NIDO | 6 Weeks - 18 months

Foundation for Movement

The environment

The first thing you’ll see upon entering the Nido (Dr. Montessori’s term for the prepared Infant Environment, the Italian word for ‘Nest), is its use of simple, natural materials which encourage a sense of calm, order, beauty and security. Every object is selected to promote children’s natural development of motor and cogitative skills. There are no infant swings, no bouncers, no walkers, no exasaucers. No noisy battery-operated plastic toys.  Not even a high chair in sight!  We allow children to freely explore the environment and encourage uninterrupted, self-directed play.  We trust that our children’s play choices are enough.  Perfect, actually.   

Infants as active participants    

Our youngest students are invited to actively participate in caregiving activities such as diapering, washing, meals and nap rituals.  The inclusion allows the children to become active participants rather than passive recipients.    We promote consistency and provide clearly defined limits and expectations to develop discipline.  At the same time, we recognize that the children need nurturing empathetic caregivers who model patience, tolerance, kindness, empathy and respect.

Continuity of Care

We take our commitment to our youngest students a bit further by practicing Continuity of Care.  Children in our Nido stay together and transition together to Community with their trusted caregivers until they are ready for Primary at age three.  This allows close bonds to develop where infants, toddlers, and their caregivers flourish.