Soaring Wings Montessori School launched an infant program this year that will encourage parents and infants to get together once a week. The program provides a Montessori approach to raising children.
According to Soaring Wings Montessori Executive Director Duna Strachan, the school opened more than 25 years ago and has added several programs since then.
“We started with a childhood program and then upper elementary and then early elementary. We felt like our next step was to add the infant program,” Strachan said.
The infant program is offered on Friday mornings from 9 a.m. to noon for infants ages zero to 18 months. According to Strachan, discussion topics range from prenatal care to interacting with an infant during meals.
The classroom provides infants the opportunity play with toys to practice hand grasping movements and a bar for standing up when first starting to walk.
“We started out thinking it should be 0 to 18 months but the prenatal stage is important too, because moms want to know prenatal,” she said. “It just came from wanting to add the next step for the parents and the babies before they start to go to school.”
Parents review what they know about child development, talk about feeding their child and the types of food they are interested in, according to Strachan, who said parents and infants interact at snack time and practice good eating habits.
“The parents sit on pillows by the children and they start the dining experience. The teacher prepares mashed or sliced bananas and they sing a song together, clean up their places and go on with their day,” she said.
Soaring Wings Montessori infant program teacher Lynn Chadderdon said she was first involved at the school as a parent when she enrolled her son. She started teaching the toddler program in 2003 and earned her infant and toddler credentials two years ago.
The school searched for infant programs in Chicago and Portland last year before implementing their own program in August. Chadderdon said it’s important for parents to talk about potty training, dining practices and concerns.
“For example if you are diapering or if you are feeding, you make eye contact, you talk with the child as a person, and you really don’t want to rush through the process,” she said. “It’s the same thing with dining. Sitting down at the table with the child to make them realize that mealtime is a time to have a conversation and being in a pleasant environment instead of rushing through it.”
Chadderdon said the class has two infants attending the program on a regular basis and can accommodate up to five. Tuition costs $1,800 annually.
For more information visit the schools website at http://www.soaringwings.org .