The first year of life is a very important time for development. In our infant program, our staff helps your child explore concepts through play. They provide a variety of materials of different colors, sizes, textures, and shapes to allow the children to explore and make new discoveries every day. We encourage the use of the five senses to help children make these discoveries. Not only does our program allow development, but we also provide a safe and nurturing environment that allows for the needs of all the children to be met. We understand that most infants are on their own schedule and our staff are flexible to the needs of the children. We help your infant develop trusting relationships. Many new skills that infants should accomplish in our program include babbling, imitating sounds, reaching for toys, rolling over, sit up without support, point at items, play peek-a-boo, crawl, cruise, and start to walk.

Our toddler program is based on the premise that toddlers develop and learn about their world through the use of all their senses, through active movement, and through interactions with others. The environment, indoor and outdoor, and daily planned activities are designed to encourage self-exploration and hands on play and discovery. Every experience that occurs in our day is seen as part of the curriculum. Singing, reading, discovering; water, sand, paint, and playing, watching, and moving as well as diapering, feeding, washing, and comforting are seen as learning experiences that enhance the children’s emerging gross motor, fine motor, language, sensory, social, and self-help skills.

Knowing that two-year-old are full of energy, have a sense of wonder, and have the need to experience everything through their senses, the Two-Year-Old program at St. Mary’s Sunshine Center is set up for lots of active exploration and experimentation. Our staff provides hands on experiences and activities throughout the day to support the ever-growing gross motor, find motor, language, sensory, and self-help skills. Children are also supported in their endeavors to master toilet training, learning to dress themselves, and learning to feed themselves. With the knowledge that two-year-old are also beginning to experiment in social skills, our staff supports children in their efforts to form friendships and to communicate emotions. Interactions between the children are carefully and gently guided towards their development of empathy and compassion.

Three-year-old are very energetic and are beginning to show their independence and build self-esteem through challenges and success. We encourage children to focus their energy on positive behavior and good choices. Our staff encourage self-control, cooperation and exploration of their environment. We use a Maryland Department of Education approved curriculum.