Creativity
Our daycare provides many opportunities for development in fine arts; dramatic play, musical arts, and dancing, all of which are used as an expressive outlet for children’s emotions, thoughts and everyday experiences. We encourage children to use their imagination for self-discovery and concentrate on the appreciation of beauty within their art regardless of aesthetics outcomes. All materials are physically available for children’s use at any time of the day.
“The child has a hundred worlds to discover, a hundred worlds to invent, a hundred worlds to dream.” — Loris Malaguzzi
Literacy
At our daycare we use every opportunity to help children develop in areas such as listening comprehension and oral language vocabulary, alphabet knowledge and recognition, phonological/phonemic awareness (the ability to discriminate sounds in words), invented spelling. All staff model reading and writing in shared space or individual time with the children. We believe reading is important to child development and take this seriously. Our daycare provides weekly library visits.
“Reading is the entrance of written language to the field of culture.” — Maria Montessori
Nature
Duchess Early Learning Centre advocates caring for the environment through education and proactive awareness. We include nature in our space and teach how to preserve it through composting, recycling and using environmental products. At the daycare we have a space dedicated to gardening, which allows the children to participate in the process of planting in the spring and harvesting in the fall. We encourage play outside in all weather conditions to enhance their natural curiosity about their environment.
“A child needs to live naturally and not simply have a knowledge of nature.” — Maria Montessori
Community
At Duchess Early Learning Centre we believe being connected to the community around us important. We provide opportunities for the children in the daycare to take action under supervision for our parks and sidewalks concerning litter. We also make visits to small businesses and public facilities in Prince George like: Public Library, Downtown Fire Hall No. 1, City Hall, UNHBC Hospital, Simon Fraser Lodge, Elder Citizen Recreation Centre and Dementia Day Program which are within walking distance. Discovering new opportunities for building relationships helps children learn about empathy, sympathy and selflessness.
“Either we do education together, or there is no education.” — Loris Malaguzzi
Food