Program and Planning For Babies

[Samantha1992]

Hi Everyone,

I have worked with toddlers and pre-school age children but I am working with the babies in 2016, I am unsure about programming and planning for babies as they cannot express verbal interest. The centre I work at uses online programming (learning stories) and written webs/ daily activities for the rooms. I need some advice about learning experiences and webs for the babies. The most I am unsure about is the webs as we need to link the childs individual learning experiences to their learning web.

Thanks for any advice.

[Lorina]

Hi Samantha,

Incorporating the EYLF within the Babies room can be a little challenging. It’s harder to focus on their emerging interests because you have to spend more time observing each baby to gain a better understanding of what they enjoy doing.

With babies, it’s important to get as much information as possible from their parents. Find out what each of them are doing at home, any milestones that they have reached, which can be added onto the curriculum plan. Even if a parent says that on the weekend they went to the beach. You can incorporate this into the curriculum plan by setting up a sand pit that the babies can engage in or even a sand painting activity. From here, you can extend on it further by adding water to the sand or even adding shells. Once you start from a basic interest then it’s easier to extend on it.

Even the smallest interest that a baby shows can be extended upon and added into the program. If you have mirrors in your room and the babies enjoy looking at themselves in them, then you can add dress up hats. Put a hat or a scarf on the baby and let them look at themselves to see their reaction. From here you can extend upon it further by taking photos of each baby in dress ups and putting it at their height so they can see it.

These are just examples on different ways you can incorporate interest and ideas into the program and how you could possibly extend upon them. Don’t forget to keep talking to the parents about what their baby is up to at home and you can add this onto the curriculum plan as well. A parent doesn't have to “write” something in order for it to be validated. Just adding the parent input onto the program itself, shows you are documenting.

Hope this gives you some ideas,

,
Lorina

[Lorina]

Also wanted to add:

You can also incorporate any developmental milestones that each baby is working towards such as: crawling, trying to stand, trying to walk, pulling themselves up, sitting up, tummy time. For a baby these are all milestones that need to be achieved to gain strength and support as they learn to gain muscle control and strengthen their core muscles. These can be also added into the program and extended upon for each individual child...

,
Lorina

[socialispiice]

Hi Everyone,

I have worked with toddlers and pre-school age children but I am working with the babies in 2016, I am unsure about programming and planning for babies as they cannot express verbal interest. The centre I work at uses online programming (learning stories) and written webs/ daily activities for the rooms. I need some advice about learning experiences and webs for the babies. The most I am unsure about is the webs as we need to link the childs individual learning experiences to their learning web.

Thanks for any advice.

Following ideas you can also add in your experience:

• Help your newborn get plenty of rest
  Consider formula feeding newborn
  Diaper newborn
  Bathe newborn
  Give baby "tummy time" every day
  Care for newborn's umbilical cord stump
  Take newborn to the doctor regularly

[Jessicap]

Hi Everyone,

I have worked with toddlers and pre-school age children but I am working with the babies in 2016, I am unsure about programming and planning for babies as they cannot express verbal interest. The centre I work at uses online programming (learning stories) and written webs/ daily activities for the rooms. I need some advice about learning experiences and webs for the babies. The most I am unsure about is the webs as we need to link the childs individual learning experiences to their learning web.

Thanks for any advice.

Following ideas you can also add in your experience:

• Help your newborn get plenty of rest
  Consider formula feeding newborn
  Diaper newborn
  Bathe newborn
  Give baby "tummy time" every day
  Care for newborn's umbilical cord stump
  Take newborn to the doctor regularly

Taking care of babies is so tricky.. You have to look after every single tiny thing.

Im new to this and loving all the advice! Thanks!

[Sunny Miller]

Following ideas you can also add in your experience:

• Help your newborn get plenty of rest
  Consider formula feeding newborn
  Diaper newborn
  Bathe newborn
  Give baby "tummy time" every day
  Care for newborn's umbilical cord stump
  Take newborn to the doctor regularly

[/quote]

Thanks for the advice!

[Ch103]

Hi,
Sorry to jump onto this question but i cant seem to find where i can post. Anyways, I have a question about developmental grow walls. At the start of the year one the educators in the infant studio started a developmental grow wall. The purpose behind it was to add to it throughout the year to see how the children have developed from the beginning of the year to the end. However that educator has changed studios and I have come in and decided that i would like to gain more experience in understanding infant development so i thought taking over this project would be great but I'm kinda struggling on how i can change it up a little a bit and make it more inviting to parents and what language to use when added development milestones that a child has achieved or displayed in the studio. Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you , Chloe!

[Lorina]

Hi,
Sorry to jump onto this question but i cant seem to find where i can post. Anyways, I have a question about developmental grow walls. At the start of the year one the educators in the infant studio started a developmental grow wall. The purpose behind it was to add to it throughout the year to see how the children have developed from the beginning of the year to the end. However that educator has changed studios and I have come in and decided that i would like to gain more experience in understanding infant development so i thought taking over this project would be great but I'm kinda struggling on how i can change it up a little a bit and make it more inviting to parents and what language to use when added development milestones that a child has achieved or displayed in the studio. Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you , Chloe!

Hi Chloe,

That's a really sweet idea.

I would probably break up the project into each developmental milestones and add images of children as they achieve important milestones.

You can find them here: Child Development

,
Lorina