Our childcare programs in detail
Safe & nurturing environment
At Alphabet Treehouse, it is of upmost importance that our team provides a safe and nurturing environment to support your child's development and well-being. The connection between a child’s home, their place of caregiving and their community is crucial in meeting each individual child’s needs.
Reggio Emilia based program
Alphabet Treehouse Childcare uses a Reggio Emilia based program, which employs the Reggio philosophy to stimulate children’s natural interests and provide a healthy environment where learning can take place. We believe that both parents and their caregivers must work together to develop and establish an environment where children are engaged and are active learners of the classroom.
Extra-curricular activities
At Alphabet Treehouse we believe that extra-curricular activities are one of the many ways that we set our childcare centre apart from the rest. Early learning and exposure to various arts such as classical music, music and movement, additional languages, Yoga and much more are provided in our weekly curriculum for the children in our care.
At Alphabet Treehouse, small class sizes allow your infant to develop among fellow peers and educators in an intimate setting. The primary goal of our educators is to ensure that your child’s individual needs are met, as they create an environment in which your infant is stimulated and encouraged through age-appropriate learning experiences.
Infants have the opportunity to observe and interact with the physical world around them. Our daily infant program features experiences through light, water and other sensory activities. It also includes creative arts, dramatic (pretend) play and story/music time. Such activities develop skills in your infants, including cognitive, language, fine- and gross-motor, and social emotional skills.
Following the infant room, your child will enter the toddler stage. At this point in their lives, curiosity and learning will become more prominent. The toddler program is designed to guide children as they develop a greater sense of curiosity and understanding. Your child will be exposed to a quiet reading area. In this area, your child can choose to participate independently in a range of logic games and puzzles, and many more stimulating activities that allow them to develop. Learning self-help skills is an important part of the curriculum. Our main focus in the toddler room is to ensure the safety and development of your child, and prepare them for the preschool classroom, in which there is a more academic approach to learning.
The preschool program is the final stage of childcare at Alphabet Treehouse. In this stage, children will continue to develop and enhance many of the skills they learned in previous stages. The focus here, then, is on teaching them to communicate in an effective way and to regulate their emotions for their next stage of early years.
Our educators focus on developing skills through daily experiences. Children will engage in experiments, activities, discussions, and projects throughout the day. They have the freedom to guide their own curriculum through their own unique interests. Educators will take on the challenge on tapping into your child’s interests to create more meaningful play.
At Alphabet Treehouse, we recognize the importance of individuality in children. It is essential to make children feel comfortable to express themselves and their interests among trusted and loving peers and educators. Our main focus is to nurture them through a genuine love for learning. We want to prepare our little ones for future school environments and optimal success.
How Does Learning Happen?
Our program is also in line with the Ministry of Education’s best practice policy statement on programming and pedagogy of “How Does Learning Happen?” which focuses educators on shaping our children into being competent, capable, curious and rich in potential. We have organized our program around the four foundational conditions that are important for children to grow and flourish: Belonging, Well-Being, Engagement, and Expression. These foundational pillars are essential to tap into the potential of all children. Furthermore, these foundational pillars apply to all children and their families regardless of age, ability, culture, language, geography, or environment.
How Does Learning Happen? Ontario’s Pedagogy for the Early Years
Atelierista
At Alphabet Treehouse, we aim to foster a lifelong love for learning in the children in our care. The renowned Reggio Emilia philosophy supports this goal, offering children an opportunity to learn through play and exploration, developing valuable skills in the cognitive, social-emotional, fine and soft motor areas with the environment as their third teacher. Despite the amazing benefit and tangible impact incorporating this philosophy into children’s programming can have on a child’s development, the philosophy is far too often misunderstood or misused. To support the incorporation of Reggio Emilia into its programming, ATC works closely with an Atelierista named Marianna Esposito.
Marianna is responsible for working with our teachers to incorporate in-depth emergent projects based on children’s observed interests and curiosities. By connecting teacher’s observations and ideas with the expertise and reflections of our Atelierista, dynamic program plans that motivate creativity are created. Marianna brings her experience in the philosophy directly from the Italian city of Reggio Emilia, where she has worked at the International Center of Loris Malaguzzi for many years.