The Daffodil room is a licensed infant program with 3 staff and 10 babies! We love greeting the babies and their mothers every morning with a smile and a coo before heading into our busy day filled with sleep, feedings, and social interaction! We’ve been so lucky to have so many amazing volunteers in our program each day who help feed, sooth, and socialize with our little ones! From home, we are working hard to maintain our connection with families by sending weekly activities, engaging on Storypark, and completing professional development to better serve our clients when we return!
Our program provides a unique experience for breastfeeding mothers. Since most school-based programs are available in the same building as childcare, breastfeeding mothers are able to come into the program to feed and bond with their babies throughout the day! While working from home, our educators have been participating in training sessions geared towards supporting our breast and bottle fed babies through the International Breastfeeding Institute, Great Lakes Breastfeeding and the Baby Friendly Initiative!
The Daffodil Program’s main goal is to meet the basic needs of all children before anything else. This means, sleeping, bottles/breastfeeding, eating lunch/snack, and diapering. When the children are awake and happy, we provide meaningful and engaging activities centered around tummy time. This is the most important skill for infants to be practicing because it acts as the foundation for motor, visual, and sensory development. Did you know, you can start practicing tummy time with your baby as soon as you get home from the hospital? Tummy time helps babies develop their neck, back, core, and shoulder muscles needed for future development, such as eating, crawling, and walking! In our program, we strive to provide activities and experiences to make tummy time more fun and interactive! Some materials and activities include: sensory bottles/sensory bags, mouthing toys, mirror play, and engaging in tummy time ourselves to read and sing songs on their level!
The good news about tummy time? It can be safely monitored on the floor of your living space at home! Here’s baby M, having fun on her tummy while exploring her senses!
Although our program generally serves infants ages 4 weeks – 6 months, our current group ranges from 5 months – 1 year! The children are currently working on a wide range of skills including tummy time, rolling over, crawling, and cruising. From home, we are working with our clients to provide weekly activities via e-mail and Storypark based on individual development level and learning style!
Here’s a look at a recent activity prepared for our clients geared towards working on problem solving and fine motor skills at home!
Along with creating weekly activities and Storyparks for the children in our program, we have updated our Student Wiki page with information on milestones & development, our daily routine, a sleep document, and other topics related to infants! We know it can be difficult to incorporate a sleep schedule into your home routine, so we have developed a few guidelines for parents with a focus on awake times. Families can access these guidelines to create daily routines, which can help create predictability throughout the day and support healthy sleep habits!
Awake Times for Babies
Newborn: 45-60 minutes
4-5 months: 1.5-2 hours
6-7 months: 2-2.5 hours
8-11 months: 2.5-3 hours
11+ months: 3-4 hours
16-18 + months: 1 nap mid-day
We’re so grateful to have the opportunity to stay connected with the families of Youville Centre! As always, stay healthy and safe; and any questions or special requests can be directed through your ITSP and we’ll do our absolute best to accommodate and support your little ones needs!
The Daffodils,
Emily, Anna Mary & Natasha