MISSION
At The Robin’s Nest Childcare Center, we recognize and understand the critical need for high quality childcare for Corvallis’s diverse families with children of all abilities, ages 6 weeks to 36 months. We are a nature-based, eco-friendly, state certified childcare center that creates opportunities for autonomy, trust, & self-regulation in a home-like environment for our community’s youngest members.
CORE VALUES
- Local, nature-based learning shall be at the root of our curriculum
- Eco-conscious practices need to be a part of everyday life
- Children must be shown that the world is safe and good
- Consistency should be carried over from home to the childcare environment
- Children at this age need time and space to practice autonomy, independence, and self-regulation
- A childcare center is an integral part of the community and thus, should be actively involved
- A consistent routine provides scaffolding for individual growth
PHILOSOPHY
At The Robin’s Nest, we understand the paramount importance of healthy development of all children during the first five years of life. Primarily, the first three years of life need to be a time when children learn to trust, to find autonomy and independence, and practice control and self-direction.
Erik Erikson breaks it down into developmental stages by age and calls each stage a crisis. We prefer to call them opportunities! Our youngest babies are discovering whether they can trust the world and the people in it. This is why our nestlings are broken up into cohorts and each cohort has a primary care giver. Our primary care providers give snuggles, read books, play games that challenge each of the four developmental areas, and much more. Our babies feel safe and secure in the world and consistency is carried over from home to The Nest through clear communication and healthy relationships between parents/family and our caregivers. In this way, our nestlings feel rooted in their world and are prepared to grow and flourish.
Roughly around 15 to 18 months old, children begin to exercise autonomy. This is when we start to see wobblers choosing their own clothes or saying “no” and we start to realize that our sweet little babies are not really babies any more! They begin to spread their wings and practice independence while staying under the care and protection of their primary caregiver. Each child begins the search for independence at his or her own pace. We allow ample opportunities for our transitioning wobbler to spend time with the older toddlers. It’s important that children at this stage are exposed to experiences that challenge each developmental stage and that they are given an environment where it is safe for them to try and fail. Failure leads to multiple attempts which leads to increased opportunities for learning and ultimately success and mastery of any given challenge.
As they transition into toddlerhood and begin to reach preschool age, we see our babies playing make-believe and deciding what they would like to play or telling friends and other adults what to do. This is the age when responsibility for self truly takes root. Although our nestlings go through the same daily routines of self-care that our Meadowlarks and Bluebirds go through, our classroom guides for this older cohort emphasize independence and self initiative in completing these tasks. A consistent routine provides scaffolding for our youngest fledglings to focus on developing independence while setting the groundwork for personal responsibility. Within the daily routine, our classroom guides allow ample time for the Meadowlarks and Bluebirds to participate in self-directed play. This may include free play at the play kitchen, art, reading, puzzles, or during art projects when children are given guidance on how to complete a project while being provided the opportunity for artistic license.
The Robin's Nest 