Sunday, 24 March 2013

We are now booking Tennis Lessons at Discovery Child (Barrie, Harvie Rd Location)


Hello Everyone - We're looking forward to getting outside and starting our Tennis program for 2013.  If you're interested in booking Tennis Lessons please contact us now!

OUR HEAD COACH:   We are very lucky to have Michelle May returning for another year of coaching!

• Tennis Canada  Certified Level 2 Coach
• Certified Fitness Professional
• Certified Sports Instructor
• St Joseph’s High School Varsity Coach
• Director of Tennis Operations Olympia sports Summer Camp (week 3)
• CIAU collegiate Player and OUAA doubles champion

SMASH TENNIS  (3-5 year olds) 

Introduce your child to the sport of tennis.  Tennis can be a sport for a lifetime and your child’s first experience with tennis is a very important one.  At the entry level

SMASH TENNIS is packed with fun games and social interaction. 

The Progressive Model approach is used for all SMASH programs making learning fast and easy. 
May 13-June 24  ($60/child) (no class May 20)
6 weeks, Mondays, Group 1:   2:15-3     Group 2  3-3:45  (maximum 6 children per group)

SMASH TENNIS (6-12 year olds) 

Suitable for both first timers as well as the intermediate player that wants to maintain a recreational level of play. Lessons are based on the Play and Learn principal with a focus on fun and development. Stroke Fundamentals as well as game based situational coaching make up the first half of lessons while the second half are dedicated to playing the game itself or specifically designed tennis oriented multi skill game play.

May 13-June 24  ($75/child) 6 weeks
Mondays, 3:45-4:45pm, 6-12 year olds (no class May 20)  Maximum 6 children per group

REGISTRATION & ENROLMENT

A registration/enrolment form and full payment of fees are required to hold open your child’s spot. Enrolment forms need to be completed and returned to the office prior to your child’s first day. 

Please call, email or drop by the office to register your child.  Please register no later than: Friday April 26th .

Payment is to be made by cheque made payable to Discovery Child Care Centre.  There will be a fee of $35 for any payment which fails to clear the bank for any reason.

Refund/Cancellation policy:

Requests for refunds must be submitted in writing to Discovery Child Care Centre. In order to receive a refund, notice must be given a minimum of 2 weeks (10 business days) prior to the start of any lessons or camp. All refunds (less a $10 admin fee) will be processed once initial payment has cleared the bank.

WHAT TO BRING

  Child sized Tennis racquet (limited # of racquets available to borrow)
  Non-marking running shoes
  Water
  Sun hat
  Sun screen   


Discovery Child Care Centre information:

Harvie Road Location
Address: 101 Harvie Road, Barrie, ON L4N 9C9
Phone: 705-733-2052
Email: harvie@discoverychild.on.ca

Healthy Kids Need Time in Nature

Here is a wonderful article written by David Suzuki about kids, nature and healthy living - certainly subjects dear to my heart and I agree with David that we need a national strategy to get our kids eating healthy foods and being active in nature.  Please check it out and let me know what you think. Thanks - Karen, Discovery Child Care

Healthy Kids Need Time in Nature


By David Suzuki with contributions from David Suzuki Foundation Communications Specialist Leanne Clare

Source: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/opinion/healthy-kids-need-time-in-nature-363444.html

Ontario’s Healthy Kids Panel recently proposed a strategy to help kids get onto a path to health.

The problem is that the path doesn’t lead them into nature. Though the report quotes parents’ comments and research showing kids spend dramatically less time outside than ever, it doesn’t encourage time in nature.

That said, many of the report’s recommendations should be implemented and supported locally, provincially and nationally to reduce the risks of obesity.

Encouraging parents and children to be more critical about dietary choices and requiring more information and labelling from restaurants and food producers is long overdue.

Ontario isn’t the only province working to reduce obesity rates and support parents raising healthy children, particularly in the early years. Alberta released relevant reports in 2011 and Quebec has had a ban on advertising junk food to children since 1980.

No one can argue against public awareness and education around the benefits of healthy eating and active living. But a provincial, patchwork approach to addressing these issues isn’t enough. We need a national strategy to get our kids eating healthy foods and being active in nature.

‘Make good things more accessible’

Although it seems logical that much of the time spent being active will take place outside, the Ontario report acknowledges that “many communities are not designed to encourage kids to move or be physically active…and have few safe green spaces.”

