Harvest Fellowship values individuals of every age and seeks to support and nurture Christian discipleship throughout a lifetime. Our infant and toddler Nursery is run by the many loving volunteers of Harvest. The Nursery is a warm, loving, and happy place where infants and toddlers can safely explore their world and enjoy themselves. We are in the business of foundation building. Our goal is to help each child gain a sense of significance and security as they are cared for in the Nursery and enjoy the loving people they find there. Their positive experiences help form a strong foundation of trust and attachment that will become a basis of faith. Babies begin to associate God with the enjoyable activities and experiences they have each week with loving caregivers who know them and warmly respond to their needs. Their consistent experience of tangible care from their church family “fleshes out” for them the faithful love and regard God has for them as individuals.

Nursery Hours of Operation

Nursery care begins 10 minutes prior to the Worship Service and is opened for any parents who may want to use it during Sunday School time. Please pick children up promptly.

Age Group

Infants and toddlers from birth to approximately 3 years 11 months will enjoy the Nursery.

Nursery Registration and Use

Guests and Visitors: Guests and one-time visitors from out of town needn’t register their children to place them in Nursery care.

Regular or Occasional Attendance: When you are ready to start using the Nursery, you may register your child by completing an information card. Fill out the card completely and leave it with the Host or clipped to the sign-in sheet. Please make the Nursery Host aware of any special instructions, such as your desire for a child not to have a snack. Within a week or two your child’s name will be added to the printed Nursery sign-in sheet.

Curriculum

The Nursery environment itself serves as curriculum for each baby and toddler to explore as their curiosity directs. They are encouraged to touch, look, listen, smell, move, and enjoy. There are developmentally appropriate toys and equipment to stimulate and delight them at every stage. Routines and rhythms are consistent from week to week.

Children will be encouraged to help clean up prior to being seated for Snack Time. Snack Time is a social highlight held during the last 20-15 mins of the session. We encourage exploration with all the senses, we mentor basic skills, we celebrate their discoveries of their uniqueness, we rehearse and extend new skills, we protect from inappropriate disapproval, teasing, and neglect, we communicate responsively with sounds, gestures, and words, and we guide and limit behavior to keep each child safe and model what is acceptable to foster cooperative, responsive, and caring interactions. Most important, in all we do we try to reflect to each child their great worth as a beloved and unique person, known intimately by God.

What to bring (be sure to label everything)

Please bring a well-stocked diaper bag with diapers, breast milk or formula in bottles, sippy cup, pacifier, security object-anything baby will need--and make sure the bag and everything in it has baby’s name on it. Masking tape is available at the sign-in desk, so please make sure to label all bottles, sippy cups, pacifiers, and other personal belongings. The Nursery supplies wipes for diaper changes. Snacks (e.g., Cheerios, pretzels, animal crackers) are donated on a monthly basis. The snack sign-up sheet is posted on the Nursery door. Drinks should be sent from home for each child. If your toddler has a food allergy, please be sure to notify the Nursery Host and provide an appropriate snack in the diaper bag.

Signing Your Child In and Out

Guests and Visitors: Upon arrival, follow the sign-in procedures and indicate to the Host that you are a visitor. If someone other than you will be picking up the child, please notify the Host. The person who will be picking up the child will need to validate who he/she is and confirm authorization with the Host to pick up the child.

Regular and Occasional Attendance: Find your child’s name printed on the sign-in sheet in alphabetical order. If it is not yet there, please write it on a blank line. Pass your child and diaper bag over to a Nursery Host. They will ensure that your child makes a happy transition. Write down any special instructions you might have on the yellow notepad provided at the door, and speak to the Host about them.

Safety and Health Procedures

Health: For the health of your child, other children, and the Nursery caregivers, we request that any sick child remain at home. A sick child is defined as one with a fever, a persistent cough, diarrhea, mucous or redness of the eyes, runny nose that is not running clear mucous, rash on face, trunk, or limbs, a communicable disease, or any vomiting. The child must be symptom- and fever-free for 24 hours before attending the Nursery. The Nursery Host will visually screen children for illness as they enter, and they may ask you about symptoms they observe. Please let the Host know if your pediatrician has confirmed your child has a condition such as asthma or an allergy that imitates symptoms of communicable diseases. Children can sometimes spike a fever or begin to exhibit illness symptoms without warning. Children who become ill while in the Nursery are lovingly cared for until their parents can be alerted to come get them.

Security: Even though many of us are familiar with our church family, visitors and new members need to know that their children are safe and secure. We may also have new Nursery volunteers who may not know all of the children. Following procedures is important to show responsible care for our little ones.

Safety: Please complete an injury report form for any injury incurred while in the Nursery that leaves a mark on a child. The forms are located in the Nursery Handbook found on the bookshelf. Please make a copy of the form for the parent and place the original in the Nursery Coordinator’s mailbox found in the church office.

Separations: The Nursery caregivers are your partners at separation time. All children are unique and all days aren’t the same for them. Sometimes because of temperament, a new developmental stage, or family circumstances, a child might have a more difficult time separating from you. Rest assured that we will respond sensitively and will come get you if your child continues to feel distressed after we’ve given our best efforts for 15 minutes. The Host may invite you in to help settle your child for a few moments or spend the rest of the service with us (the service can be heard in the Nursery).

Nursing and Feeding

If your baby is fussy or you wish more privacy to nurse while listening to the service, there is a cry room at the back of the sanctuary where the service can be heard. You also may feed your child in the Nursery and hear the service. Just check in with the Host before entering. The Nursery staff is happy to feed children in care with provided expressed milk or formula.

Scheduling

The schedule is compiled quarterly based on volunteer preferences and availability. Schedules are sent to the volunteers and posted on the bulletin board across from the nursery. If a volunteer is unable to serve in the allotted time slot, he/she should call someone else in the same time slot and switch dates. This is the same procedure whether the unavailability is known in advance or the morning of the day he/she is scheduled to serve.

The nursery does not have a list of substitutes, so it is important that volunteers switch slots or seek other volunteer.

If a volunteer cannot be found to work in the Nursery, then a sign will be posted on the Nursery door. The sign will let parents know that they are welcome to sit with their children in the Nursery, but that no Caregivers are on duty and no children are to be left unattended.

Thank you for helping to make the Nursery a special place for our littlest ones!