Nutrition

Kids Come First follows Canada’s Food Guide when developing menus. The menus have been reviewed by a dietician and include a variety of foods that take into account various holidays and food restrictions. Kids Come First serves breakfast and afternoon snack in our School Age programs. Our Preschool and Toddler programs are also served a hot lunch which includes raw and cooked vegetables, organic meat where possible, fresh fruit and whole grains. Copies of menus can be viewed on the parent communication board. Kids Come First Educators will work with families to familiarize themselves with information concerning medical conditions, exceptionalities, allergies, food restrictions, religious requirements, medication requirement and parental preferences in respect to diet. Kids Come First will make every effort to ensure that the premise is allergen safe, acknowledging that we cannot eliminate all allergens. Kids Come First will work with parents to limit or reduce the risk of exposure to anaphylactic causative agents, where it is possible, in the child care program.

Educators

Our quality child care programs are designed to create meaningful learning environments for children to grow, learn and develop techniques for future learning. Kids Come First’s Educators will support positive and responsive interactions among the children, parents, and Educators. Kids Come First will support this through the hiring of qualified, responsive, 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 as well as within a group.

We see our Educators as knowledgeable, reflective, resourceful and  we value the experiences and environments that they create for the children. Kids Come First ensures that the Educators are able to provide a quality program by providing ongoing education and professional development for our Educators related to best practices. Kids Come First supports the educators by providing opportunities for workshop and seminars that promote Continuous Professional Learning.

Kids Come First believes that Educators need to be reflective practitioners who learn about children through listening, observation, documentation, and discussion with others and families to understand children as unique individuals. They will observe how children learn and make sense of the world around them through their experiences and meaningful interactions. Children’s exploration, play and inquiry supported by engaged and attentive Educators, can be encouraged through a variety of open ended activities and emergent programming that is rich in content. The Educators engage with the children as co-learners during their exploration of the environment, provoke their curiosity and guide positive interactions to support children’s emotions

Kids Come First provides opportunity for Educators to engage in critical reflection and discussion with others about pedagogy and practice, to support continuous professional learning. On a weekly basis, Educators will meet with their team to review their observations and plan for meaningful documentation and plan for learning.  Our Educators use observation and pedagogical documentation to plan their weekly programming based on the children’s interests, reflect on children’s experiences, document dialogue and provoke further learning. The Educators will post documentation highlighting children’s learning through their play experiences.

Educators will provide child-initiated and adult supported experiences throughout the day. The 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 in the program. Educators will provide provocations and inquiry based learning opportunities using open ended materials to expand the children’s problem solving skills, experiences, knowledge and life experiences.

Educators will reflect on “How Does Learning Happen?”, by reviewing their observations and engaging children in meaningful activities, by maintaining communication with parents and building trusting relationships with the families, by working with their co-workers to create a safe and healthy environment and by taking the time to engage in self-reflection in a regular basis.

Kids Come First views each of our Educators as competent and capable, and gives them time to be heard and respected, and to reflect on their own performance and their contributions to the environment and the development of each child in their care. Using the Program Statement as a basis for a performance Appraisal, the Director or designate will ensure that observations, interactions, reflections and conversations are used to monitor all Educators and their implementation of the Program Statement.

Kids Come First will meet, on a regular basis, with each team to establish a clear understanding of the program statement, to support Educators in their delivery of the Program Statement and to aid the Educators in self-reflection. Supervisors/Executive Director will observe the Educators’ interactions with children ensuring that they align with the Kids Come First Program Statement and beliefs in adult-child interactions. Records pertaining to monitoring of Kids Come First Program Statement will be kept for a minimum of 3 years.