One parent in a focus group explains that the parks in his community are either gated or locked up once school is closed. So, even when there is green space, it’s not always accessible.

Last year, the David Suzuki Foundation conducted a survey with young Canadians and found that 70 percent spend an hour or less a day outdoors. The 2012 Active Healthy Kids Canada Report Card says they spend almost eight hours a day in front of screens.

So it’s not that kids don’t have time to be outside. It’s just not part of their lifestyle.

Much has been reported about a recommendation by the Ontario panel to ban junk food advertising that targets children under 12. This has worked in Quebec and is being discussed in Alberta.

But the approach has invited criticism from those who argue that people should have the right to choose.

It’s always tempting to focus on making bad things less accessible, but perhaps policymakers should be more creative and focus on ways to make good things more accessible.

Being in nature is good for all of us. People who get outside regularly are less stressed, have more resilient immune systems and are generally happier.

And it’s good for our kids. Studies show spending time in nature or green spaces helps reduce the symptoms of ADHD.

Even in built playgrounds, kids spend twice as much time playing, use their imaginations more, and engage in more aerobic and strengthening activities when the space incorporates natural elements like logs, flowers, and small streams, according to research from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

Bring Nature Back Into Our Lives


Despite all the obvious health benefits of spending time outside, provincial and federal governments are failing to integrate a daily dose of nature into their policies.

It’s also something we as a society are failing to make a priority in the lives of our children. This inexpensive and effective way to make our lives healthier and happier should be an obvious solution.

We need to make sure our neighbourhoods have green spaces where people can explore their connections with nature.

We need to make sure our neighbourhoods have green spaces where people can explore their connections with nature.

We need to ask teachers and school board representatives to take students outside so that nature becomes a classroom.

And we need to stop making the outdoors seem like a scary place for children by helping parents understand that the benefits of playing outside outweigh the risks.

It will take public education and awareness-building as well as changes to the way we build cities and live in our communities to bring nature back into our lives.

Connecting kids to nature every day needs to be a priority policy objective in any strategy for healthy children and could easily have been integrated into the recommendations from the Ontario Healthy Kids Panel.

Taking our kids by the hand and spending time outside with them will have the added benefit of making us healthier and happier adults.

By David Suzuki with contributions from David Suzuki Foundation Communications Specialist Leanne Clare

Source: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/opinion/healthy-kids-need-time-in-nature-363444.html


Discovery Child Care - Barrie, Ontario -- www.discoverychild.on.ca - Program Philosophy: Discovery Child Care brings nature into the classroom and takes the classroom into nature, offering an environmentally aware foundation of early learning for children, from infants to school-age. We follow an Emergent Curriculum philosophy which means: Your child will be provided with hands-on, play-based learning opportunities that will encourage active exploration, autonomy, choice, problem solving and plain old fun! Your child’s individual interests, abilities and needs will be considered when planning our indoor and outdoor programs.

Saturday, 16 March 2013

Excellent Teaching Guide is Available - The Guide is called "Into Nature: A Guide to Teaching in Nearby Nature"

I'd like to thank the Ontario’s Back to Nature Network for releasing this excellent guide - which we at Discovery Child Care fully endorse -  The Guide is called "Into Nature: A Guide to Teaching in Nearby Nature", a new guide for teachers from kindergarten through grade 8. You can download it here if you wish - http://www.back2nature.ca/resources-research/education
 
Into Nature has been created to enable teachers to use the outdoor learning space to teach all curriculum subjects.
 
The guide is written by and for teachers with the goals of: 1) offering a fresh perspective on teaching; 2) providing learning approaches that strengthen the relationships teachers have with their students; and 3) communicating simple and practical ways to help teachers use outdoor learning spaces in creating rich opportunities for student learning.

 
Into Nature is packed with useful tools for teachers new to the experience of teaching outdoors in nature, but is also useful for those practiced in using the outdoor learning space.
Section One offers excellent information on why and how to teach in nature, including sample letters to communicate with Administrators and Parents, a materials list, and a readiness checklist that has room for post-lesson reflections and can be kept as a record of each experience.
Section Two, which forms most of the guide, contains a large variety of learning experiences. To start, “Nature 101” is a series of five phases that begins with a class-created nature contract, gradually moves the class outdoors, and culminates with an activity to create a designated outdoor learning space. A group of 50 “Nature2Go” activities are short, curriculum-connected “hits” of nature that can be completed in under 30 minutes each, or extended further if desired. Finally, the “Lessons” component offers five lessons for each division, primary, junior and intermediate.
Into Nature can be downloaded as a free pdf file on the Back to Nature Network website at http://www.back2nature.ca/resources-research/education. A French-language version will be available for download at the same location in January 2013.

