As first sounds give way to first words, your baby's world expands exponentially. Relationships come to the fore with social experiences and experimentation paving the way. A time to be brave, a time of great learning.
Babies are curious little creatures, learning to participate in new social experiences and exchanges. The Educators in our Babies Learning Environments are a unique blend of kind yet curious, gentle yet joyful. The perfect compass to guide your baby on their journey of rapid discovery and development. Our environments have been carefully crafted with this in mind, filled with items of wonder and intrigue to catalyse learning.
Here your baby learns to navigate their first friendships and attachments, as well as conflict resolution in the form of early social parallel play and sharing. Your baby is nurtured when needed and encouraged when brave. We are the compass but your baby is the explorer - ready to experience all the wonders of the natural world that await.
The key skill to develop during the Baby years is communication. We focus on listening, speaking and storytelling as a way of encouraging first words and expanding little minds.
As babies start to understand first words and in turn, use them to communicate with the wider world, they can sometimes get a sense of overwhelm or sensory overload. Like being in a house of mirrors, it can take time to process what it is that stands before you. We take gentle steps towards first words by using simple sounds and phonics at your baby's eye level, to encourage new mouth shapes and formation. They show us what intrigues them and what story they want to tell. We cooperate, Educator and child, to create the narrative.
We read books and tell stories to teach the ancient art of storytelling and sing songs with a full heart and gleeful spirit to engage and capture the imagination. Social language develops in its own time, but is aided by small group experiences even at a very young age. Learning that our friends can learn with us and that together we learn more - starts so young and so comes to the fore.
Fine motor skills begin to strengthen and emerge, so we use sensory exploration to discover and learn.
We like to do things a little differently at Atlantis as genuine discovery is at the heart of all we do. We let children decide how and what they will learn in a day, so we place items of intrigue deliberately in their way. When your baby discovers freely, they truly engage and learn.
Fine motor skills begin to emerge and consolidate in the baby years, so items that can be manipulated, turned in a small hand and investigated are what you will find. Nothing too small, as mouths are still key to exploration, but enough to allow little fingers to chat to little brains and find their way to working together.
Babies need to feel nurtured. Their sense of independence is burgeoning at best, so we are never far away. Our Educators do however sit back and allow your baby's natural curiosity to take the lead.
Experiences are designed to delight and impart the gentlest of knowledge about their natural world, as it is after all, still so new to them. Join us in our wondrous quest to learn how baby's learn the best.
The natural world is where it's at, just don't forget your bucket hat.
Babies love the natural world. So many colours, textures and things to explore. Sometimes learning need be as simple as listening to a bird, watching a cloud or feeling the earth beneath your small feet. We engage the natural world on a daily basis at Atlantis and use the interests and discoveries of our Babies to learn more. It is tactile learning at its best and and it is always great (somewhat dirty) fun.
Chickens, worm farms and vegetable gardens are regular features at Atlantis, so Babies can learn and connect with the physical world from a young age. Understanding that food is grown is an important lesson for nutrition and food education later on. We have also found over the years that the younger this starts, the greater the connection with environmental and sustainable teachings as they grow.
