Full-time (8 am–5 pm, Monday–Friday) year-round. In our infant program, parents provide diapers, wipes, and baby food for meals and snacks. Our infant rooms are designed to promote continuity of care from 6 weeks through toddlerhood. Based on your child’s birthday and our school-wide transition plan, your child may be enrolled in one of our infant classrooms up to 20 months of age. Our program offers individualized care in regard to your child’s schedule as well as helping them prepare to move into our Ones and Toddler program by participating in a group schedule such as meal and nap times.

Our youngest students are able to take advantage of our beautiful facilities and outside campus through interactive buggy rides, outside experiences on one of our infant and toddler playgrounds, and the opportunity to splash and play at our Eskenazi Water Park during the summer. Starting in our Infant program, our teachers implement the creative curriculum as part of their lesson planning and turn your child’s everyday experiences into learning moments.

Full-time (8 am–5 pm, Monday–Friday) year-round. In our Ones and Toddlers program, parents provide diapers and wipes. Once your child enters our Ones and Toddlers program, based on our school-wide transition plan, we incorporate a group schedule for meal and nap times. The children participate in a scheduled gym and swim class once per week as well as experience the Eskenazi Water Park during summer.

Our teachers add in different learning experiences for our Ones and Toddlers. We continue to focus on social and emotional development as well as add in learning activities to strengthen their language and cognitive development. The foundation of our learning is through play-based activities.

Full-time (8 am–5 pm, Monday–Friday) year-round. In our Twos program, we work to embrace our learning through play with the introduction of learning centers. Our Twos program offers many types of hands-on learning centers such as art, music, manipulatives, home living, and blocks. Our teachers creatively develop lesson plans based on the interests of the children utilizing themes or letters of the week. Our Twos all have group swim and gym time. A big focus is toilet learning. We work closely with families to provide consistency between home and school when working on this important self-help skill.

Play-based learning is learning while playing; this is used alongside the Indiana Early Learning Foundation. Our goal is to help children gain self-confidence and language skills by talking to their peers and teachers to express their wants and needs.  Laying this foundation of social-emotional skills can be vital as your child enters into later years of schooling.
The ECE program follows the Creative Curriculum method based on the view that children learn best when they are actively exploring a carefully constructed environment in the company of loving, professionally prepared teachers. Creative curriculum goes beyond rote learning and focuses on big ideas, interesting projects and individual students’ passions and needs. 

In addition, our program is consistent with the Indiana Department of Education’s Foundations for Young Children, which supports the use of hands-on learning. Goals are identified in all areas of development:

• Social Development. To help children feel comfortable in school, trust their new environment, make friends, and feel they are a part of the group.
• Emotional Development. To cultivate in our children self-confidence, independence, self-control, and a positive attitude toward life.
• Physical Development. To help children increase their muscle skills and feel confident about what their bodies can do.
• Cognitive Development. To encourage children to become independent learners by testing their own ideas, experiencing success, and helping them develop learning skills, such as problem-solving, asking questions, and using descriptive words to express their ideas, observations, and feelings.

We carefully screen and select our nurturing ECE teachers and caregivers. Take a walk through our corridors, and you will see our staff hugging children, gently working with them on projects, and participating in fun activities. Our teachers are well-trained (and retrained each year) in the areas of child development and health and safety standards.

We recognize how critical a partnership between educators and parents is during these formative years. Our teachers engage parents in their children’s learning by communicating regularly about each child’s educational, emotional, and behavioral development. Our teachers are always available to parents with the child’s best interests in mind.

Our entire facility is the children’s playground at the JCC. We play sports and games in our gymnasiums, and all children play outdoors in our enclosed playgrounds to benefit from the fresh air and develop motor skills by running, jumping, climbing, and playing. We have a garden where the children grow their own vegetables and flowers.

Our pools are a unique aspect of our curriculum. Children at the JCC learn to swim and to love water because of our “magic pool”—the Backer Therapy Pool where the water is a warm and welcoming 89 degrees Fahrenheit and equipped with a hydraulic floor that “magically” adjusts from 0 to 6 feet for great fun splashing in the water as it slowly becomes deeper.

While we recognize that many children in our program are not Jewish, the values we teach apply to all equally. In addition to kindness, respect, and responsibility, we focus on “tzedakah,” the Hebrew word for doing good deeds and sharing with those less fortunate. Our children participate all year long in activities to perform acts of kindness not only for their classmates and teachers but for others in the community through partnerships with other not-for-profit agencies (e.g., Gleaners Food Bank).

The JCC inspires children to explore traditions by participating in Jewish holiday celebrations. We celebrate Shabbat (the Jewish Sabbath) every Friday and learn about Jewish holidays by discussing stories and observing the traditions of each one. The Jewish holidays provide rich opportunities for learning and different sorts of activities (e.g., dressing in costumes, parades, food preparation, candle-lighting, etc.).
We also incorporate the national JCC’s Sheva Center framework for early childhood education based on the culture and teachings of Judaism, its values and principles as applied in everyday life.

The fundamental components are deeply rooted in the latest research on child development:

• Children as Constructivist Learners.
• Early Childhood Directors as Visionaries.
• Early Childhood Educators as Professionals.
• Families as Engaged Partners.
• Environments as Inspiration for Inquiry.
• Taking Care of our bodies (a program we call Discover CATCH).
• Israel as a Source and Resource.

