EYES Program Statement

We are at EYES Canada Childcare provide a safe, nutritious and healthy environment for each child enrolled in our program.

Our primary goals are to provide a high quality, supportive, family centered program in a warm, safe and responsive environment.

Promote their physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development, as well as to encourage co-operation, responsibility and consideration of others.

EYES Canada Childcare encompasses the research and legislation in Ontarians major learning documents:

• How Does Learning Happen? Ontario’s Pedagogy for Early Years
• Ontario Early Years Framework
• Ontario Early Learning Framework
• Think Feel Act: Lessons from Research About Young Children
• Early Learning for Every Child Today.

We know that children learn best by pursuing their personal interest and goals, children make their own choices about materials and activities during program time. EYES Childcare recognizes each children is a unique individual who brings his or her own abilities to the centre. We provide an environment that fosters curiosity and allows children to explore, grow and reach their maximum potential.

Ministry of education pedagogy includes the following:

• Every child has a sense of belonging when he or she is connected to others and contribute to their world.
• Every child is developing a sense of health, and well being.
• Every child is an active and engaged learner who explores the world with body, mind and sense.
• Every child is capable communicator who expresses himself or herself in many different ways.

The Ontario pedagogy that is to be used in the program will have principals deriving from the “Active Learning” education approach. The approach involves children in direct, hand-on experiences with people, objects and events.

We support positive and responsive interactions among children, parents and our educators. We encourage children to children in a positive way and support their ability to self-regulate. It is our role to foster the children’s exploration, play and inquiry.

EYES Childcare plans for and creates many positive learning environment’s and experiences in which each children’s learning and development will be supported. We achieve this by planning outdoor and indoor play as well as active play, rest and quiet times for each child in our programs. With this it gives children a variety of choices while also ensuring that they are the priority and their individual needs are met.

EYES Childcare supports staff to constantly educate themselves through professional learning.

EYES Canada Childcare Philosophy

It is well documented that child play provides the foundations for language and literacy, mathematics, science and technology as well as the arts.

Our curriculum is consistent in approach with “How Does Learning Happen”, Ontario’s pedagogy for the early years and our programming guidelines mirror the Early Learning for Every Child Today (ELECT).

Our planning process – recording observation, determining interest and planning play opportunities in all developmental areas.

Our programs focus on active play-based learning as the way that children naturally learn best. It is their nature response to the environment around them. When children are manipulating objects, acting out roles, or experimenting with different materials, they are engaged in learning through play. Play allows them to actively construct challenges and expand their own understandings through making connections to prior experiences; thereby opening the door to new learning.

Intentional play-based learning enables children to investigate, ask questions, solve problems, and engage in critical thinking. Play is responsive to each child’s unique learning style and capitalizes on his or hers innate curiosity and creativity.

Eyes Child Care believes that through indoor and outdoor play children can develop many skills that are vital for their development. They can learn personal responsibility, social skills, problem solving, and they can work on fine and gross motor skills. With this it can also lead to learning about diversity and inclusion. Every child is entitled to be given an equal opportunity to learn and develop through this type of play.

Our program also supports children’s self-regulation, their ability to deal with stress and remain calm, alert and ready to learn. When children are calmly focused and alert, they are best able to modulate their emotions, pay attention, ignore distractions, inhibit their impulses and understand the consequences of their actions.

We are continually learning about how to create learning environments and programming that helps support children’s self-regulation – to help children remain or return to a state of calm.

Health, Safety, Nutrition and Well-being of Children

We know that the early year’s foundation for children health and well-being, the brain architecture is shaped by the child’s interaction and relationships with parents and other significant people in their lives. Every brain development is stimulated through experiences and interactions with responsive adults.

We understand that the first step in establishing and nurturing health, safety and well-being for children in our programs is through the connections they make with the program staff, volunteer and students on placement. Here are some other specific ways we promote well-being in our program:

Health and Safety: EYES Childcare as a licensed child care operator meets and exceeds all health and safety requirements of the Ministry of Education and local government bylaws.

Nutrition: EYES Childcare collaborates with a registered children nutritionist to develop standard menus for our entire program that are both nutritious and appealing for children. Our menus follow Canada’s Food Guide and culturally sensitive. You can view the menu on our Parent Communication board and on our website.

We accommodate dietary or religious food requirements for children in our programs. By providing children with healthy eating choices, we are mentoring life-long skills to notoriously feed and nourish their bodies for optimal health and development.

Four weeks rotational menus are posted outside the kitchen. If there are any changes in regard to the menu for the day, the changes will be posted on the menu board. Please notify the supervisors at the time of enrollment if your child has a food allergy, medical intolerance or religious convictions. The allergy and restrictions will be posted in the kitchen as well as in each classroom where it can be assured that it will be adhered to and alternatives to be prepared.

Relationship among children, families, staff and community partners

It is one of our core values at EYES Childcare to foster collaborative and co-operative relationships among all of our partners. EYES Childcare strives to promote a sense of belonging for children and their families in our programs by creating positive interactions and collaborations of families. We understand that relationships of trust are the basis for learning and co-operations.

The skill of conflict resolution are important to lifelong learning. As competent individuals, children are active participants in resolving conflicts. We encouraged them to come up with ideas and solutions to problems that arise.

EYES Childcare is committed to working collaboratively with all of our community partners as we work together on the mutual goal of providing the best possible child care services to families.

Positive Self Expression, Communication and Self-Regulation

At EYES, our inclusive programming leads to children’s sense of belonging. Positive learning environment’s and experiences, focused on active play-based learning, encourage children to communicate, self-regulate and used their self-expression.

We seek to be aware of, foster, support, encourage, respond and document the many ways in which children express themselves, the many voices with which they articulate their ideas, the variety of “languages” they use to communicate. We also seek to honour and reflect children’s home language and culture in our programs.

