Our nature is to nurture because children are our first priority The infant child care classroom at the Harvest School in Stone Mountain, Georgia is comprised of children ages six weeks to twelve months. At this stage, we use the Creative Curriculum to help our children meet and exceed the recommended cognitive, language, social, and physical developmental milestones. Our infant classes go beyond normal child and day care services to provide an enrinching growth environment. Cognitive activities include but are not limited to the ability of our children to anticipate events, find hidden objects, point to body parts, grouping similar toys, and waving goodbye. Similarly, the language milestones reflect our children’s ability to understand and respond appropriately to specific words, speak a few recognizable words, take turns in making sounds to promote conversation, and gesturing while communicating. Physically, this group will learn to stand up and walk, sit without support, transfer toys from hand to hand, and develop eye-hand coordination. We know that this period in a child’s life is the foundation of the progress they will make in later years. Thus, we have designed both the school’s physical space as well as the infant programming around this fundamental need. Specifically, the first thing that visitors observe is the larger-than-industry-standard room size allocated to the infants, allowing for ample exploration activities. Harvest does not use swings with our infants; rather, we prefer to encourage movement and the development of their coordination.

Our nature is to nurture because children are our first priority The Harvest School toddler community in Stone Mountain, Georgia is our budding class of one-year-olds. After graduating from the infant class, our toddler child care program helps the young ones begin exploring the world around them with more independence under the careful supervision and guidance of a nurturing staff of teachers. This exploration is coupled with structured learning activities that are included in the Creative Curriculum. This curriculum aids us in meeting and exceeding the developmental milestones for our one-year-olds. The cognitive milestones include our children’s ability to identify family members in photographs, enjoys cause and effect relationships, begins to solve problems, mimics adult behavior, sorts shapes and colors, refers to self by name, and learns concepts like size, shape and weight in the context age-appropriate toys and objects in the classroom. A subset of the language milestones include developing an expressive vocabulary, listening and responding to simple directions, and increasing the use of courtesy words. Socially and emotionally, our goal is to help our children learn to share and to show empathy, help them play well together, develop the imagination of each child, and encourage them to perform or lead an audience or community. Some of the physical milestones include turning pages in a book, throwing a ball, walking while holding an object, drawing and scribbling, standing on a balance beam, walking up stairs with help, riding small-wheeled riding toys, and drinking from a straw. The Harvest staff is happy to discuss the breadth of milestones and activities offered to help our children through this development phase. Beyond fine tuning our toddler’s primary developmental skills, the Harvest enrichment curriculum educates our toddlers on subjects including sign language, hands-on art, and a host of others. By introducing these lessons during the initial learning stages, our children not only learn them more quickly, but are encouraged and engaged to teach what they have learned to others. This process is merely the first step of the outreach and leadership goals that will manifest themselves in Harvest children throughout their educational journey.

Planting seeds in an enriching environment The Early Preschool class at The Harvest School in Stone Mountain, Georgia consists of our All-American two-year-olds. Members of this class have become comfortable in their independence, and are ready to own their discovery and learning experiences. Our classes go beyond normal child and day care services to provide an enrinching growth environment. The class is led by seasoned Harvest teachers, and supported by caring and attentive staff. The Creative Curriculum for two-year-olds serves as the fundamental educational tool to aid our children in meeting and exceeding the federally mandated developmental milestones. These milestones are divided into four key areas: cognitive, language, social/emotional, and physical. The cognitive development milestones help children understand size, time sequences, and matching shapes and colors, in addition to a number of other productive skill sets. Our two-year-olds learn to combine words to form short sentences, use plurals, and answer routine questions aligned with the language milestones. Social and physical milestones and accomplishments include having a strong sense of ownership, walking backwards, and balancing on one foot. This group enjoys a more structured day than the infants and the toddlers. A critical skill that is taught and reinforced during this class is potty training. It also tends to be among our parent’s favorites as well! In addition to this life skill, the early preschool children strengthen their letter, number, color, and shape recognition. They participate in enrichment activities like cooking, science, and vocabulary building. They begin to participate more actively in engagement activities with one another including outdoor play in four separate, gated playgrounds.

Planting seeds in an enriching environment The Early Preschool class at The Harvest School in Stone Mountain, Georgia consists of our All-American two-year-olds. Members of this class have become comfortable in their independence, and are ready to own their discovery and learning experiences. Our classes go beyond normal child and day care services to provide an enrinching growth environment. The class is led by seasoned Harvest teachers, and supported by caring and attentive staff. The Creative Curriculum for three-year-olds serves as the fundamental educational tool to aid our children in meeting and exceeding the federally mandated developmental milestones. These milestones are divided into four key areas: cognitive, language, social/emotional, and physical. The cognitive development milestones help children understand size, time sequences, and matching shapes and colors, in addition to a number of other productive skill sets. Our two-year-olds learn to combine words to form short sentences, use plurals, and answer routine questions aligned with the language milestones. Social and physical milestones and accomplishments include having a strong sense of ownership, walking backwards, and balancing on one foot. This group enjoys a more structured day than the infants and the toddlers. A critical skill that is taught and reinforced during this class is potty training. It also tends to be among our parent’s favorites as well! In addition to this life skill, the early preschool children strengthen their letter, number, color, and shape recognition. They participate in enrichment activities like cooking, science, and vocabulary building. They begin to participate more actively in engagement activities with one another including outdoor play in four separate, gated playgrounds.

Providing a solid foundation with a life driven curriculum The Harvest Private Pre-K program in Stone Mountain, Georgia is taught for the benefit of our four-year-old community. At this critical stage of development and preparation for kindergarten, the Harvest team specializes in creating a seamless transition from The Harvest School into the family’s school of choice. Our classes go beyond normal child and day care services to provide an enrinching growth environment. By providing significantly more focus on the child with one of the lowest teacher-student ratios for a school of our size, The Harvest School equips our children and their families with the tools needed to jumpstart a successful primary school experience. Our experienced teachers customize lesson plans that are based on Macmillan/McGraw-Hill, Creative, and Early Reader. This aids our four-year-olds with math, emergent reading, and ultimately good decision-making skills. Spanish lessons are intensified as is the frequency of educational field trips. Skill sets that address the developmental milestones are learned through the strategic integration of these three curricula. Harvest children learn to complete basic puzzles, understand simple math concepts, follow multiple step directions, tell simple jokes, use a 2000 word vocabulary, take pride in personal accomplishments, dress and undress themselves, tell a story in sequence, find multiple solutions to a problem, and demonstrate rhyming skills. Our children continue to be enriched and engaged through a host of other programs, shaping them into socially skilled