The Nook has classrooms separated by developmental levels, generally categorized as:

• Infants
• Wobblers (Older Infants)
• Toddlers (Generally starting at 15-18 months)
• Tikes (Generally starting at 24 months)
• Preschool 3 yrs. to 5 yrs.

Each individual sites’ classrooms are determined by our directors to cater to your child’s growth.

The Nook will be using a combination of The Creative Curriculum and The Reggio Emilia Approach. A combination of these two Early Childhood theories is very beneficial to our little explorers.

The Reggio Emilia Approach originated in the town Reggio Emilia in Italy out of a movement toward progressive and cooperative early childhood education. The Reggio approach is all about individualism, therefore no two Reggio inspired classrooms or centers will look the same. This style is based off the needs and interests of the children at that time. The lessons are planned off the children’s interests to further their knowledge of that topic. For example, if the class, a group of children, or even a single child is interested in something such as cars, the teacher will elaborate on that interest and plan her lessons around that. They may do car counting games, maybe mold a car out of play-dough, talk about who drives a car and other types of vehicles, and even make their own! With the Reggio inspired classrooms, the teachers act as a guide and resource for the children.

The children are encouraged to work in groups but are recognized for their individual thoughts and ideas. The teacher is not the giver of knowledge but a guide and mediator for the students.

Throughout the center, you will see many forms of documentation. Documentation of the children’s work could be a photograph, transcripts of children’s thoughts and explanations, a drawing or painting; all serves the purpose to outline the child’s learning process. One big staple of the Reggio Emilia approach is The Hundred Languages of Children; meaning that children use many methods to show their understanding and express their opinions and creativity. Children can express their learning and understanding through dramatic play, art, building with blocks, dance, etc. These are all part of the child, therefore we stress that learning and play are not separate but are congruent. The Reggio approach allows the child to learn through hands-on experience and permits the children to draw their own conclusions by using their 5 senses and different languages to discover.

The Creative Curriculum stresses the importance of stepping back and letting them explore on their own. Art projects are open ended, meaning the materials will be provided but the child is allowed to make their project however they wish. Obviously supervision is a given with projects, but the teacher addresses that there is no wrong or right way to do a certain project. With these open-ended projects, the children express how they perceive the world while mastering their motor skills. In the Toddler and Tikes Rooms, the children will be introduced to real materials and not just kid-friendly ones. By doing this, you teach them how to do a certain task using the actual item. When something new is brought out such as glass dishes, the children are taught that they cannot drop them and have to be careful. It is also explained to them that if an item does break, it’s ok.

They are required to help clean it up and the teacher in a calm and understanding tone, explains to the child as to why it happened and why he or she needs to be more careful next time. They will never be made to feel bad about an accident. It gives the children a sense of responsibility while still being closely monitored by their teacher.

The Creative Curriculum fits perfectly with the Reggio Emilia Approach. The Creative Curriculum with infants and toddlers focuses on the individual child. With this young age group, the three main focuses are social-emotional development, physical development, and language development. Social-emotional development is crucial in the first 3 years of life. With the loving care from our staff, the children learn to trust their caregivers and know that their basic needs will be met. With the appropriate activities, the children will learn about themselves through their own body movements and senses. As for physical development, children will be provided with the proper environment and tools to aid their physical development in mastering the milestones when the individual child is ready. Finally, language development in Creative Curriculum is demonstrated and learned by talking to the child about the things you are doing such as changing a diaper. Talking to the child out loud as to what you are doing is one of those perfect ‘teachable moments’ to have one on one time with that child. With repetition, the babies will start to respond by lifting their leg at the appropriate time or even something so simple as laying still. Having that constant language exposure helps the child pick it up faster and you will be able to see it. The Nook will also be using sign language to communicate with the babies. Using simple signs, especially at meal times, such as ‘more’, ‘please’, and ‘all done’ help the child begin to understand the means of communication even when they do not yet have the verbal skills to tell us what they are feeling. With the toddlers, many books will be read, educational posters throughout, and the strong communication between the teachers and the children will aid in this development.

The Nook strives to combine these two curriculums while keeping the individualism of each child. With this unique curriculum, we can raise well-rounded and well-adjusted children ready for the real world!

