Caring for Younger Babies (3–12 Months): What Makes Our Approach Different

August 4, 2025

At Country Kids Day Nursery, we welcome babies from as young as 3 months old. We know that caring for younger babies is about so much more than bottles and nappies. It’s about creating trust, offering comfort, and providing a safe, loving space where every baby can thrive emotionally, physically and developmentally.

We don’t treat babies as a group. Each child is cared for as an individual, with their own rhythm, routine and personality. Whether your baby is just beginning to roll or starting to babble, our baby rooms are set up to nurture them through each stage of their first year with warmth, care and expert support.

Led by Specialist Baby Room Leaders

Each baby room is led by experienced baby room leaders who are specialists in early years care. They bring expert knowledge and a deep understanding of infant development, ensuring every child receives the best possible care tailored to their individual needs. These leaders support and guide our teams to provide nurturing, attentive, and highly personalised care every day.

A Calm, Cosy Start to Their Journey

Our baby rooms are calm, welcoming and designed to feel like a home away from home. With soft lighting, soothing colours, natural textures and gentle sounds, we create an environment that helps babies feel safe and settled. Spaces are kept intentionally uncluttered to avoid overstimulation and support peaceful exploration.

Each baby is matched with a dedicated key person who gets to know them deeply and becomes a safe, familiar presence throughout the day. This strong bond helps babies settle with confidence and feel secure when it’s time to say goodbye to their grown-ups.

We Follow Your Baby’s Lead

We don’t run by timetables in our baby rooms. We follow your baby’s individual routine and work closely with each family to reflect what’s already happening at home. No two babies nap, feed or play the same way, and we adapt our care to suit each child’s needs and comfort.

Whether they need a quiet cuddle, a one-to-one bottle feed, or some gentle play, your baby’s day is shaped around what works best for them.

Supporting Weaning with Care and Confidence

Weaning is an important milestone for both babies and parents, and we’re here to support this journey with a gentle, responsive approach that reflects your routine at home.

For babies under 12 months, parents provide all food, and we’re happy to assist with their weaning by offering a calm, consistent environment during mealtimes. While we do not supply meals for this age group, we ensure that any food sent in is prepared and served safely, following your instructions, with appropriate portion sizes and textures.

A World of Gentle Learning and First Experiences

Even the youngest babies are learning every day. Our baby rooms are filled with sensory-rich experiences to encourage safe exploration and support early development in a calm, pressure-free way.

We focus on building motor skills through grasping, reaching and movement. We support early language development with songs, stories and simple conversations. And we foster social connection through cuddles, eye contact and shared smiles.

Every activity is carefully considered to balance freedom with gentle encouragement, so each baby can grow and develop at their own pace.

Rooted in Values That Matter

At Country Kids, we want our tiniest children to grow into caring, compassionate, curious, worldly and wise individuals. We believe these values start taking shape from the very beginning. From learning to share and discovering kindness, to taking joy in new experiences, every early interaction matters.

Across all our nurseries, we create environments where babies feel safe, heard and understood. We offer Montessori-inspired play, opportunities for rest and reflection, and healthy, balanced meals that support wellbeing and independence. Babies are encouraged to make choices, lead their own learning and begin to understand how their actions affect the world around them.

Evolving Environments That Inspire Curiosity

All of our nurseries are in the process of developing beautifully calming, curiosity-inspired environments. With natural, open-ended resources and homely touches, our baby rooms are becoming even more enchanting spaces where little ones can explore, discover and grow with confidence.

We’re just as proud of our outdoor spaces as we are of our indoor ones. Babies can enjoy fresh air, nature and age-appropriate exploration outside every day. All of our nurseries are accessible, and we welcome any questions you may have about how we support children with additional needs.

Come and See the Baby Room for Yourself

Choosing a nursery for your baby is a big decision. We’re here to make sure you feel completely at ease.

We'd love you to come and visit your local Country Kids Day Nursery, meet our team and experience first-hand what makes our baby rooms such a special place to begin your child’s journey.

< Older Post

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When you leave your little one in our care, we know you’re putting your trust in us and that’s something we never take lightly. At Country Kids Nursery, every decision we make is guided by one core priority, keeping your child/ren safe, supported and happy throughout their day with us. One of the most important ways we do that is by following the correct staff-to-child ratios in each of our rooms.

Let’s Talk Toilets: How We Support Toilet Training at Country Kids Nursery

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Toilet training isn’t always straightforward, and that’s okay. Every child takes this step in their own time, and here at Country Kids Nursery, we’re with you for the ups, the accidents, and everything in between. Whether your child is curious about the potty or confidently running to the toilet, our team is here to support your family every step of the way. We believe toilet training is a team effort – and it works best when we’re working closely with you.

How We Keep Children Safe at Nursery: Safeguarding Policies & Practices

By Marina Wilde • June 23, 2025

At Country Kids Day Nurseries, your child’s safety and wellbeing are our top priority. With over 80% of our team being parents themselves, we deeply understand how important it is for you to feel completely confident leaving your child in someone else’s care. That’s why our nurseries are more than just places to learn and play, they are nurturing, secure environments where every child is cared for, protected, and supported through every stage of their development.