Discovery Child Care - www.discoverychild.on.ca - Program Philosophy: Discovery Child Care brings nature into the classroom and takes the classroom into nature, offering an environmentally aware foundation of early learning for children, from infants to school-age. We follow an Emergent Curriculum philosophy which means: Your child will be provided with hands-on, play-based learning opportunities that will encourage active exploration, autonomy, choice, problem solving and plain old fun! Your child’s individual interests, abilities and needs will be considered when planning our indoor and outdoor programs.
 

Sunday, 3 March 2013

Discovery Child Care - Commitment to the Environment

One of the things that sets us apart from other licensed child care programs is our ongoing commitment to the environment.

At Discovery Child Care Centre, we are committed to creating a healthy environment for the children in our care, their families, our staff, and our community.

Both properties are exclusively maintained by organic methods: no pesticides, herbicides, fungicides or insecticides are used on the premises.
  • We diligently use the blue box recycling program, (over 200 families and we only put out one trash can per week per site!)
  • Practice water conservation (including rain barrels)
  • Daily use of green bins and we compost too
  • We are Ontario’s first licensed child care centres that are Bullfrog Powered using 100% green renewable energy.
  • We also use environmentally friendly cleaners/sanitizers at the centre.
  • Discovery-Harvie Road has geothermal heating/cooling & Solar Panels being installed early 2013
  • No Idle Zone policy at both sites
  • Eco-Healthy certified - First licensed child care in Simcoe County and 2nd in Ontario! www.oeconline.org/our-work/kidshealth/ehcc

But we don’t stop there!

We bring our environmental philosophies right into the classrooms where the children learn using hands on experiences.

The children learn to practice the three R’s (Reduce, Re-use, Recycle), water conservation and composting in the child care setting.

They are also involved in hands-on learning opportunities that further re-enforce these habits. The children are actively involved in their own organic garden. They are taught alternative methods to using pesticides and insecticides, such as companion planting and the use of beneficial bugs! The children harvest what they have grown and use the ingredients for further learning opportunities, such as cooking.

Over the years the children have made jam, pickles, salsa and so much more.... YUM! At the end of the growing season, the children take a trip to the Barrie Community Food Bank and donate a portion of their harvest of fresh, organic produce.

Our school age programs participate yearly in Earth Day Canada’s Eco-Kids Challenge and The City of Barrie’s Spring into Clean event.

Discovery Child Care - Barrie - www.discoverychild.on.ca

Head Office: for general inquiries, availability, tours, fees etc

Phone: 705-733-2052
Email: Karen@discoverychild.on.ca

Centre information:

Harvie Road Location
Address: 101 Harvie Road, Barrie, ON L4N 9C9
Phone: 705-733-2052
Email: harvie@discoverychild.on.ca
Big Bay Point Location
Address: 377 Big Bay Point Road, Barrie, ON L4N 8A2
Phone: 705-792-1917
Email: bbp@discoverychild.on.ca

Welcome to our new Discovery Child Care Blog!

Hello Everyone! I'm Karen Eilersen, and I run Discovery Child Care in Barrie, Ontario and this is our new blog.

We're going to be posting and sharing a lot of useful information in our blog to promote our belief that Eco-Healthy Child Care is a wonderful way to encourage children to learn about nature at a very young age.

Research increasingly shows that the first years of a child’s life are critical to shaping their future health and development. By committing to the best practices of Eco-Healthy Child Care, we will help to improve the health of your children.

Our Mission

Our Mission is to provide high quality, educational programs where children learn through play. We are dedicated to creating nurturing, inviting and stimulating programs that will allow each child to develop to his or her fullest potential and at his or her own pace.

Our Vision

We envision inviting classrooms that will nurture a confident, positive self-identity for each child; where all children, regardless of ability, will have opportunities to learn, create & explore in a loving, safe, and challenging environment; to bring discovery into their lives each day they are here.

Environment

All Discovery Programs are committed to creating a healthy environment for the children in our care, their families, our staff, and our community.