Mission & Philosophy

Our Mission

Tender Tots provides a warm, nurturing environment that stimulates each child to become actively engaged in the learning process. The families and staff encourage each other and work as partners in building a learning community that fully embraces and recognizes each and every child. Helping children acquire the skills and attitudes that produce lifelong learners will always be the truest measure of the daycare’s success. We commend the curious child. Self-discovery and building social skills are as equally important as learning the fundamentals of reading, writing and math. Our passion for early childcare doesn't stop here at daycare. We love mentoring & our political adventures are helping to advance state government policies that pertain to early learning/child development & women's policies. Our philosophy of education is extensive. In the largest sense, we believe education serves many purposes. It builds character & connects us to the unknown. Yes, to some degree, education can lead to financial prosperity. But, the measure of wealth can only be defined by an individual's character.

Our Philosophy

We are committed to modeling lifelong learning for our children through their active pursuance of continuing education: college coursework, workshop participation and presentation, reflection on child development and curriculum-related issues during staff meetings. Our leadership will continue striving for the necessary monetary support and flexibility in scheduling that will permit our staff to remain involved in increasing their own knowledge bases. The learning environment and curriculum is primarily child-centered with our staff purposefully and masterfully engaging children in developmentally appropriate learning activities. Lesson plans and activities for our preschoolers are compiled from carefully selected curriculum guides that have been approved by MSDE (Maryland State Department of Education). We fully embrace families into our activities. We graciously accept their compliments and constructive criticism knowing that we can only maintain our high-quality standards with their involvement, interest and feedback. Communication with parents occurs frequently in written and/or verbal form and, more formally, through scheduled parent-teacher conferences. We subscribe to Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) advocated by the National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC), and to higher quality standards than those required by the State of Maryland for licensing purposes. Teachers set the stage for learning by being knowledgeable about expectations for each child in their care, arranging an age-appropriate learning environment, and planning an age-appropriate daily program. Since children are always learning, teachers plan interesting activities, but also use spontaneous teachable moments throughout the day. They follow up learning by communicating with parents about children’s individual needs. It is important that all children begin a positive learning journey here and enter elementary school ready to continue learning. We value the feedback from our community schools that children progress very well in further schooling after attending preschool programs at Tender Tots. We continue to communicate with the local elementary schools’ once children move out of our preschool program. Our school age program supports the development of the elementary age child by providing a high-quality recreational program before and after school.