To schedule a tour of our early childhood education program, contact Abby at akatz@JCCindy.org or (317) 715-6987.

Cindy Reinbold
Director of Early Childhood Education
317-715-6988
creinbold@JCCindy.org

Abby Katz
Associate Director of Early Childhood Education
317-715-6987
akatz@JCCindy.org

We offer childcare from 8 am–5 pm, Monday-Friday year-round.

View our Early Childhood Education calendar.

Our teachers use the Remini app to check in and check out children every day per Indiana State Child Care Regulations.

Please park in a designated parking space in the East lot, entering door 5, when picking up and dropping off your child. Due to traffic and fire regulations, no parking is allowed along the curb.

Parents and guardians are responsible for escorting their child to and from the classroom. Most children require a few days or weeks at the beginning of the school year to adjust to their new environment. Please help our teachers work through this adjustment period with the children by not lingering in the classroom.

Children will be released only to individuals listed on your emergency card. Our staff is trained to verify the identification of anyone they do not recognize. If you need to add or remove names or make any other changes to your emergency card, please call the ECE Director.

Please be prompt when picking up your child from school as it may be upsetting to your child to wait for you. The ECE’s late fee policy is as follows:

• 1st occurrence, parent will receive a written warning.
• 2nd occurrence and after, the account will be charged $5 per minute per child for each minute of tardiness after 5 pm.
• Three (3) late pick-ups may result in a two-day suspension from the ECE program

At times, children will leave licensed spaces to travel to other parts of the building accompanied by their ECE teachers and staff members. Please note the children are kept safe during these transitions from one licensed space to another as well as when they journey to enjoy other areas in our facility and on campus.

The Indiana Family & Social Services Administration mandates that children have a rest period (nap time) every day. The JCC ECE program follows all safe sleep requirements. All items provided by families should be labeled with your child’s name and taken home weekly for laundering.

Infants rest on their own individual schedules.

Ones through Pre-Kindergarten

Rest on a group schedule. Each classroom posts a daily schedule with the designated group nap time. During this quiet period, the children nap on individual cots in a darkened room with soft music. We encourage each child to have a fitted crib sheet to cover the cot snugly, a small blanket, a small pillow, and a stuffed animal or lovey.

Children are busy every day with arts and crafts, outdoor play and simply being kids. Please dress your child daily in washable play clothes appropriate for the day’s weather, including hats, coats, mittens, and boots when necessary. Children should wear socks and tennis shoes daily. Sandals and open-toed shoes are not safe on the playground. Also be sure your child has a swimsuit, pool shoes and towel.

Your child will need a complete change of labeled clothing. These items will be kept in your child’s cubby. We recommend changing your child’s spare clothing as the seasons change and as your child grows.

Please be sure that all clothing and personal items are clearly labeled with your child’s name.

The JCC provides children with a nutritious, balanced diet for lunch and morning and afternoon snack time. Because of our commitment to creating an environment of inclusiveness so that children coming from kosher homes will be able to partake in meals with classmates, all our food is kosher.

All food brought to the JCC for birthdays and special occasions must be kosher and come in the original packaging with the kosher symbol. If you are planning a party at home, we are happy to share the invitation with all the children in the classroom so the entire class is invited. We would appreciate your cooperation with this request so that no one feels excluded.

For details about all the J’s policies for its early childhood education program, e.g., data privacy and confidentiality, bringing toys from home, behavior and discipline, child abuse reporting, communicable disease management, etc. download our Parent Handbook.

Participation in our Early Childhood Education program is reserved for JCC members only. A child’s immediate family must maintain an active JCC family or single-parent membership in good standing throughout the entire time the child is in our program. Visit our Membership page for more information about membership at the JCC.

Please note that many of our programs are full and have a waitlist and accompanying form to fill out.

In order to comply with Indiana State Child Care Regulations, the following forms must be completed and returned on or before the first day your child attends our ECE program and then annually:

• Registration
• Emergency Information Please make sure the contacts on your emergency form are aware they might be called. Only individuals listed on your form may pick up your child from the program. Please notify the ECE office in writing if phone numbers or any other information on the emergency form changes.
• Childhood History
• Permissions & Releases
• Health Record
• Medication Record
• Feeding Plan (if applicable)
• Child and Adult Food Program Form
• Birth Certificate: Indiana State Child Care Regulations require that all children must have a copy of their birth certificate on file.

Indiana code requires that we maintain documentation of a current annual exam provided by the physician of each child in our care. Please have your doctor complete the Health Record and return it to our office prior to the beginning of the school year. All physicals must be current within one year of the exam date. Faxed forms are acceptable: (317) 251-9493.

For your convenience, the JCC offers an EZ payment plan for ECE and membership fees. Payments will be deducted from your checking account or charged to your credit card on the 1st of each month. You will receive written notice in advance if there is a change in the monthly fee.

Cost varies by age and will be discussed during your initial tour. Please note that a membership at the JCC is required for all families in our preschool program. The JCC offers need-based scholarships for memberships.
If you are leaving the ECE program, we require a two-week notice. Should you also wish to cancel your membership at the JCC, a 30-day notice is required. See our Membership Cancellation page.