PROGRAMS

Curriculum

“Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed.”
— Dr. Maria Montessori

LEARNING THROUGH PLAY helps children develop both social and cognitive skills, mature emotionally, and gain the self-confidence required to engage in new experiences and environments. At Bright Days, the Early Childhood Educators assist the children by facilitating their learning through play experience.

Our learning through play approach ensures that there are blocks of time each day when children are engaged in activities created by the Educator based on the children’s current interests. By creating activities based on the children’s current interests, it allows them to become the leader of their own learning. The Educators organize the play environment in a way that provides a choice of play activities that meet the developmental needs of each child in the group, according to the curriculum goals for each day. Free play is also key to a child’s development and encourages them to further explore their interests and imaginative play. Some might be building structures with blocks while others are playing at the sensory bins and others are looking at picture books. Children move around the play area, selecting the play that interests them. When they are ready, they move on to something else. The Bright Days play based curriculum encompasses the ideologies of Montessori, Reggio Emilia, the Early Learning and Child Care Curriculum Framework for Alberta, as well as the Mindful Schools Curriculum.

OUR EDUCATORS UNDERSTAND EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT and intervene when appropriate to facilitate learning to help children extend their play, and to provide necessary support and guidance. When they recognize that their intervention can take the child’s play to higher levels of learning, they take the opportunity to enter the play as a co-creator and help provoke a framework for the children to go from “what they know” to “what else they could know”. This is where the daily activities and curriculum topics come into play through scaffolding.

Scaffolding has become a key concept in education. It is a framework to describe an adults’ supportive role in children’s learning. Scaffolding enables a child to solve a problem, carry out a task or achieve a goal which is just beyond his or her abilities. During play, where social and emotional skills are developed, scaffolding is a bridge to new skill levels using three key ingredients; modeling the skill, giving clues and asking questions while the child is trying out a new skill, and then as the child approaches mastery, withdrawing the support. This helps build not only new skills, but also self confidence as they discover their own, increasing potential.

BRIGHT DAYS CUSTOM CURRICULUM INCLUDES A COMBINATION of free play as well as structured/guided play. This allows children to gain the benefits that both types of play have to offer. Free play allows children to use their creativity while developing their imagination, dexterity, and physical, cognitive, and emotional strength. Free play is important to healthy brain development. It is through free play that children at a very early age engage and interact in the world around them. To ensure that the children always have a fresh and stimulating environment, toys, play equipment and books are often rotated between child care homes. In addition to the blocks of free play time, the structured activities that are provided each day through our programs include the following:

Circle Time

After breakfast is done, at all Bright Days child care homes, we start each day with circle time for our children. Starting with circle time not only helps to introduce the topics and plans for the day but it provides interaction between the children that enhances social and emotional skills. Every child in the circle is equal and belongs to the whole group.

The children can express feelings and ideas to the group without judgement, gaining confidence. They practice taking turns listening and speaking during circle time, learning valuable skills in positive communication. And, as they are introduced to a wide variety of concepts, people, and ideas in circle time, they learn acceptance.

Mindfulness

The mindfulness lessons that we provide to the children each day are tailored to their developmental age and abilities. The main focus of all our mindfulness lessons is to allow the children to become more aware of their own inner and outer experience. The lessons are based on helping the children self-identify what they are experiencing, both mentally and physically (using all their senses), in any given moment. By practicing this when they are calm and alert, they learn techniques to use these skills even in moments of stress or emotional turbulence. Some of the benefits of mindfulness for children include the ability to regulate their emotions, have an increased sense of calm, better focus and concentration, and increased empathy and understanding of others.

Outdoor Play Everyday

Outdoor play is critical for young children in early childhood programs. Many of the developmental tasks that children must achieve—exploring, risk-taking, fine and gross motor development and the absorption of vast amounts of basic knowledge—can be most effectively learned through outdoor play. Our current culture is taking outdoor play away from young children through excessive TV and computer use, over-scheduled activities, and academic standards that are classroom focused. At Bright Days, we recognize the physical, social, emotional, and cognitive benefits of outdoor play. This is why we have 30-90 minutes of outdoor play everyday, depending on the weather conditions. Our zero screen time policy also ensures that the children are continuously interacting, and active.

Practical Life/Care of Environment

Practical life and care of environment are important parts of Bright Days custom curriculums. These activities encourage the child to interact with their surrounding environment, exhibiting respect and care. They help the child form a connection with their environment, in which they find a personal responsibility towards it. Activities such as cleaning up spills, watering plants, wringing cloths, weeding the garden, and filling bird seed holders call to the child and offer much towards development of personality. Watering the plant exercises provides an opportunity for children to take care of the environment and helps children to develop independence, control their body movements and improve concentration. It also helps the child develop a love for the environment and help children connect and engage with nature. The children absolutely love planting their own plants in pots in the backyards, watering, nurturing them and watching them grow!

Science and Sensory

The idea is to introduce children to many things and for them to be able to explore the world around them. Science is everywhere and the sooner we can help your kids develop a love for science, the better! Some of the games we incorporate into our curriculums include scientific topics like botany, astronomy, physics, and zoology.

