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12 – 35 months

Toddler Preschool in Aledo

the year of the language explosion

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
Toddler classroom at Grace Learning Tree
The toddler program at Grace Learning Tree in Aledo, Texas serves children twelve through thirty-five months. It uses the Frog Street toddler curriculum to guide the language-explosion, motor-skill, and social-emotional milestones of this stage, taught by named teachers with multi-year tenures. The classroom follows Texas HHSC Minimum Standards for toddlers and includes real-time Brightwheel updates for parents. In these nursery rooms we use simple baby sign language — signs like more, milk, and all done — so children can tell us what they need before words come easily.
12–35
mo
Below
state max ratio
200+
New words per month
"Why?" questions per day
a day in our room

Structured enough. Free enough.

Toddlers need both. We give them predictable bookends — meals, naps, transitions — with open exploration time inside them.

7:00–9:00

Drop-off & soft start

Breakfast for early arrivals, table activities, hugs, books. We meet each toddler where they are emotionally that morning.

9:00–9:30

Circle time

Songs, fingerplays, hello to each friend, weather, the day's theme. Frog Street Toddler curriculum — gentle, joyful, language-rich.

9:30–10:30

Centers & sensory play

Blocks, books, dramatic play, sensory bins, art. Toddlers rotate or choose. The room is intentionally set up so they can.

10:30–11:30

Outdoor play

Toddler playground — separate from older kids. Climbers sized for them, soft surfaces, shade, water in summer.

11:30–12:15

Lunch together

Hot meals served at child-sized tables. Teachers eat with them. We talk through it: "What color is your carrot?"

12:15–2:30

Nap

Full nap on individual cots. Soft music, dim lights, lovey from home. We do not wake sleeping toddlers.

2:30–3:00

Snack & story time

Wake-up snack, then read-alouds. Picture books, predictable text, lots of "what's that?" pointing.

3:00–4:30

Music, movement, more play

Dance parties, gross motor activities, more outdoor time if weather allows. Toddlers need to MOVE.

4:30–6:00

Wind-down & pickup

Free-choice play, daily Brightwheel updates sent home, gentle goodbye routine.

at this age

Where toddler brains are building

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.

💬

Language

The single biggest focus. Constant narration, songs, books, conversation. We talk WITH them, not at them.

  • Daily read-alouds (3+ books)
  • Songs and fingerplays
  • Naming objects, colors, feelings
  • Two- and three-word sentences modeled
🤝

Social-emotional

Sharing is hard. Big feelings are huge. We coach through every moment so they leave with real tools.

  • Naming feelings ("you're frustrated")
  • Coaching through conflicts
  • Parallel and beginning cooperative play
  • Empathy modeling
🏃

Gross motor

Walking turns to running. Climbing turns to jumping. We give them safe space to push limits.

  • Climbers, slides, balance beams
  • Bikes, ride-on toys
  • Dance and movement daily
  • Outdoor play in all weather
🖐️

Fine motor

Crayons, paintbrushes, puzzle pieces, small toys. Building the hand strength they'll write with later.

  • Chunky crayons and markers
  • Pre-Handwriting Without Tears foundations
  • Pegboards, lacing, puzzles
  • Eating with utensils
🚽

Potty training

When you're ready, we're ready. We match your home approach exactly — consistency is what works.

  • Parent-led timing
  • Same words, same routine as home
  • Patience with regressions
  • Celebrating every win
❤️

Faith & character

Simple, joyful stories of kindness, sharing, gratitude. Opt-in, family-driven.

  • Bible Wednesday (age-appropriate)
  • Mealtime prayer
  • Modeling kindness and gratitude
  • Warm, values-informed teachers
growth markers

By the end of Toddler, most children can…

Every toddler is different. These are the markers we love watching unfold.

Walk, run, climb confidentlyTheir bodies become tools
Speak in 2-3 word sentences"More juice please." "Mommy go work."
Know their name and ageAnd tell anyone who'll listen
Recognize family members in photos"That's Daddy!"
Drink from an open cupSpills welcome — that's how they learn
Use a spoon and forkMostly. Sometimes hands. Still toddlers.
Wash hands independentlyWith prompting and a step stool
Begin sharingResistantly, but increasingly
Start potty trainingMany finish in Toddler; some carry into Preschool
Make their first real friendYou'll hear their name at dinner
our guiding principle
Low ratios

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.

what's next

Around age 2, they transition to Preschool

When they're talking confidently, mostly potty-trained, and ready for more structured learning, they move to the Preschool room. Same building, same community, new adventures.

Also useful: Daycare in Aledo — how Grace differs from a drop-in →

Toddlers move up — but the way we move them matters

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.

Come see the toddler room

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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