Two Year Old Program

The two year old year is a most exciting one in the life of a child. He or she will spend most waking hours trying to figure out how the world works. The two year old is discovering the effect he/she has on the world around him/her. He or she is acquiring new capabilities in language, motor, social and intellectual development each day.

Our two year old program at The Kinderplatz is designed to encourage the child's natural learning drives within a secure framework of limits and routines. Your child will have the opportunity to choose from a wide variety of developmentally appropriate activities. All will appeal to the child's senses in as many ways as possible. You can expect your child to hear the sounds of letters from stories, songs, rhymes and silly tongue twisters. He or she will play matching games to help learn about similarities and differences. This will help the child later as he/she learns to discriminate among printed letters and words. Your child will manipulate many objects with the thumb and forefinger, strengthening and coordinating these muscles for years of future pencil holding. The child will learn about shape, size and volume with water and sand play, puzzles, sorting activities, manipulatives and blocks. She/he will be getting the feel of numbers with counting beads, sorting games, songs and finger plays. A two year old may very well be able to count and/or recognize numbers but it will be closer to five years before she/he will begin to grasp the concept of "how many", correspondence, combinations, volume, space and size.

Your child will paint, work with playdough, move with music, play rhythm instruments, touch, see, feel and hear many things. In doing so, she/he will repeat much of her work over and over again. This is done by the child's choice. The child is driven to practice newly acquired capabilities: understanding and a sense of success, confidence and competence are gained through repetition.

Because two year olds need consistency and security in their environment, these activities are conducted in a self-contained classroom. The children are divided into small groups at times during the morning in order to address their different developmental needs and capabilities.

The children will play side by side and alone. We will help them learn to "get along" with each other: taking turns, respecting other's work and using words to express themselves. They will talk with other children and talk with teachers. We will answer their questions and encourage them to ask more. Rather than teach, we will share and enhance their daily discoveries. Above all, we as parents and teachers must allow the child to progress at his/her own pace rather than impose upon him/her our adult sense of achievement. A sense of wonder is a very delicate and precious attribute and should be nurtured through our continuing understanding of the child's developmental progression.