Sundance Playschool 2.01

We are a licensed group daycare in a beautiful character home close to Royal Jubilee Hospital. We take a maximum of 16 children between the ages of thirty months and five years old.

Sundance is Reggio-inspired. This means that we believe that beautiful, natural materials foster a sense of peace and wonder in a child. We avoid plastic as much as possible (besides lego and buckets), and commercialized products, such as Disney (although they can sing 'Let It Go' as much as they want).

Instead of being theme-centred, we observe the children's interests and set up provocations to inspire children to take their interests higher and their questions deeper.

We respect children and their projects. Activities are saved for as long as the children feel they need to work on them, and children are given all the time they need to practice what they're determined to master.

Socio-emotional learning is important to us. Before they enter kindergarten, we want children to know that they have rights, everyone has rights (including the ladybugs in our gardens), and are comfortable speaking to adults and children about what they need.

Friendship and play and spending time in nature are the ways children learn negotiation, creativity, experimentation, and so much language. It gives them a chance to test theories, experience euphoria, handle frustration, and lose themselves in the flow of peaceful, meaningful work. They learn the value of empathy and kindness in themselves and others. A safe, respected, loved child is a healthy child.

Because we respect and enjoy children, we spend a lot of time in conversation- not correcting them, or quizzing them to test what they know, but in actual conversation, sharing laughter, and wonder, songs and stories from life, things that puzzle us or make us feel.

Instead of saying 'no' to children's ideas, we think, 'how can I say yes?' Our goal is to enable enough hands-on, sensory play- in a peaceful, unhurried, environment where children feel safe- for them to have a broad, deep, solid foundation of experience and experiment. Higher, symbolic thought is only achievable when we can reference it back to actual, physical experience.

Finally, non-nappers are welcome. :)