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Child Development Center
Welcome to the Child Development Center. We are located on the beautiful 83-acre campus of Currey Ingram Academy at 6544 Murray Lane in Brentwood.
Our center operates as an on-site childcare benefit for the faculty and staff of Currey Ingram Academy, and enrollment is open to the public as space permits. We serve children from six weeks old through Pre-K. The Infants, Ones, and Twos classrooms are located in our modernized Farmhouse at the front of campus, and our Threes/Fours and Pre-K classrooms are on the main campus in John Rivers Ingram Hall, the school's Lower School building.
What does the CDC Offer?
The CDC is a licensed childcare center with a balanced academic curriculum program, play-based learning, and outdoor experiences.
We are situated along the beautiful Beech Creek and use our surroundings to provide a true indoor/outdoor education for our students. Our students plant everything from pumpkins to flowers and learn about everything from the ABCs to honeybees. We also take our outdoor experiences inside, where we cook, create, read, draw, and otherwise explore nature's many lessons.
Our students also have access to indoor and outdoor play spaces and experience age-appropriate, hands-on activities in a full scope of subjects, from literacy and math activities to music, art and cooking. We use Frog Street Press as our guiding curriculum. Our literacy component is supplemented with Heggerty Phonemic Awareness starting in our Threes & Fours class. We utilize the ASQ Ages & Stages Questionnaires to monitor your child’s developmental milestones. And as early childhood is a time of intense social and emotional growth and development, we use the RULER approach to provide social-emotional care and support for your developing child. Please see our individual classroom menu for additional information about curriculum integration at various ages.
We are situated along the beautiful Beech Creek and use our surroundings to provide a true indoor/outdoor education for our students. Our students plant everything from pumpkins to flowers and learn about everything from the ABCs to honeybees. We also take our outdoor experiences inside, where we cook, create, read, draw, and otherwise explore nature's many lessons.
Our students also have access to indoor and outdoor play spaces and experience age-appropriate, hands-on activities in a full scope of subjects, from literacy and math activities to music, art and cooking. We use Frog Street Press as our guiding curriculum. Our literacy component is supplemented with Heggerty Phonemic Awareness starting in our Threes & Fours class. We utilize the ASQ Ages & Stages Questionnaires to monitor your child’s developmental milestones. And as early childhood is a time of intense social and emotional growth and development, we use the RULER approach to provide social-emotional care and support for your developing child. Please see our individual classroom menu for additional information about curriculum integration at various ages.
Seeing is understanding. At the Child Development Center, we understand that these are critical years of growth for your child, and we welcome the opportunity to help them learn and grow in a safe and nurturing place. If you would like more information or to schedule a tour, please feel free to contact CDC Director Fawnda Messmer at farmhouse@curreyingram.org or by calling (615) 507-3196.
We hope to see you soon!
FAWNDA MESSMER
Director of the Child Development Center
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Fawnda Messmer
Director, Child Development Center
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Child Development Center Curriculum
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Infants
The Child Development Center's primary goal for our Infant classroom is to create a calm, nurturing, and loving environment where our youngest children will thrive. We seek to nurture the whole child through age-appropriate activities and exposure to nature, language, literacy, cooperation, fine and gross motor skills, early math skills, music, and more. Due to the frequent schedule changes that occur with infants, our teachers work closely with parents to craft a schedule that best fits their infant's needs. Our goal is always to maintain the most loving, safe, and optimal environment for that child's well-being and development. -
Ones and Twos Classrooms
Research shows that repetitive positive interactions strengthen the wiring in the brain, even at the youngest ages. This is our focus in our Ones and Twos classrooms. Specifically, the Frog Street Press curriculum focuses on intentional instruction in the four developmental domains: social, emotional, physical, and cognitive. Through these domains, activities are designed around language, social interactions, self-control, motor control, and critical thinking. Our goal is to provide a calm environment where students can connect with one another and experience a safe and fun learning environment. -
Threes/Fours Classroom
This class is a bridge between the toddler age and PreK. Children ages three and four are moving from parallel to cooperative play. Children at this age also start to show emotions and feelings for their peers. Early brain development research shows children at this age are ready for introductions to more formal instruction in literacy, math, science, and social studies. The Threes/Fours students participate in whole-group activities and small literacy centers. The Frog Street Press curriculum also focuses on maintaining and teaching prosocial skills through Conscious Discipline. Starting each day, the students and teacher come together during morning meetings to Unite, Calm, Connect, and Commit to the classroom community, which creates an environment to optimize learning and make for a successful day. This is a routine that they carry through to their Pre-K year.
