Our Program
MEETING THE NEEDS OF THE WHOLE CHILD
Our program is designed with the social, emotional, physical and cognitive development of pre-school children as its focus. Healthy development in one area encourages healthy development in the other three. You cannot plan for one without taking into account the others. Our goal is to lay a solid foundation for each child’s cognitive development, to ensure they will become competent in reading, writing and mathematics in their future and life experiences. But, we firmly believe each child must be allowed to progress toward this goal at his or her own pace.
Children who enter the Centre at 2½ years of age are encouraged to explore the learning materials in their class area. Books, building toys, art supplies, dramatic play materials are laid out in a way that invites their use. The children are introduced to exercises in practical life. Everyday tasks such as hand washing, clearing and cleaning a table or polishing a mirror utilize the child’s inner urge for synthetic movement and teach the logical sequence of actions to reach a goal. This begins to develop confidence and inner discipline. Simultaneously, the children work with tactile materials which help them to organize the wealth of sensory impressions they absorb from the environment. When they are interested, children begin to learn the sounds of letter and number concepts. This provides the basis for later exploration in reading and mathematics. Work with certain of the Montessori and Early Childhood Education materials helps the children develop the fine motor control and eye-hand co-ordination they will eventually need for reading, writing and number formation.
The Island setting of the Centre is ideal for discovery in the natural sciences. The children spend hours outside learning about the natural environment around them. Every day gives them an opportunity to discover and fall in love with bugs, birds and even beavers as they walk to and from school or step outside our playground into the meadow that surrounds us. Materials for a wide range of art, craft and drama activities are available for the children. The children are read to often and regularly each day as well we enjoy our singing circles. Outdoor time on the playground or on supervised walks around the Island is built into the daily program. Each week time is set aside for more directed movement experiences such as dance.
The program is designed to help children learn to express themselves in ways that acknowledge that they are part of a larger group, be it family, class or community. Group discussion around certain themes, group meetings to help sort out differences, one-on-one time with teachers are all built into the program so that each child feels respected and cared for, and learns to respect and care for others. Visitors to our Centre are always struck by how happy the children are together and this is largely because the children know they are important to the people they are with.
THE PLAYGROUND
Our playground provides children with challenging yet safe activities. A variety of resources is available: sandboxes, monkey bars, balls, shovels, pails, push toys, trikes, wagons and slides. Old tires, boxes, things that from an adult’s viewpoint might be labeled junk, can be used to make the most wonderful things! From time to time structured games can be a resource but most of the activity is unstructured so children can explore their expanding physical abilities and enjoy social activity and having fun in the great outdoors. This unstructured time provides teachers with a good chance to play along with the children, or simply to stand back and watch. This way the teachers learn a lot about what their interests are and how the children are doing in their social development.
FIELD TRIPS
The Island is a rich resource which the teachers use all the time. There is a farm, a bird sanctuary, swamps, tadpole ponds, beaches, woods and environmentally protected areas. All classes make good use of these resources. Parents are asked to sign a permission form as part of their registration package to cover these outings.
CONFLICT RESOLUTION
The Centre is committed to helping children learn how to resolve problems as they arise, whether they are connected to finishing an activity or anger at a friend. We help children learn to take an active, responsible role in their behavior by helping them to see the consequences of their actions and also learn to listen while problems are being solved. Each child is encouraged to verbalize his or her feelings, rather than resort to physical action. When disagreements arise the teachers will facilitate resolution and redirection. When a child has resorted to physical action, the first step is to talk it over with the teacher and other child, if appropriate. The teachers try to help the children involved reach a resolution. If feelings have become so strong that the child can no longer control his/her behavior he or she will be quietly removed from the situation until it can be dealt with more calmly.
OUR NATURE PROGRAM
Our school is in a Park that is full of the wonder of the natural world. This is an adventure all on its own but we are able to add to that. A beautiful facility full of Montessori materials, all kinds of play equipment, puzzles and books are tools to create a rich environment. Our teachers are trained and follow the philosophy of the Whole Child, Early Childhood Education, Montessori, nature studies and their own life experience. The staff work together to keep the children safe, nourished, challenged and help them fall in love with school. We all learn by doing and we also learn to follow the child as we prepare the program.
WHAT IS PROVIDED FOR ALL THE CHILDREN
8 to 1 child – teacher ratio
Excellent programming: quality time outside, rest, active and quiet activities
Two snacks and a home cooked lunch
Programming to the whole child means that every opportunity is taken to be a lesson for life
We follow the Day Nurseries Act that governs practices and procedures for children from birth to 10 years of age.
We provide a program for the individual and for the group. Our intent is to create community and help the children discover who they are.
The staff are trained in both ECE –Early Childhood Education and Montessori
The length of day is a natural length for children, 8:15 to 4:30
We do not provide after school care, however, our parents work together and help each other with pick up and drop off
We are a co-operative which means there is opportunity for parents to become involved in their child’s first experience in school
We are run by a Parent Board and a Supervisor