The Craddock Center has been working with three-and four-year old children since 2001. We have provided learning experiences that build school readiness, imagination, emerging literacy skills, and creativity. We have specially designed our programs to best prepare these children for Kindergarten.

But what is happening from ages 0 – 3.

‘Smart Babies’ began in November 2023 and is a program designed to help parents of children, ages 0-3, to be their child’s best first teacher. The workshops are provided by trained facilitators from The Craddock Center, and are free of charge to participants.

The ‘Smart Babies’ program will use the Ready for Kindergarten curriculum which emphasizes targets in three following areas: Language & Literacy, Math & Reasoning, and Social & Emotional Learning.

The Guiding Principles of this program are: Honor parents as their child’s most influential and most loved teacher; Foster effective early-learning experiences for children birth to age 5; Instill children with a joy and zest for learning that lasts a lifetime; Build relationships between parent, child, family, school, and community. 

We will initially be concentrating on workshops for parents with children in the following age groups: 0-1 years, 1-2 years, 2-3 years.

Parents will attend three workshops over the year that will focus on the Ready for Kindergarten curriculum. The workshops will be approximately 90 minutes long with up to 6-10 participants. During each workshop, parents will learn about targets in the three areas mentioned above and be given methods and tools (toys and books) to focus on these targets at home. There will be many opportunities for sharing and practicing. Snacks or lunch will be provided after each workshop to promote further discussion and bonding among the parents.