Compared to the schools in the area, allows us to provide an excellent service and a more personalized approach to each child’s development.
Our teachers utilize an eye-to-eye teaching method, getting on your child's level to help encourage engagement, acceptance, and understanding.
Our teachers utilize an eye-to-eye teaching method, getting on your child's level to help encourage engagement, acceptance, and understanding.
Mission Statement And Philosophy
At Little Llama, we believe in creating not just a curriculum, but a friendly, loving, and accepting community. We believe that children learn better with support of teachers and peers. Our teachers are always involved in communication process with kids (even at free play) and encourage them to be active, adventurous and curious, while promoting their speech and development. We proudly offer an open-door policy for our parents and are open to resolving any issues that arise prioritizing the overall well-being of our children.
Our goal is to create opportunities for our children to experience well-balanced development in a safe and friendly environment. We believe in fostering every aspect of a child's development, including emotional, physical, intellectual, and social, helping them realize their full potential and become the best version of themselves.
Curriculum
We use emergent curriculum that is being developed each week based on current needs of each individual child, their interests, pace, and skill level. Built on the progress made during the current week, all the teachers in the classroom work together on a lessons plan for the following week.
Celebration of life, holidays and exploration of different cultures are a very important part of our curriculum.
We utilize music, dance, art projects, physical education, and outdoor time, in learning about nature and the people around us.
From the creator of Little Llama
My name is Evgenia Umit, and I'm the proud owner of Little Llama a childcare facility dedicated to fostering every aspect of your child's development. I've worked with children for as long as I can remember and have spent the last twelve years as a professional in the childcare field.
My licenses from the Massachusetts Department of Early Education include teacher, lead teacher, and directors, and I have a Master of Arts degree as well.
I've worked as a nanny, an infant teacher at an MIT daycare, & an infant/toddler lead teacher at one of Brookline's busiest facilities. While teaching, I continued as a newborn care specialist for Boston Baby Nurse, a prominent newborn care agency, and the winner of the "Family Favorite" award in the Boston Parent Paper, five years in a row. My responsibilities at Boston Baby nurse included taking care of newborns, providing training for parents and family members in newborn safety regulations, lactation, feeding techniques, daily routines, and more!
For years I've dreamed of opening my own daycare with the philosophies I hold dear, and I'm so happy my dreams are finally becoming a reality! I genuinely love working with children, and there's no greater joy for me than providing "my kids" with guidance on their journey to maturity.
I am here every day and would love to help you with any questions you have about babies, children, parenting, education, and more. I want you to know that you and your child have a friend in me, and I can't wait to share my love for children with your family.
Infant Program
The first year of life is extremely important for future health and development. Our infant program is not a babysitting option, but a real program filled with quality care and developmental activities. Each child in the infant room is on their individual schedule.
What you will see in our room:
We hold infants as much as they need to be comfortable. Our teachers always sit on the floor to be on the same eye- contact level with the kids and engage them in various play options. Our entire room is dedicated exclusively to infants, allowing for lots of space when they start crawling and moving around. We supply a variety of wooden Montessori approach developmental toys.
What you WILL NOT see in the classroom:
Adult furniture (our teachers are always on the floor with kids) -Jumpers, walkers, swings. There are lots of proven research that these devices are not safe for baby’s spinal. We believe that infants gain and develop their skills better when they are freely exploring the room, not staying tight in any device.
Toddler Program
Our toddler room is filled with fun zones and educational toys. This is the time when our children learn better about their body abilities and starting to recognize their feelings and emotions.
We spend a lot of time teaching kids about how to tell their friends that they need more space, what they like and don’t like.
We also teach how to recognize their emotions and that its ok to feel sad or happy sometimes and what is the best way to rid off their frustration (for example through a soft ball or dance for a couple of minutes). We do a couple 5min yoga breaks in during day, when we turn a relaxing music on and teachers teach kids to stretch and focus on their breathing, it helps kids to recharge and a great opportunity for the transition between the activities. Socializing is a huge part of our toddler program we teach kids to be polite, build their first friendships & resolve their first conflicts.
