment. Toddlers are encouraged to use sign language to communicate their needs, decrease aggressive behavior, and promote early literacy skills. At this age, toddlers start making decisions and putting names to objects. Little Ducklings are asked to point to objects and identify items using language. They are exposed to understanding emotions, members of the family, body parts, our 5 senses, colors, shapes, animals, numbers, and the alphabet. Little Ducklings are also taught how to self-feed using a spoon and fork, and how to drink out of a cup.

Toddler (1 year)

As your little baby quickly grows into a curious toddler and starts taking his/her first steps at this age, the Little Duckling program promotes toddlers’ curiosity by using sensory toys, social/emotional support through literature, and active play with small and large muscle equipment. Toddlers are encouraged to use sign language to communicate their needs, decrease aggressive behavior, and promote early literacy skills. At this age, toddlers start making decisions and putting names to objects. Little Ducklings are asked to point to objects and identify items using language. They are exposed to understanding emotions, members of the family, body parts, our 5 senses, colors, shapes, animals, numbers, and the alphabet. Little Ducklings are also taught how to self-feed using a spoon and fork, and how to drink out of a cup.

Bouncing Bunny (2 years and up)

As your toddler starts building his/her independence at this age, the Bouncing Bunny program exercises their little brains by implementing problem-solving through simple puzzles, wooden blocks, and messy play (of course, supervised!) The program builds their basic understandings by teaching the ABC song, counting to 10, repeating words to promote language skills, sorting by shape and color, weather, and encouraged to say a sentence with 2 to 4 words. Role Play is important at this age since they are intrigued with community workers and what they see at home like cooking or cleaning. This gives them the opportunity to develop communication skills, patience, taking turns, and self-expression. Bouncing Bunnies will be able to eat, drink, wash their hands, and put on their jacket independently.

Bouncing Bunny (2 years and up)

As your toddler starts building his/her independence at this age, the Bouncing Bunny program exercises their little brains by implementing problem-solving through simple puzzles, wooden blocks, and messy play (of course, supervised!) The program builds their basic understandings by teaching the ABC song, counting to 10, repeating words to promote language skills, sorting by shape and color, weather, and encouraged to say a sentence with 2 to 4 words. Role Play is important at this age since they are intrigued with community workers and what they see at home like cooking or cleaning. This gives them the opportunity to develop communication skills, patience, taking turns, and self-expression. Bouncing Bunnies will be able to eat, drink, wash their hands, and put on their jacket independently.

Busy Bee (2-3 years)

If your 2 year old has not taken any interest in toilet training, then the Busy Bee program is here to assist. The schedule in this classroom is designed around toilet training. This creates consistency and motivation for our Busy Bees.  Wearing hassle-free clothing is key to a child’s self-confidence and independence during the toilet training process. To add, the Busy Bee program focuses on letter/number recognition, sounds of letters, counting to 20, sorting by size, simple patterns, identifying colors, and distinguishing between shapes. Using the correct pencil grip, how to hold scissors, the calendar, and the 4 seasons are also introduced. The Busy Bee program supports the social and emotional needs of making good choices, following rules, and understanding feelings.

Busy Bee (2-3 years)

If your 2 year old has not taken any interest in toilet training, then the Busy Bee program is here to assist. The schedule in this classroom is designed around toilet training. This creates consistency and motivation for our Busy Bees.  Wearing hassle-free clothing is key to a child’s self-confidence and independence during the toilet training process. To add, the Busy Bee program focuses on letter/number recognition, sounds of letters, counting to 20, sorting by size, simple patterns, identifying colors, and distinguishing between shapes. Using the correct pencil grip, how to hold scissors, the calendar, and the 4 seasons are also introduced. The Busy Bee program supports the social and emotional needs of making good choices, following rules, and understanding feelings.

