Yesterday they were babbling. Today they're naming colors. Tomorrow they're negotiating. Our toddler room serves 12–35 months — roughly ages 1 to 3 — the most extraordinary cognitive leap of human life, and we're built to catch every bit of it.
Tour the Toddler room
Toddlers need both. We give them predictable bookends — meals, naps, transitions — with open exploration time inside them.
Breakfast for early arrivals, table activities, hugs, books. We meet each toddler where they are emotionally that morning.
Songs, fingerplays, hello to each friend, weather, the day's theme. Frog Street Toddler curriculum — gentle, joyful, language-rich.
Blocks, books, dramatic play, sensory bins, art. Toddlers rotate or choose. The room is intentionally set up so they can.
Toddler playground — separate from older kids. Climbers sized for them, soft surfaces, shade, water in summer.
Hot meals served at child-sized tables. Teachers eat with them. We talk through it: "What color is your carrot?"
Full nap on individual cots. Soft music, dim lights, lovey from home. We do not wake sleeping toddlers.
Wake-up snack, then read-alouds. Picture books, predictable text, lots of "what's that?" pointing.
Dance parties, gross motor activities, more outdoor time if weather allows. Toddlers need to MOVE.
Free-choice play, daily Brightwheel updates sent home, gentle goodbye routine.
More neural connections form between 12 and 24 months than at any other time of life. Our job is to feed that fire with the right kinds of input.
The single biggest focus. Constant narration, songs, books, conversation. We talk WITH them, not at them.
Sharing is hard. Big feelings are huge. We coach through every moment so they leave with real tools.
Walking turns to running. Climbing turns to jumping. We give them safe space to push limits.
Crayons, paintbrushes, puzzle pieces, small toys. Building the hand strength they'll write with later.
When you're ready, we're ready. We match your home approach exactly — consistency is what works.
Simple, joyful stories of kindness, sharing, gratitude. Opt-in, family-driven.
Every toddler is different. These are the markers we love watching unfold.
Texas allows up to 1:11 for toddlers. Low student-to-teacher ratios are the principle we build every room around — we enroll below the state maximum and keep it there whenever we can, balancing the room rather than maxing it out. When life happens (a teacher out sick, a temporary combine), we're honest about it rather than dressing it up. Never a guaranteed number — always a philosophy of not maxing out.
Twelve-to-thirty-five-month-old brains are still in the fastest neural-development window of a human life. Your toddler is a different child at 15 months than at 28 — and the room they need at each stage is different, too. That's why our nursery is built as a set of stage-specific rooms with gentle, roughly six-month graduations. It's developmentally appropriate practice, not corporate churn.
What matters isn't just that we move them — it's how. The federal Office of Head Start is explicit on this:
“Caring relationships act as a buffer during transitions. Infants and toddlers who receive responsive caregiving from adults learn to trust them and they gain emotional security.”
“Infants and toddlers do best in predictable environments.”
— Office of Head Start, U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services
Every toddler move at Grace is a few steps down the same hallway, to teachers your child has already been visiting, in the same small building they've known since infancy. Not a handoff to strangers dressed up as an "enrichment." A buffered step-up, in a place that already feels like home.
Read the fuller thinking on our Parks of Aledo page.
We work in active partnership with parents. When you're ready to start at home, we mirror your approach at school — same prompts, same rewards, same gentle consistency. Toddlers respond to the same routine in both places. We'll never push potty training before your child is ready, and we'll never make a child feel bad about an accident.
Positive guidance — redirecting, modeling, problem-solving, and naming feelings. We never use physical punishment, shame, or food/rest as discipline tools. When something serious happens, we talk to you about it the same day. Toddlers are learning to manage huge emotions in tiny bodies; our job is to coach, not control.
Almost every toddler goes through picky phases. We serve meals at shared tables so kids see what's offered, watch teachers and friends try things, and choose what to eat off their plate. We never force food. We tell parents what their child ate (or didn't) each day so you can match at home. Most picky phases pass faster in a classroom setting than parents expect.
A lot — toddlerhood is when language explodes. Grace uses the Frog Street curriculum, which builds vocabulary, early literacy, and social-emotional skills into daily play. Books are read multiple times a day. Songs, fingerplays, and structured conversation are part of every routine. Most parents notice a noticeable jump in vocabulary in the first few months.
Arrival and free play, circle time (songs, books, weather, calendar), structured learning activity, outdoor play, lunch together, nap (~1.5–2 hours), snack, outdoor play, art or music, pickup. Predictable rhythm with enough flexibility for individual energy and mood. Toddlers thrive on knowing what comes next.
Watch our toddlers in action. You'll be amazed at how much they're learning — and how much fun they're having doing it.
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