Sensory play is really part of the scientific process. Whether out loud or within the internal dialogue of the mind, children have developed a question, leading them to investigate—by grabbing, smelling, listening, rubbing, staring, etc. They are using their senses to collect data and from that, attempt to answer their own questions. Whether or not young children are always able to verbally communicate this process, it is still a valid exercise in scientific inquiry. The senses are their most familiar, most basic way to explore, process, and come to understand new information. Sensory activities facilitate whole brain learning and children will be more successful academically and practically. As part of our custom curriculums, we use custom built sensory tables at all Bright Days child care homes. The sensory bins for the table are purchased through a Calgary based company that works with Pediatric Occupational Therapists to create bins that promote cognitive development, fine motor skills, language and communication skills, and confidence. These bins are then rotated between homes to ensure that the children always have new and interesting sensory experiences.

Language Lessons & Immersion

Bright Days custom curriculums include language lessons which include songs, games, and other fun learning activities to teach children the basics of language and literacy skills. As well, through daily interactions with the Early Childhood Educators, the children are constantly practicing and improving their language skills.

In addition to English language skills, the children are also introduced to a second language. Exposing children to a second language at an early age has been shown to produce many benefits. Some of the more documented benefits include better linguistics (in both languages), cognitive benefits including creativity and better critical thinking skills, higher academic achievement, as well as cultural enrichment. Through games and songs, the children will learn the basics of a second language. However, the most effective way for a child to learn a second language is to put them in situations where the second language surrounds them. Research has shown that children learning a second language in an immersion setting show an overall success rate of grammatical knowledge similar to English monolinguals. This is why we have 2 large blocks of time during each day where the Early Childhood Educator interacts with the children solely in a second language. The language lessons and immersion times at Bright Days will provide your child with the tools they need to gain the many benefits of learning a second language.

Group Story Time

Each day at all Bright Days child care homes, the Early Childhood Educator reads a different book to the children. Group story time has many benefits for children. They benefit from hearing another adult read to them, from watching other children get engaged in a story, and from the exposure to a wide variety of authors and writing styles. Your child will also learn some essential school readiness skills, like how to sit still for an extended period of time, how to pay attention, and how to be reasonably quiet for a period of time. Story time also helps children develop their imagination, discover new ideas, learn to comprehend the world around them; and exposes little ones to a larger vocabulary than they get through their usual daily interactions. Not only does it provide many benefits to the development of the children, but they love it!

Yoga

Yoga is beneficial to children in many ways. Because children encounter emotional, social, and physical challenges or conflicts, a dedicated and intentional yoga practice that includes breathing techniques, behavioral guidelines, and physical postures can be incredibly valuable for them. Yoga helps children to develop body awareness and refines balance and coordination as they learn how to use their bodies in a healthy way. It also helps build focus and concentration as they clear their mind and focus on the effort. When a child masters a pose, it boosts confidence and self-esteem. While practicing yoga, children feel part of a healthy, non-competitive group, and helps strengthen the mind-body connection.

Using shorter sessions, even the younger infants and toddlers in our programs are soon able to establish a regular practice. It’s so enjoyable to watch them go into their favourite poses when the Early Childhood Educator announces that it’s yoga time.

Math

Research into the importance of math skills shows that children who are taught math early, and learn the basics at a young age, are set up for a lifetime of achievement in all aspects of their academic performance. From as young as infancy, children start to grasp the concept of numbers and counting. Research has shown that by 6 to 12 months of age, children can recognize small groups of numbers without counting. At Bright Days, our Early Childhood Educators guide children throughout the day, developing their mathematical knowledge according to the curriculum objectives for each age group. In play and daily activities, children naturally explore mathematical ideas and processes. For example, they sort and classify, compare quantities and sizes, and notice shapes and patterns. Our Educators are able to identify areas of opportunity with each child during the day to incorporate math skills and ideas with each child. In addition to this, there are structured songs, books, and games for the group that encourage mathematical proficiency. Experts currently recommend the earlier the better when it comes to introducing basic math. The better a child can develop early math skills, the likelier they are to succeed in later academic pursuits. At Bright Days, we help ensure the later success of each child by teaching them early math skills.

Arts and Crafts

Fostering the development of children’s aesthetic sense and engaging children in creative experiences are the objectives during arts and crafts time at Bright Days child care homes. For very young children, making art is a sensory exploration activity. They enjoy the feeling of a crayon moving across paper and seeing a blob of colored paint grow larger. As children grow and develop, their art-making activities move beyond exploring with their senses and begin to involve the use of symbols. Children begin to represent real objects, events, and feelings in their artwork. It also helps develops fine motor skills and improved eye-hand coordination. Young children feel a sense of emotional satisfaction when they are involved in making art, whether they are modeling with clay, drawing with crayons, or making a collage from recycled scraps. This satisfaction often comes from the control they have over the materials they use and the autonomy they have in the decisions they make. Each week, our custom curriculum includes a “creative craft day” where the children choose their own crafting materials, invent, and create their own masterpieces.

Music, Song & Dance

Music is an important part of the child care curriculum because it creates a wide range of benefits to children. Incorporating music and movement into early childhood education can help young children with development, social interaction and language growth. When children play with musical instruments, they explore cause and effect. Additionally, they learn to pay attention to changes in sound, noting for example that certain keys sound deeper than others. Singing songs is a powerful way for young children to practice language. When children sing, they practice pronouncing words and putting together sentences. Our brains remember language better when it is set to music. When dancing and moving to music, children develop better motor skills. Songs that involve action and hand gestures that follow the music teach children not only the meaning of some new words, but also to move and sing at the same time. Other types of activities for use in the classroom could be dancing in a circle, playing small musical instruments, singing songs in rounds, singing while cleaning up, marching to the beat or imitating animals. Not only can this be beneficial academically, it also keeps children moving, which is good for their little bodies. Music is a social activity which involves everyone’s participation and children love to sing and dance.