Leap Frog (pre-school)

As your little one leaps into the world of education with the start of Preschool, supporting their social needs, problem-solving skills, and imagination are essential. Block Play is important at this age since they enjoy putting things together, taking things apart, and creating their own city, zoo, or farm. Block Play allows children to either play on their own or invites others to play and work together which builds speaking and listening skills. In addition, block play builds physical and mental development with moving and handling big blocks for large-motor coordination, small blocks for fine-motor and hand-eye coordination, and sparks up decision-making and planning with shapes, sizes, space, and balance. Our Leap Frogs are encouraged to express themselves and be creative! We make learning fun (and sometimes messy) but it highlights how crucial it is to target the three prime areas of development at these early years which are: physical; personal/social/emotional; and communication/language. The Leap Frog Preschool program will have themes for each month and will concentrate on numeracy, literacy, dramatic play, STEM, science discovery, sensory, social/emotional development, physical education, foreign language, and writing skills.

Leap Frog (pre-school)

As your little one leaps into the world of education with the start of Preschool, supporting their social needs, problem-solving skills, and imagination are essential. Block Play is important at this age since they enjoy putting things together, taking things apart, and creating their own city, zoo, or farm. Block Play allows children to either play on their own or invites others to play and work together which builds speaking and listening skills. In addition, block play builds physical and mental development with moving and handling big blocks for large-motor coordination, small blocks for fine-motor and hand-eye coordination, and sparks up decision-making and planning with shapes, sizes, space, and balance. Our Leap Frogs are encouraged to express themselves and be creative! We make learning fun (and sometimes messy) but it highlights how crucial it is to target the three prime areas of development at these early years which are: physical; personal/social/emotional; and communication/language. The Leap Frog Preschool program will have themes for each month and will concentrate on numeracy, literacy, dramatic play, STEM, science discovery, sensory, social/emotional development, physical education, foreign language, and writing skills.

Soaring Butterfly (pre-K)

Just like our Leap Frogs, the Soaring Butterflies will have monthly themes with the same subject areas; however, it is focused on getting them ready to take flight to kindergarten. Our main goal is to make sure that every Soaring Butterfly leaves Spring Ahead Children’s Academy with a toolbox of knowledge and confidence that will ensure success and a smooth transition to elementary school. Feeling comfortable holding a pencil; using proper paths of motion for letters and numbers when printing; exposure to math vocabulary like addition, subtraction, and measurement; and building pre-reading skills like sight words, rhyming, and comprehension will seem all a little bit less scary to students (and parents too!). Yes, there will be time to work but plenty of time to play in our Soaring Butterfly Pre-K classroom. This room was designed to create a love for learning by sitting under our Reading Tree at Circle Time, self-expression at our dramatic play area with our Puppet Show Theatre, cozying up with a good book next to our fireplace book shelf in our living room area, or encouraging children to write, draw, stamp, send letters, and develop other fine motor skills at our communication center. Every day should be a new and exciting one for our little learners. Adventure awaits at Spring Ahead Children’s Academy!

Soaring Butterfly (pre-K)

Just like our Leap Frogs, the Soaring Butterflies will have monthly themes with the same subject areas; however, it is focused on getting them ready to take flight to kindergarten. Our main goal is to make sure that every Soaring Butterfly leaves Spring Ahead Children’s Academy with a toolbox of knowledge and confidence that will ensure success and a smooth transition to elementary school. Feeling comfortable holding a pencil; using proper paths of motion for letters and numbers when printing; exposure to math vocabulary like addition, subtraction, and measurement; and building pre-reading skills like sight words, rhyming, and comprehension will seem all a little bit less scary to students (and parents too!). Yes, there will be time to work but plenty of time to play in our Soaring Butterfly Pre-K classroom. This room was designed to create a love for learning by sitting under our Reading Tree at Circle Time, self-expression at our dramatic play area with our Puppet Show Theatre, cozying up with a good book next to our fireplace book shelf in our living room area, or encouraging children to write, draw, stamp, send letters, and develop other fine motor skills at our communication center. Every day should be a new and exciting one for our little learners. Adventure awaits at Spring Ahead Children’s Academy!

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219-595-0884

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2617 45th Street, Highland, Indiana 46322

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For inquiries about our academy, please email learn@springaheadchildrensacademy.com