At Children’s Village Daycare, we provide a quality program designed to meet the needs of both the child and the family through a rich learning environment. We follow “How Does Learning Happen?  Ontario’s Pedagogy for the Early Years (2014)” as the guiding document under the Child Care and Early Years Act, 2014.

Our curriculum offers child-initiated experiences, activities, and events that occur within an inclusive environment designed to foster children’s well-being, learning, and, development.   Our staff of RECE’s strive to be organized around the foundations of belonging, well-being, engagement and expression in children where the goals and expectations integrate the 6 guiding principles of “Early Learning for Every Child Today”

• Responsive Relationships
• Learning through exploration and play
• Educators working with children as co-learners
• Setting up the environment as the third teacher
• Pedagogical documentation
• Reflective practice and collaborative inquiry
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We use a play based learning approach to create the best learning environment for children to learn and grow.  This allows children to learn in a way that is appropriate for them.  Each child may choose activities based on their own interest, giving them opportunity to be creative.  The environment is full of toys that are clean, safe and accessible for the children to explore.  Materials in the room are rotated regularly to allow for children’s changing areas of interest.

Children are competent, capable, curious and rich in potential

Our environment “the third teacher” is set up to meet the children’s needs to become independent by allowing free choice of play materials.  The children are encouraged to be self-reliant in routines such as dressing, toileting, washing, eating and tidying up their play materials.

Children thrive in indoor and outdoor spaces that invite them to investigate, imagine, think, create, solve problems, and make meaning of their experiences.  Our first and most important goal is to inspire delight, curiosity, and inquiry in the classroom. Our goals are consistent with the “How Does Learning Happen?” document

• Every child has a sense of belonging when he/she is connected to others and contributes to their world
• Every child is developing a sense of self, health and well-being
• Every child is an active and engaged learner who explores their world with body, mind and senses
• Every child is a capable communicator who expresses him/herself in many ways

To foster learning and support the children’s interests we offer a variety of daily activities such as language, numeracy, music, outdoor play, science and nature, creative, dramatic play, blocks and construction, fine and gross motor.

Our program is designed to:

• Builds intrinsic motivation
• Encourage children to interact and communicate in a positive way and support their ability to self-regulate
• Foster the children’s exploration, play and inquiry
• Provide child initiated and adult supported experiences
• Offer opportunities to create relationships with others in the program

Our staff are committed to building connections with the children by:

• Being at the children’s level for face-to-face interactions
• Using a pleasant, calm voice and simple language while making eye contact
• Providing warm, responsive physical contact
• Following the child’s lead and interest during play
• Helping children understand expectations by providing simple but clear explanations
• Taking the time to engage children in the process of resolving problems and conflicts
• Redirecting children to areas of success during challenging moments
• Fostering thoughtfulness and caring by listening to children and encouraging them to listen to others and share ideas
• Genuinely acknowledging children for their accomplishments and effort by clearly saying what it is they have done well

Children’s Village works with families and children as a team.  We foster collaborative and cooperative relationships between children and adults.  We provide a sense of belonging for children and their families in our program by providing positive communication both through our HiMama program and in person.  We value families as experts who know their children best.

Whenever possible Children’s Village works collaboratively with community partners such as our local library, the public health unit, and other community programs (fire department, police department, veterinarian, etc) to meet the best interests of the children.

We provide healthy meals and snacks and establish a positive eating experience that is responsive to the child.  Our menu follows the Canada’s Food Guide and we are committed to meeting the individual needs of the children when it comes to allergies or special diet restrictions. Our menus can be viewed on the parent board in the foyer, on our website and is sent to parents daily through the HiMama program.

We see educators as knowledgeable, resourceful, and rich in experience and we value the environments they create for the children.  Our staff offers a warm, positive learning environment and sees themselves as co-learners to enhance the child’s ability to explore, and to offer assistance when needed.  The majority of our full-time staff working with the children have completed the Early Childhood Education program and are registered with the College of Early Childhood Educators.  All program staff attend mandatory professional meetings and are committed to continuous learning.  All staff are given opportunity to work closely on pedagogical documentation both individually and as a team effort to extend the children’s learning.  Our staff make daily observations of children in the program and use this information to enlighten their future planning.  The staff develop programs that supports early learning following the child’s lead and curiosity.