Growing beans

Creating an Indoor Bean Garden

The kinders have been rediscovering the wonders of gardening even as the earth rests for the winter. While exploring outside together, BW, HV and CL found some white little “things” near the end of the skating rink, under some brush.  “I found Something!” called BW.  When April ventured closer to see what they had discovered, she wondered aloud what they …

Storytelling

Where Seven Ripe Strawberries Can Lead Us!

The Kinders have experienced their first harvest of the season!  We were delighted to discover just a few ripe strawberries in our very hot and very humid  patch but, as you’ll see, this isn’t really about the strawberries but, rather, where the discovery of exactly seven ripe strawberries combined with emergent learning can lead our program to go and grow …

Discovery Childcare Outdoor Learning

Reciprocity and Connection as a Natural Guide for Learning

The  children have been delighting in their reciprocal relationship with winter birds.  The children sing in the forest;  the birds sing back to us, the  children offer nourishment to the birds in the form of sunflower seeds; they, in turn, nourish the curiosity of the children and their desire to be closer to the birds by gracing us with their …

What have the children taught me about democracy?

I was inspired to share a recent experience that I had while observing children engaged in playful learning experiences in our kindergarten program. I am always amazed at the lessons we can learn about ourselves when we are co-learning with children. I am always amazed at the lessons about life and the world we hope to create when we listen …

Navigating a Pandemic: How to Reopen A Child Care after a 6-month closure?

As a licensed child care centre, we were impacted greatly by the COVID-19 pandemic. We officially shut down operations on March 17, 2020, and we remained closed until September 8, 2020. After being closed and disconnected from our team for almost 6 months we wondered…what conditions need to be created for our team to safely come back together and reopen …

March Highlights: This Month we Combine Staying Safe at Home, While Retaining Our Passion for Nature

March has been a crazy month, and we were sad earlier in the month to have been given direction to temporarily close until further notice. This was an important measure for the health of the children and our staff members, but it won’t be forever.  For now, we are going to listen to the government’s advice on social distancing, while …