WPDN screens each student for developmental delays six times per year, enabling us to identify any issues and immediately begin remediation. Results of screenings like Ages and Stages, Brigance and Child Observation Record are always shared with parents, and help us measure progress against important milestones. Our Behavior and Family Specialist helps families gain access to support resources when necessary, including our visiting speech and language therapist.

Weekly cooking projects, such as making biscuits or “ants on a log” (celery, peanut butter and raisins), help children learn about healthy eating and increase their desire to care for themselves. These projects also use real life math skills such as measuring and counting, fine motor skills like spreading and mixing, and the early literacy skill of reading picture recipe cards.

Winter Park Day Nursery has a library of more than 5,000 books. Children are encouraged to take home a book each week for their parents to read to them. We are also lucky to have children’s storyteller from Winter Park Public Library at the school each week to entertain the children and further develop their literary interests.

Childhood obesity has tripled in just 20 years. Preschool children who are inactive risk becoming overweight later in life. The U.S. Surgeon General says daily exercise is a key to being fit. For these reasons, WPDN students spend time every day on outside physical activities and participate in an organized physical education class once a week.

Art is one of the early ways children share their ideas and feelings with others. Through the exploration of art materials, our students develop their fine motor skills and construct their knowledge of representation. Winter Park Day Nursery teaches process-oriented art, which does not prescribe ‘projects’, but presents opportunities to explore a medium with no expectation of a product. This environment fosters creative learning experiences that help children and adults recognize and celebrate individual uniqueness.