Gourmet Cuisine

We believe every meal at the Nook is another opportunity to celebrate and learn. At The Nook kiddos are given the opportunity to enjoy eating organic, wholesome, delicious and exciting food. Because our cuisine is so enticing, your kiddos will start eating vegetables, fresh fruit, and whole foods like it’s no big deal! We start with the finest quality ingredients, authentic flavors, prepared on site by our skilled chefs and served with pride. Each Nook location has its own, licensed in-house chef focused on preparing fun and appealing foods.

• The Nook provides breakfast, lunch, and snack.
• We serve meals out of our own kitchen featuring gourmet all-organic meals
• We serve all organic food across the board
• We provide our organic home-made baby food and supply a house-formula and bottles. It is your choice whether you choose to use it or not. We accommodate breast milk and any other food or formulas you would like to supply from home.

Here’s a sampling of the fare your child will enjoy at The Nook.

What to bring on your first day

Infant Room:

• Bottles prepped, labeled, and dated (unless using the centers)
• A pacifier (if needed)
• Diapers
• A swaddle (if need be; we will provide these as well unless your baby needs a specific one)
• 2 changes of clothes
• Diaper cream
• Anything else your baby needs, i.e.: teething tablets, ibuprofen, sunscreen, sunhat, orajel, etc.
• Any specific instructions to tell your child’s teachers in order to take proper care of your child

368A8325 copy
368A8273 copy
Wobbler Room:

• Bottles prepped, labeled, and dated (unless using the centers)
• A pacifier (if needed)
• Diapers
• Diaper cream
• Sleep sack (if needed)
• 2 changes of clothes
• Anything else your baby needs, i.e.: teething tablets, ibuprofen, sunscreen, orajel, sunhat etc.
• Any specific instructions to tell your child’s teachers in order to take proper care of your child

368A8427 copy
368A8276 copy
Toddler Room:

• A pacifier (if needed)
• Diapers
• Diaper cream
• A water bottle
• 2 changes of clothes
• Blanket and favorite nap time toy (both optional; we provide blankets and sheets)
• Any specific instructions to tell your child’s teachers in order to take proper care of your child

368A8373 copy
368A8573 copy (1)
Tikes Room:

• Diapers
• Diaper cream
• 2 changes of clothes
• Blanket and favorite nap time toy (both optional; we provide blankets and sheets)
• Any specific instructions to tell your child’s teachers in order to take proper care of your child

368A8562 copy
368A8391 copy

Our centers provide parents with access to our Brightwheel app to receive daily updates on your child. Through the app, we are able to securely communicate our weekly lesson plans, pictures or videos of daily activities as well as important announcements, reminders and events.

In addition to viewing your child’s daily activities, you’ll be updated on daily meal consumption, diaper or potty info as well as nap times; we understand that this information is vital to the child’s growth and development.

We also exchange messages with the parents through the app keeping you informed of the learning experiences that happen at The Nook.

The Brightwheel App is a third party application that uses the best technology and providing the highest levels of security. All personal information is stored by Amazon Web Services (AWS), one of the most-trusted, highly secure, cloud-based data storage solutions. Our website uses Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to protect your data with 256-bit encrypation and industry standard authentication mechanisms to ensure that your data stays secure. To learn more, you can visit their website https://mybrightwheel.com/security/.

Safety and security is our main goal. We do everything we can to keep the children safe at all times.

The front door to our center will remain open at all times. This is for the convenience of our families to get into the door and out of the cold. There is a separate door separating the lobby from the classrooms. That door is remained locked at all times. We have a buzzer system that only the director and staff members have access to. No one will be let in unless identified by the Director or a staff member. If you have authorized a person other than the child’s parent or guardian to pick your child up, then they will be ID’d before allowed back to the classrooms.

The center’s environment is all child-friendly and classrooms have been baby proofed.

Our Nook centers offer a variety of age appropriate enrichment programs. Some of our programs include, yoga, music and movement and Claynguage (learning language through clay).

We are always enhancing our programs and adding new activities that would benefit your children’s learning development and well being.

