As part of our Parent Toddler program, toddlers of ages 9 to 21 months and their parents attend experiential sessions for 1.5 hours thrice a week at our Hyderabad and Mumbai campuses. At our Ahmedabad campus, parents have the option of choosing a two-day, three-day, or five-day program. The environment is designed for infants to move, explore, and discover. Because the program is the first socialising agency for most children, the focus is to provide a warm, supportive environment filled with opportunities to develop sensory skills, motor skills, and a positive attitude towards learning.
The sensory gymnasium is every child’s favourite space at Toddler’s Den. It is filled with open-ended and structured challenges that change every week. These challenges bring a parent and child closer as they participate in activities together. They learn to twist, turn, roll, jump, run, balance, and hop. Children strengthen physical skills as they walk on balancing beams, wobble on river stone gonges, fall on crash mats, climb on rock walls, and bounce on animal scooters.
Toddler’s Den is equipped with 3 types of outdoor spaces - active, social, and experimental. In the active play area, children have access to open-ended play equipment where they develop their gross-motor skills through crawling and climbing on mounds. The outdoor social area is an interactive and collaborative space with a sand pit, water tub and a pretend play area. In the experimental outdoor area, children experiment with materials that evoke their multiple senses.
The art and design station, equipped with easels and traditional chabudai, allows children to engage with a range of tools and materials to explore textures and create expressive arts and crafts. Children explore a range of paints such as powder, poster, acrylic, dye, tablet, and oil paints and tools such as stamps, sponges, and brayer rollers. They also explore natural materials like clay slurry, leaves and branches, and natural colours from plants.
The sensory station is equipped with an assortment of materials that stimulate the five senses. Interesting wall and interactive installations as well as natural, synthetic, and montessori materials are a part of this station. These sensory experiences are an opportunity for children to express their emotions and interests. Designed to deepen a child’s conceptual understanding of the world, this studio allows children to immerse in smelling and tasting experiences, listening activities, and touch and feel games.
The block studio is an opportunity for toddlers to involve their parents in their favourite play time. Equipped with child-friendly blocks of different sizes, shapes, and textures, the station encourages children to tinker and recreate their thoughts and interpretations of the world. The space features lego blocks, spiral blocks, tube blocks, tangrams, 3D and 2D puzzles, foam blocks, magnetic blocks and much more.
Here, parents and children have access to a world of books ranging from texture books and picture books, to block-based books. Read-alouds are an integral part of this station and help children enhance their vocabulary and their understanding of the world. Parents hold their toddler’s hand to purposefully listen as well as support them in pronunciation of simple words.