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By Marina Wilde • April 16, 2025

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Country Kids Nursery | Financial Help for Parents

By websitebuilder • August 7, 2020

If you have a child aged 3 - 4 years old, up until October 2020 you will be able to receive 30 hours of free childcare and tax-free childcare, even if your income has reduced due to COVID-19.

Be a part of your child's early years development!

By websitebuilder • July 15, 2020

Did you know here at Country Kids Nursery we have an app called Parent Zone?

Nursery life after lockdown: What does it look like?

By websitebuilder • June 5, 2020

On June 1st, hundreds of nurseries re-opened their doors to their much missed children for the first time in 10 weeks which included 2 of our own sites, Kneesall and Newark. We were given just one week to put government measures in place, reach out to our parents and prepare nursery for re-opening. As a high quality childcare provider, our focus was of course to ensure that each child would be as safe as possible on their return to nursery, but also take into account how this could affect them emotionally. I'm sure you will all agree with us here, that it is simply impossible to socially distance from any child under the age of 5. Although they can take in the information and do have some understanding, they do not yet have the capacity to remember to socially distance. The government guidance stated that as a nursery, we must have a small hub of children that stay with the same staff member all week. In addition to this, we were to spend as much time as we could outside and with this guidance, we started to look at what nursery life would look like upon our return. Country Kids are incredibly lucky to have an exceptional group of staff who were willing to help shape our return and were eager to return to work. As our staff members have been having weekly zoom calls with their key children during the lock down period, it allowed our first day to be a little easier on the children as they still had their amazing bond with the staff members. Drop off & Pick ups are one of the biggest changes within nursery. Each parent has a 5 minute time slot where one designated family member can drop off and collect the child for the foreseeable future. Children arrive and depart through the outdoor gates and are met by their key worker. The first day was a little unusual for the children but as the week has gone on, they find it really exciting to go straight into the outside play area! Each hub of children have their own set of toys that are thoroughly cleaned at the end of each day. Following advice, sand play has been restricted so that each hub can play in the sand every couple of days. Country Kids have invested in extra shading at both sites to ensure the children can spend as much time outdoors as possible. Luckily, just before our return both sites had their outside area's revamped so the children had something really exciting to return to! In addition to this, each site has a brand new outside hand washing facility which has been fantastic. It has not only allowed hand washing upon arrival but also frequent hand washing throughout the day even whilst playing outside. An additional member of staff has been brought in at each site to help with cleaning and to cover staff lunch breaks. This staff member is extremely vigilant with hand washing and input will be kept to a minimum. All other external providers such as Caterpillar Music and Tennis have been temporarily put on hold. Usually, we would chat to parents upon collection about their child's day however due to social distancing, we have decided to revert back to an app called i-connect. This allows the parents to receive real-time updates of what their child has been up to throughout the day including sleep times, nappy changes and what they have eaten. All in all, our return to nursery has been extremely successful and we would like to thank our staff members, parents and children for being so fantastic and working with us to ensure our transition back to nursery was a positive experience for our children. Looking for childcare in the Newark area? Check out the rest of our website, enquire about a place though our contact form here , or call us on: Kneesall (A616) - 01623706100 Newark (Lincoln Road) - 01636370822

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This is How: We do Squiggle while you wiggle

By websitebuilder • May 6, 2020

Question: What is Squiggle While You Wiggle? Squiggle while you wiggle is a fantastic activity to engage children in developing the motions they need to learn in order to prepare them for writing. Squiggle while you wiggle is an activity to kickstart their journey in learning to write by doing circles, semi circles, horizonal lines and the vertical lines they will use to write a letter whilst dancing along to our favourite music. It’s important to remember that children are not expected to write letters and their name until they attend school at the age of 5. At Country Kids, this is something we strongly believe in and the children love when we do Squiggle while you wiggle! We focus on developing their gross and fine motor skills to imitate lines and circles in order to write each letter of the alphabet. You will need: Anything you can wave around in the air! You can do Squiggle while you wiggle anywhere, with anything that can swish around. In nursery, we like to use: Scarves Material Shakers Ribbons Bamboo If you are at home, you could use: Cheerleading style Pom Pom's Ties Long socks Tea towels We like to add some music to our Squiggle while you wiggle, some of our particular favourites in nursery are: Dolly Parton: 9-5 S Club 7: Reach Tina Turner: Proud Mary You can use any of your favourite 60s / 70s / 80s classics. The clue is in the title - they really do squiggle while they wiggle! Now, let's get started! The next part of this activity requires some adult led learning. It really doesn’t matter how silly you may feel, the more you squiggle, wiggle and have fun the more engaged the child will be in this activity. 1. Start by doing some big circles with your arms, you could do 5 one way and then 5 the opposite way. To add some mathematical language, you could talk about clockwise and anticlockwise movements with older children. Then you could do some small circles with your wrists, again both ways. 2. Once you have done circles, you could draw lines reaching all the way to the top, and crouching all the way to the bottom, and touch the floor. These movements can go up and down, or side to side. Again, with older children you can really emphasise going left and right. 3. Next, we like to do some wavy lines, and dance around twirling around in a circle. The children are likely to do these motions to a couple of songs before they get tired or their arms hurt! This activity is so simple but really is effective. We hope you have lots of fun trying Squiggle while you wiggle at home! - The Country Kids Team x