About Us
At the Best Friends Learning Centre of Windsor Inc., we deliver the best care possible to nurture your child’s emotional, mental and physical development using child-centred learning methods so each pupil is encouraged to learn and experiment using various tools. Our qualified staff is committed to developing an open and positive relationship with each child’s family, encouraging mutual communication while working together as a unit.
Best Friends Learning Centre Program Statement:
The primary goal for our program is to develop a positive image for each child. We believe that when a child develops a secure feeling of self-worth, he or she will have a potential for success throughout life. This goal will be accomplished by offering individual programming, utilizing positive reinforcement techniques and providing a program to challenge and to enhance the social, emotional, physical, and intellectual growth of each child. Through play, with the guidance of specially trained staff the children will enjoy music, art, language development, creative movement, science, math, pre-reading, fine and gross motor activities. Our staff is committed to developing an open and positive relationship with each child’s family, encouraging mutual communication, working together as a unit. We recognize the stress that some parents experience when leaving their child, we hope that by providing a safe, loving, and stimulating environment we can minimize parental stress and separation anxiety.
Best Friends Learning Centre is a not for profit childcare organization and is committed to our community and families. It provides quality care through professional staff and a strong board of directors. Through play-based learning our program provides environments to engage and to allow exploration and expression. “How does learning happen?” is used for the purpose of guiding our program. “How does learning happen?” is guided by four fundamental conditions that are essential to learning and healthy development.
How we will meet our goals:
All staff will promote the health, safety, nutrition and well-being of each child by providing a clean and safe environment. Safety plays an important role in play. Staff is there to foster a safe and fun environment for each child. The daycare strives to achieve all health and safety requirements through health and safety checks. Nutrition is based on the Canada’s Food Guide. Lunch is catered every day, snack is prepared on site and menus are posted on the communication board. Educators will familiarize themselves with all information concerning any medical conditions, allergies, food restrictions and parental preferences with respect to diet, exercise and rest.
All staff will support positive and responsive interaction among the children, parents and childcare providers. The supervisor and the Board of Directors will support this through the hiring of qualified and well trained Early Childhood Educators who support families in their role as primary caregivers and understand the needs of each child as an individual. Having open communication is the best to ensure that we meet the needs of the families at our center.
All staff will encourage children to interact and communicate in a positive way and support their ability to self-regulate acknowledging that each child is competent, curious, and rich in potential. Staff will support self-regulation in children by guiding and demonstrating respectful attitudes toward the children, other educators, and equipment. We do this through modelling and predictable routines. We will give the children choices during transitions and we will minimize wait times before getting started on activities and also, help children identify, express their feelings, creating learning environments that promote self-regulation. Early development is influenced by a child’s relationship with the important adults in that child’s life. Staff will provide the experiences and support and encouragement that help young children to self-regulate which is a crucial component of inclusive quality care.
All staff will foster the children’s exploration, play and inquiry by providing a variety of activities, and an environment rich in content, that encourage choices, and active play, supported by qualified, attentive and interactive Early Childhood Educators. We value the importance of planning, exploration and reflection. The children are encouraged to make a conscious decision of what they would like to do during program planned activity time. All staff will provide child-initiated and adult supported experiences. The Early Childhood Educators will observe the children and use that information to plan and create a positive learning environment that is based on the interests of the child, and supported by all the adults. Children are given materials that can spark interest and encourage ideas to be extended and enriched on. These materials change based on the children’s interests and developmental needs.
Keeping active is a very important part of our daily routine. We value that every child needs time to engage in physical activity to keep their bodies healthy. The children receive both indoor and outdoor gross motor play. Safety plays a very important role in play. Staff is there to foster a safe and fun environment for each child. The staff is knowledgeable of the health and safety requirements set out by the Ministry of Education.
Staff ensures that children have a variety of materials to use that reflects the child’s interest. Staff will use open ended questions to aid in the children’s problem solving and enhance their creative ability. In reflection the children and parents will be able to see pictures and anecdotal notes of children learning and exploring. These will be posted around the center to document and reflect on the children’s learning. This helps foster ongoing communication with parents.
Being a school based child care allows us to participate in our community school events. We invite special guests and community services into our center to expand the learning experience for each child. These resources allow us to offer a range of support and services to the families within our center.
All the full time staff working with children have completed Early Childhood Education and are registered with the College of Early Childhood Education. All program staff attends professional meetings and are committed to continuous professional learning.
Best Friends Program Statement is reviewed annually by the Board of Director’s and staff to ensure that it is aligned with the Minister’s policy statement.