Rayito Spanish Immersion Toddler Program Highlight

Raytio Spanish Immersion Toddler Program

Today we are excited to go over our Spanish Immersion toddler program at Rayito de Sol!

• 16 Months to 33 Months
• Offered at all Rayito de Sol locations

WHAT IS A TODDLER?

The word toddler is defined as a young child who is just beginning to walk.  This simple description emphasizes one of the MANY milestones a child will conquer during their toddler phase of life.  Mastering the ability to walk opens an entirely new world of exploration, independence, and enhanced development.  It is a time to be cherished and watched over carefully when your sweet baby starts to “toddle.” As they find their balance and begin to understand how fantastic this new eye-level is and what amazing things unfold, a family must be ready to provide enrichment that focuses on this age group’s needs.  Our toddler program at Rayito de Sol has this covered, and we are prepared to work with parents to ensure your child meets all the critical milestones.

RAYITO’S TODDLER SPANISH IMMERSION PROGRAM

At Rayito de Sol, we categorize our toddlers as being in the age range of 16-33 months.

Our toddler Spanish immersion program utilizes creative learning areas and an environment-based curriculum we developed to meet toddlers’ specific needs. We give special consideration to our classroom arrangement by carefully selecting educational materials, equipment, and age-appropriate activities that encourage learning at each stage of a toddler’s development.

Our program structure is also based on capacity and the children’s needs who attend our centers. For example, our Minneapolis center has two toddler rooms divided by the age groups of 16-25 months and 25-33 months, with a teacher-to-child ratio of 1:7. With small toddler program classes, parents can be assured that they receive a high quality and attentive learning experience in a safe and secure environment.

Toddlers will participate in planned activities that specifically address the defined developmental milestones while incorporating our distinctive Spanish immersion curriculum that also provides fun and educational ways to explore *STEAM learning concepts.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A RAYITO TODDLER

Upon being dotingly welcomed into the center, our toddlers will enjoy a nutritious breakfast. After breakfast, we will begin the learning activities and fun that is scheduled for the day.  A typical schedule for a toddler in our program is shown below:

TODDLER DEVELOPMENTAL MILESTONES CATEGORIES AND HOW RAYITO RESPONDS

Child development experts make it clear that a lot of factors go into how children grow and learn. The reality is that each child develops at their own pace, so there is no way to tell precisely when a child will learn a skill.  Still, there are established milestones that provide a general idea of the changes to expect at each stage of their overall growth and learning.

GROSS MOTOR SKILLS

Involves the larger muscle groups (e.g., arms, legs, torso). Gross motor skills milestones include:

• Running
• Throwing and kicking a ball
• Standing on tiptoes
• Climbing
• Using stairs while holding on
• Walking while carrying an object

At Rayito de Sol, we provide various daily activities that encourage gross motor skills development. Our children are provided with the opportunity to engage in structured and unstructured physical playtime, like playground time. Zumba and Latin dancing are also fun physical activities that we participate in that promote gross motor skills development for our Rayito kids.

FINE MOTOR SKILLS

Fine motor skills development involves utilizing the hands’ smaller muscles in activities like using pencils, scissors, and construction with blocks. Effective fine motor skills require several independent skills to work together to manipulate the object or perform the task appropriately.  Milestone examples include:

• Drawing scribbles, basic lines, and forms
• Stacking play blocks, being able to build a tower of 4+ blocks
• Having the ability to pick up and transfer contents from one container to another: pouring into bowl, tub, cup

At Rayito de Sol, we will develop and reinforce your child’s fine motor skills daily with activities that include learning how to properly hold writing utensils to write and draw, participating in activities with block-play like stacking Legos into structures or building their name out of blocks.

LANGUAGE SKILLS

This is a critical part of a child’s ability to communicate with others, express themselves, and understand feelings effectively. Key milestones for a toddler can include:

• Repeating words
• Pointing to things or pictures when they are named
• Understanding the names of immediate family members, familiar objects, and basic parts of the body
• Speaking in 2-4-word sentences to express ideas, needs wants, respond to questions

Language skills development in Rayito de Sol’s Spanish immersion toddler program is a specialized focus for children that attend our centers that incorporates the Spanish language. We cover vocabulary building activities throughout the day and support language development through playing letter formation and sound games. We also encourage using words to express thoughts and engage in fun activities like puppet shows, reading books, and circle time that help create a solid foundation for continued language development.

SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL SKILLS

In learning to recognize, label, manage, and communicate their feelings and understand others’ feelings, during this age-band, your child may:

• Start becoming more self-aware
• Show more independence with activities, actions, and playtime
• Use the word “no” more often and show some defiant behavior
• Begin copying or emulating other people they are around, especially older kids or adults

Rayito de Sol works actively to build skills that develop self-esteem, teaches independence and problem solving, and helps children learn how to create loving relationships with themselves and others.

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Cognitive development is your child’s ability to think, understand, communicate, make memories, imagine, and work out what might happen next in a situation.  During the toddler stages, a child should be able to:

• Play simple imaginary games
• Sort colors and shapes
• Follow more complex instructions that require two or more actions
• Reiterate material from age-appropriate books or songs
• Find items even when they are hidden under two or three layers

Activities that reinforce cognitive development are incorporated into almost all our daily activities at Rayito de Sol’s Spanish immersion toddler program. Therefore, our playtime allows for exploration and imagination, while storytime and sing-a-longs highlight a child’s growing cognitive development as they learn passages from books and sing Spanish songs.  Similarly, We also spend a significant amount of time working with shapes and colors during our special projects and through our discovery time in our learning areas.

Rayito de Sol is here to support our families throughout their child’s early education and care.  Our toddler program provides children with a specially designed curriculum created to meet changing developmental needs in a Spanish language immersion environment that focuses on promoting multi-cultural awareness, diversity, and inclusion.