Infant/Toddler Materials Guide

The choices for designing a quality childcare program for young children can be overwhelming for a childcare professional, especially when working with a limited budget. This guide has been created to help you to design a high-quality environment for young infants (under 9 months), mobile infants (6-18 months), and older infants (16-36 months), while making the best choices for your budget. Purchasing the correct materials is not sufficient; supervision and interaction with interested adults is necessary for children to make full use of them. Through intentional teaching, materials can be used for both child-guided experiences and adult-guided experiences. Materials need to be: interesting to children, sturdy, age appropriate, offer variety and choice, and be arranged in such a way as to encourage independence and creativity