Students in this class are also introduced to the Heggerty Phonemic Awareness Early PreK program. This program supports students with early phonological awareness and literacy skills to set a strong foundation for their future as readers. -
PreK Classroom
The PreK specific curriculum through Frog Street Press covers 10 areas of learning: Social and Emotional Development, Language and Literacy, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Fine Arts, Physical Development, and Technology.Our Pre-K students are encouraged to cooperate and collaborate with their teachers and peers. They experience a language-rich environment with multisensory approaches to learning. In Language and Literacy, children learn through read-aloud stories, whole-group activities, and small-group student-guided activities that center around phonological awareness, concepts of print, language, alphabet knowledge, and much more. In Math, teachers focus on teaching number operations, geometry, and measurement. Students are also taught to count, compare and classify. Science and Social Studies are experienced through visual and hands-on activities. These lessons are theme-based and cross-curricular. Please see our Enrichment section below for details related to Fine Arts, Physical Development, and Technology.At this age, we continue emphasizing Conscious Discipline, teaching children about pro-social skills and emotional control. Starting each day, the students and teacher come together during morning meetings to Unite, Calm, Connect, and Commit to the classroom community, which creates an environment to optimize learning and make for a successful day.Students in this class continue with the Heggerty Phonemic Awareness PreK program. This program supports students with early phonological awareness and literacy skills to set a strong foundation for their future as readers. Daily lessons provide practice and exposure to 8 phonemic awareness skills, and growth is assessed and shared with parents.
Child Development Center Enrichments
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Art
Art enhances fine-motor and hand-eye coordination, visual-spatial perception, and self-expression. All of our children are exposed to art activities in our classrooms. The Pre-K class also enjoys a set-aside art enrichment class weekly. During this art class, the children express themselves through many different modalities. They also work in groups and practice communication skills. -
Cooking
This year-round enrichment is for ages one through Pre-K. The activity encompasses preparing seasonal foods that address healthy food choices and promote basic math, verbal and fine-motor skills, an adventurous palate, sensory exploration, and confidence. Recipes may utilize vegetables grown in our school garden during the growing season. Our youngest children also experience a weekly cooking activity that is used in conjunction with our weekly snack preparation. -
Gardening
Children ages one to Pre-K participate in the gardening program. Activities include soil preparation and exploration, planting seeds and seedlings, watering, and harvesting. Our children help grow the vegetables we eat and share with our community. Through these experiences, we help boost student confidence and lay a foundation for lifelong healthy eating habits. -
Library
The Threes/Fours and Pre-K classes enjoy weekly time at the Currey Ingram Academy library. Library time helps build relationships with other community members and often reiterates what we are working on in the classroom, such as learning about authors and illustrators, and book titles. The stories that are read and told to us center around the theme, season, or curricular topic that we are learning about in class. Students also learn appropriate library behaviors. -
Music
All classes at the CDC receive music enrichment, from the babies learning a song of the week to the Pre-K learning how to write notes and rhythms. All music classes aim to immerse the children in music experiences by dancing, singing, playing instruments, and listening. Music creates opportunities to work together, teaches how to use “listening ears,” encourages language development, and helps students use their creative energy positively. Music also helps with memory and teaches concepts in a way that the children can understand. The kids love it so much that they go home singing the songs they learned in music class!
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Hear from Our Parents
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Currey Ingram Academy
Currey Ingram Academy is an exemplary JK-12 day and boarding school that empowers students with learning differences to achieve their fullest potential. Since 2002, the school has been located on an 83-acre campus in Brentwood, Tennessee, just miles from Nashville and Franklin. Families from 33 states and eight countries cite the school as their primary reason for moving to Middle Tennessee.
Currey Ingram Academy is accredited by the Southern Association of Independent Schools (SAIS) and AdvancEd/Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Council on Accreditation and School Improvement (SACS CASI).
Currey Ingram Academy is accredited by the Southern Association of Independent Schools (SAIS) and AdvancEd/Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Council on Accreditation and School Improvement (SACS CASI).