In our inclusive learning environments, we welcome children’s of all abilities. Respect for diversity, equality and inclusion is vital for optimal development and learning. Here are some of the ways in which we create an inclusive environment in our programs:

a) Recognize each child as having equal rights to participate in program activities, trips and events
b) Recognize and respect the unique qualities of each child and family, including ancestry, culture, ethnicity race, language, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, socio-economic status, family environment, and developmental abilities and needs.
c) Create strategies that vulture the culture and first language of the children.
d) Establish programming strategies to foster an inclusive learning environment in which every child can participate.
e) View the diversity of children and families as an asset, and plan programs to reflect differences and enrich the environment.

These can be achieved by incorporating indoor and outdoor play, as well as active play, rest and quiet time, into the day, and give consideration to the individual needs of the children receiving child care.

Parent Engagement and Communication

EYES Childcare aims to foster outreach, engagement, and communication with families about our program and their children’s learning experiences. We believe that families are experts on their children. Sharing knowledge in integral to the success of your child.

EYES Childcare aims to ensure that families have support of available, affordable, safe, reliable, high quality licensed child care for their children, which ensures parents peace of mind while their children are in the EYES Childcare programs. Respect, care, empathy, trust and integrity are core values in all of our interactions with families.

We know that our partnership with our families help our program to best meet the needs of the children:

• Families form the foundations for children’s early development. Families know their children’s best, and are the first and most powerful influences on learning and development
• The needs of each child are considered in the context of their family’s composition, value, culture and language. This approach enriches relationship between early childhood setting, families and their communities.
• We involve partners and other important adults in various events and activities at our programs. This connects them to their children’s early development, and enhances the child’s learning. EYES Childcare has an open-door policy and families are welcomed to come at any time. We welcome the opportunity to include your family traditions, customs, and experiences in the program. In addition to daily interactions with program staff, we offer many opportunities for parent’s feedback and involvement – such as surveys and focus groups, through field trips, and on-going written and face – to face communications. We use parent’s input to improve our programs and services.

Community Partners

EYES Childcare is committed to involving local community partners and to engaging those partners in supporting EYES Childcare children, families and staff.

We provide learning opportunities and practical work experiences, in the areas of programming and administration to members of the community through recruitment, placement training and recognition of volunteers and students on placements. Volunteers and students on placement augment the high quality care and individual attention given to the children in the programs.

We also have community partners – we collaborate with these partners and continue to create more opportunities to expand these relationship[s on behalf of our children and families. We view the community as a valuable resource and our educators plan learning opportunity to share our knowledge and to learn from others in the community.

Supporting Staff in Continuous Professional Learning

EYES Childcare is committed to hiring, training and fairly compensating staff. We hire staff who have positive and sensitive attitude towards children. Our non-discriminatory hiring practices provide individuals of all backgrounds the opportunity for employment. We believe that everyone has worth and value and all staff are entitled to be respected, supported and treated fairly.

EYES Childcare fosters children inquiry and creativity. Staff plan on a daily basis based on the observations that they make on children’s interests. In this way, learning is extended, leading to deeper investigations with materials and the environment. Staff plan for and create positive learning environment’s and experiences in which each child’s learning and development will be supported.

Through positive adult-child interactions, EYES Childcare staff work closely with children to extend their learning by encouraging children to build upon their existing knowledge. EYES Childcare staff develop an intentionally planned program that supports early learning.

At EYES Canada Childcare we believe that knowledgeable and responsive early educators:

• Recognizes that responding to unique abilities, needs and characteristics of each child, family and community is central to supporting learning and development.
• Engage with children as co-learners as they explore their environment’s.
• Provoke children’s thinking, create meaningful programs that guides interactions with children’s
  and their families.
• Use a warm and positive approach to support children’s developing abilities to express emotions and take others perspectives.
• Know when to stand back and observe and when to enter children’s play to stimulate thinking.
• Make a commitment to build self-awareness, regularly reflect on practices and engage in new learning experiences, both individually and with colleagues.
• Formal professional learning is vital, but we also know that the most central professional growth happens day-to-day, as our staff co-learn with children and each other as self-reflective professionals.

Educators connect with children by being available, sensitive, responsive and caring. Cultivating a climate of trust is key in helping children feel safe, secure and have a strong sense of belonging in their learning communities. Once trust is established, children feel free to discover, take risks, grow and learn.

EYES Childcare ECE staff have completed studies in the field early childhood ad are registered with the College of Early Childhood Educators. All other program staff complete a specific training program designed by EYES Childcare and approved by the Ministry of Educator. All program staff attend mandatory bi-monthly professional learning meetings and receive training on an ongoing basis.

Documenting and Reviewing the Impact of EYES Childcare Learning Programs

At EYES Childcare we understand that pedagogical documentation is a way for our program staff to learn about how children thing and learn. Our staff make daily observations of the children in the program and use this information to inform their future planning. Our intention is to move beyond reporting of children’s behaviour, in order to find meaning in what children do and experience. The purpose of our documentation is also:

a) A good way to value children’s experiences and help them reflect back on those experiences and what they have been learning.
b) An opportunity to make children’s learning and understanding of the world visible – to themselves, to others children, to their parents and other families, to the program staff.
c) A way to reflect on developmental growth over a period of time.
d) A process for program staff to co-plan with children about learning.
e) A dialogue with families about children experiences and an invitation for parents to add their own documentation about their children learning.
f) Self-reflection opportunity for program staff as they participate in continuous professional learning.
g) Establish a supportive social environment that cares for autonomy and self-esteem.
h) Establish positive relationships, friendships and conflict resolution skills.
i) Be an involved pay partner.
j) Foster, observe and document significant behaviour / developmental millstones.