Our teachers are always stay on the floor with kids to be able to engage them in a fun play, or support them in a resolving some problems, promote their speech development and be curios.
We love messy activities and experiments
Preschool
When our kids go to preschool we continue to provide accepting & loving environment for them and teach them how to succeed, become independent in their self-help skills and continue to be curious and work on a different science projects and experiments. We teach them how to observe, collect and even start to analyze data and it’s all in a play form.
Respect themselves and everyone around, be proud of their work, don’t give up, encourage your friends, be a good person- this is our main skills that we teach our preschoolers. We focus here on education aspects a lot and use every opportunity to teach our students something new about the world every day. We love to explore different cultures through play, books, music, holidays and even food. We’re proud of our diverse community at Little Llama.
Get In Touch
Bradley Agostinelli
February 8
We are very grateful to have found Little Llama for our daughter! It is clear to us that she is cared for very much by the teachers, and she has grown dramatically in her speech, skills, and interactions with others. They also adhere to COVID and their own center policies and are very responsive.
Iryna Hlushakova
February 8
Little Llama is a true gem. My daughter does the happy feet dance every morning when we drop her off. Evgenia is an amazing educator, so loving to all the children. So much attention to every detail and effort to help the kids have the best experience. Other teachers are outstanding, too. The kids play different fun games every day. We feel very lucky to have gotten a spot.
Stefanie Singh
February 8
We are so fortunate to have found this amazing daycare. Our daughter has attended Little llama for almost a year and is so happy there. Once we park in front of Little llama in the morning, she starts clapping and shouting out: I am happy." What more can I ask for.The director and teachers are all very passionate about their work with the children and do everything to support their growth. They offer a fun, loving, respectful, inclusive, and inspiring environment. The days at Little llama are filled with joy, warmth, fun, and amazing activities. The activities always include all children: regardless of their age. For example, the older children match post-its of numbers and pictures to a huge poster on a wall and talk about what they see, whereas the younger children explore the post-its on their high-chair and practice using their hands to them off the table. I love that everyone takes part in the same activity, just at their level. Everyone learns together and helps each other. They also do a lot of amazing art and craft project. I got inspired a lot by many of their daily activities (that I read daily about in their app) and have redone them at home with my daughter at home. They recently started a weekly music class, which has been a big highlight for my daughter.We highly appreciate the great communication with the director and teachers. It is always honest and we can discuss any questions or concerns anytime.We couldn't be any happier with Little llama and are extremely grateful for everything the director and teacher do for our daughter and us as a family. It exceeds everything we could have ever wished for from a daycare. Seeing our daughter so happy and thriving so much in all areas of her development is just amazing!
Alisa Rodny
February 8
Little Llama is a one of a kind place where love and attention the children receive is never compromised. Our daughter has attended Little Llama since it opened - at the height of the pandemic. The director and the teachers have done everything in their power to provide the children with warm, nurturing and developmentally inspiring care and programing while doing all the extra work to keep the children safe and protected.The culture at Little Llama is that of mutual respect and care. The children all know they are are part of a community which is governed by practices of being kind to one another and learning new things. The teachers are amazing at creating engaging and fun activities and also at being flexible about adjusting whatever they are doing to meet the needs of the individual children and the group as a whole. Our daughter is always practicing the skills she learned at school in new settings, emphasizing the quality of the instruction. Celebration of life and holidays is a major part of Little Llama experience. In addition to activities around many holidays, children's birthdays are celebrated with special cakes lovingly made by the director out of watermelon and berries, and catching the group enjoying an impomtu dance and bubbles party at the end of a long day can make one's whole week better easily.The warmth and joy of Little Llama extends beyond the space where our children go every day. Little Llama families have been united by the appreciation and gratitude of being able to send our children to this amazing place. When our daughter celebrated her second birthday at a park this fall, many of her Llama friends came to celebrate with us. Overall, I can't think of a better place to be a home away from home for my baby.
