SENIOR TODDLER ROOM STATEMENT
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Dalhousie Parents’ Day Care Centre is a community-based, non-profit child care centre whose mission is to provide high quality child care that recognizes play to be one of the most important vehicles of learning for young children. Knowledgeable, trained educators provide an environment that helps to meet the developmental needs of each child.
As a cooperative centre we value a cooperative structure that recognizes the provision of child care is a shared responsibility and requires effort from all staff members, parents, and our community, and where consensus is a model for decision-making. We respect the diverse nature of our community, staff and families without discrimination with respect to Aboriginal, racial, ethnic, linguistic and religious backgrounds, age, gender, sexual orientation, and levels of income and ability. |
We work in partnership with families, community partners, and the various levels of government in ways that are responsible, and supportive, to ensure accessible, affordable, high quality child care. Being flexible, creative and accountable in how we do our work is always very important to our staff. We recognize that a positive child-caregiver interaction is dependent on continuous learning and good working conditions. As dedicated leaders, we are committed to advocating for the highest quality of care by creating a safe environment where the voices of the children, educators, and families are valued.
Our program incorporates the Minister’s Policy Statement on Programming and includes inspiration from “How does Learning happen?” which is Ontario’s framework for Pedagogy for the early years.
We value the joy and happiness that a sense of well-being brings to each of us. At Dalhousie Parents’ Day Care, we promote health, safety, nutrition and ultimately the well-being and belonging of each child in our care. To help support our health and safety goals we provide the children with a safe, encouraging environment in which they are free to discover at their own pace.
Our Nutrition Policy is created in respect to The Canadian Food Guide. We offer a diverse variety of food that will ensure all our children are provided with the necessary nutrients to be successful in their day and further aid in their development and growth.
Our children are always viewed as capable and competent learners, who are curious and rich in potential. Throughout the day this can be observed in our program environments (indoors and outdoors), during active play, and as well in rest and quiet periods. Relationships are the foundation of all that we do. Through collaboration and reflection, we build respectful, authentic relationships with our children, families, colleagues and community.
Please refer to our policies on Playground Safety, Nutrition, Training and Development, Prohibited Practices, Anaphylactic Procedures, Sanitary Practices, Sleep Supervision Guidelines, Serious Occurrence Measures, Medication Policy, Supervision of Volunteers and Students Protocol, Program Statement Implementation Policy, Police Vulnerable Sector Check, Fire Safety and Evacuation Plans and Our Duty to Report. All centre policies and procedures are reviewed at least annually and upon recruitment of new staff, volunteers and students or, at any time in which the Program Statement or Policies are modified.
The Infant, Toddler and Preschool programs foster a transparent space where children and families can feel comfort, support and security as they journey through their early years. Exploration, play and inquiry are the foundation for our emergent curriculum. This is created from the children’s interests (and what challenges them), and the educator’s passions which lead to child initiated and adult supported learning experiences. Our educators consider themselves as co-learners who ultimately support our children’s engagement, freedom of expression, sense belonging and well-being.
Our teams promote positive interactions by building on skills that focus on our children’s individuals needs and strengths. We acknowledge and positively reinforce children’s hard work in a meaningful way and be specific we describing the actions and reactions. Through warm and caring responsive relationships, the Educators can help children cope and recover from stress in a variety of daily situations. We encourage self-regulation through, using clear consistent language when setting limits and boundaries, positive messaging, offering choices, positive modeling, using reminders, empathetic responses, planned ignoring, offer problem- solving strategies, co-regulate alongside children, give conflict resolution support, and create calm down areas.
Our licensed facility and team of Registered Early Childhood Educators, takes pride in our high standards of practice and continuous professional learning for everyone. Growing and learning together is a lifelong journey that happens every moment of every day. The Program Statement is a living, breathing document that will continue to evolve with the program as our learning and understanding expands, our processes change and our families, educators, and children change as well. Some of our upcoming goals include, a toy and book lending library, bringing back parent-workshops, and strengthening local community partnerships. As an on-going goal our staff is continuing to access current evidence based research and transfer this knowledge into our practice.