Program Overview

The Nook has classrooms separated by developmental levels, generally categorized as:

• Infants
• Wobblers (Older Infants)
• Toddlers (Generally starting at 15-18 months)
• Tikes (Generally starting at 24 months)
• Preschool 3 yrs. to 5 yrs.

Each individual sites’ classrooms are determined by our directors to cater to your child’s growth.

Curriculum

The Nook will be using a combination of The Creative Curriculum and The Reggio Emilia Approach. A combination of these two Early Childhood theories is very beneficial to our little explorers.

The Reggio Emilia Approach originated in the town Reggio Emilia in Italy out of a movement toward progressive and cooperative early childhood education. The Reggio approach is all about individualism, therefore no two Reggio inspired classrooms or centers will look the same. This style is based off the needs and interests of the children at that time. The lessons are planned off the children’s interests to further their knowledge of that topic. For example, if the class, a group of children, or even a single child is interested in something such as cars, the teacher will elaborate on that interest and plan her lessons around that. They may do car counting games, maybe mold a car out of play-dough, talk about who drives a car and other types of vehicles, and even make their own! With the Reggio inspired classrooms, the teachers act as a guide and resource for the children.

The children are encouraged to work in groups but are recognized for their individual thoughts and ideas. The teacher is not the giver of knowledge but a guide and mediator for the students.

Throughout the center, you will see many forms of documentation. Documentation of the children’s work could be a photograph, transcripts of children’s thoughts and explanations, a drawing or painting; all serves the purpose to outline the child’s learning process. One big staple of the Reggio Emilia approach is The Hundred Languages of Children; meaning that children use many methods to show their understanding and express their opinions and creativity. Children can express their learning and understanding through dramatic play, art, building with blocks, dance, etc. These are all part of the child, therefore we stress that learning and play are not separate but are congruent. The Reggio approach allows the child to learn through hands-on experience and permits the children to draw their own conclusions by using their 5 senses and different languages to discover.

The Creative Curriculum stresses the importance of stepping back and letting them explore on their own. Art projects are open ended, meaning the materials will be provided but the child is allowed to make their project however they wish. Obviously supervision is a given with projects, but the teacher addresses that there is no wrong or right way to do a certain project. With these open-ended projects, the children express how they perceive the world while mastering their motor skills. In the Toddler and Tikes Rooms, the children will be introduced to real materials and not just kid-friendly ones. By doing this, you teach them how to do a certain task using the actual item. When something new is brought out such as glass dishes, the children are taught that they cannot drop them and have to be careful. It is also explained to them that if an item does break, it’s ok.

They are required to help clean it up and the teacher in a calm and understanding tone, explains to the child as to why it happened and why he or she needs to be more careful next time. They will never be made to feel bad about an accident. It gives the children a sense of responsibility while still being closely monitored by their teacher.

The Creative Curriculum fits perfectly with the Reggio Emilia Approach. The Creative Curriculum with infants and toddlers focuses on the individual child. With this young age group, the three main focuses are social-emotional development, physical development, and language development. Social-emotional development is crucial in the first 3 years of life. With the loving care from our staff, the children learn to trust their caregivers and know that their basic needs will be met. With the appropriate activities, the children will learn about themselves through their own body movements and senses. As for physical development, children will be provided with the proper environment and tools to aid their physical development in mastering the milestones when the individual child is ready. Finally, language development in Creative Curriculum is demonstrated and learned by talking to the child about the things you are doing such as changing a diaper. Talking to the child out loud as to what you are doing is one of those perfect ‘teachable moments’ to have one on one time with that child. With repetition, the babies will start to respond by lifting their leg at the appropriate time or even something so simple as laying still. Having that constant language exposure helps the child pick it up faster and you will be able to see it. The Nook will also be using sign language to communicate with the babies. Using simple signs, especially at meal times, such as ‘more’, ‘please’, and ‘all done’ help the child begin to understand the means of communication even when they do not yet have the verbal skills to tell us what they are feeling. With the toddlers, many books will be read, educational posters throughout, and the strong communication between the teachers and the children will aid in this development.

The Nook strives to combine these two curriculums while keeping the individualism of each child. With this unique curriculum, we can raise well-rounded and well-adjusted children ready for the real world!

Gourmet Cuisine

We believe every meal at the Nook is another opportunity to celebrate and learn. At The Nook kiddos are given the opportunity to enjoy eating organic, wholesome, delicious and exciting food. Because our cuisine is so enticing, your kiddos will start eating vegetables, fresh fruit, and whole foods like it’s no big deal! We start with the finest quality ingredients, authentic flavors, prepared on site by our skilled chefs and served with pride. Each Nook location has its own, licensed in-house chef focused on preparing fun and appealing foods.

• The Nook provides breakfast, lunch, and snack.
• We serve meals out of our own kitchen featuring gourmet all-organic meals
• We serve all organic food across the board
• We provide our organic home-made baby food and supply a house-formula and bottles. It is your choice whether you choose to use it or not. We accommodate breast milk and any other food or formulas you would like to supply from home.

Here’s a sampling of the fare your child will enjoy at The Nook.

368A8325 copy
368A8273 copy

What to bring on your first day

Infant Room:

• Bottles prepped, labeled, and dated (unless using the centers)
• A pacifier (if needed)
• Diapers
• A swaddle (if need be; we will provide these as well unless your baby needs a specific one)
• 2 changes of clothes
• Diaper cream
• Anything else your baby needs, i.e.: teething tablets, ibuprofen, sunscreen, sunhat, orajel, etc.
• Any specific instructions to tell your child’s teachers in order to take proper care of your child

Wobbler Room:

• Bottles prepped, labeled, and dated (unless using the centers)
• A pacifier (if needed)
• Diapers
• Diaper cream
• Sleep sack (if needed)
• 2 changes of clothes
• Anything else your baby needs, i.e.: teething tablets, ibuprofen, sunscreen, orajel, sunhat etc.
• Any specific instructions to tell your child’s teachers in order to take proper care of your child

368A8427 copy
368A8276 copy
368A8373 copy
368A8573 copy (1)
Toddler Room:

• A pacifier (if needed)
• Diapers
• Diaper cream
• A water bottle
• 2 changes of clothes
• Blanket and favorite nap time toy (both optional; we provide blankets and sheets)
• Any specific instructions to tell your child’s teachers in order to take proper care of your child

Tikes Room:

• Diapers
• Diaper cream
• 2 changes of clothes
• Blanket and favorite nap time toy (both optional; we provide blankets and sheets)
• Any specific instructions to tell your child’s teachers in order to take proper care of your child

368A8562 copy
368A8391 copy

Daily Reporting

Our centers provide parents with access to our Brightwheel app to receive daily updates on your child. Through the app, we are able to securely communicate our weekly lesson plans, pictures or videos of daily activities as well as important announcements, reminders and events.

In addition to viewing your child’s daily activities, you’ll be updated on daily meal consumption, diaper or potty info as well as nap times; we understand that this information is vital to the child’s growth and development.

We also exchange messages with the parents through the app keeping you informed of the learning experiences that happen at The Nook.

The Brightwheel App is a third party application that uses the best technology and providing the highest levels of security. All personal information is stored by Amazon Web Services (AWS), one of the most-trusted, highly secure, cloud-based data storage solutions. Our website uses Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to protect your data with 256-bit encrypation and industry standard authentication mechanisms to ensure that your data stays secure. To learn more, you can visit their website https://mybrightwheel.com/security/.

Safety and Security

Safety and security is our main goal. We do everything we can to keep the children safe at all times.

The front door to our center will remain open at all times. This is for the convenience of our families to get into the door and out of the cold. There is a separate door separating the lobby from the classrooms. That door is remained locked at all times. We have a buzzer system that only the director and staff members have access to. No one will be let in unless identified by the Director or a staff member. If you have authorized a person other than the child’s parent or guardian to pick your child up, then they will be ID’d before allowed back to the classrooms.

The center’s environment is all child-friendly and classrooms have been baby proofed.

Enrichment Programs

Our Nook centers offer a variety of age appropriate enrichment programs. Some of our programs include, yoga, music and movement and Claynguage (learning language through clay).

We are always enhancing our programs and adding new activities that would benefit your children’s learning development and well being.