The Play Haven Spaces
We place a high emphasis on creating safe and clean spaces where your child can grow and learn. Our spaces are designed to inspire curiosity and to help your child play in a more purposeful and meaningful way and to help your child learn through play experiences.
“The space we live in has a powerful influence over us, particularly the space we grew up in….The spaces that teachers create for children seem to hold enduring memories for them that have a powerful influence on what they will value later in life.” Susan Fraser, Authentic Childhood, 2000.
At Community Kids Haven we believe that a great environment for children should:
- Be a welcoming, inspiring and nurturing space. A space that is nurturing and familiar and at the same time inviting children to explore, to investigate by capturing their attention and provoking their inquiry
- Include elements of nature and natural materials. The natural colours and textures of materials such as stones, seed pods, pine cones, tree blocks and wool make a nice change from the bright colours of the modern toys available today. They encourage children to play more creatively as well as opens up a discussion for when they come home as the seed pods they play with can be related to the food that they eat at home
- Feel secure and comfortable with a sense of homeliness. Plants, photos and pictures they have drawn thoughtfully placed around the spaces children play in, including artwork, cushions and comfortable sofas, stools and rugs, all create a sense of home
- Have areas where children can play together and alone. Children need time and space to play both alone and with others. Our rooms are set up in a way which balances small independent play and larger collaborative play. A space for constructive play, creative play, imaginative play, reading and creating with expressive material
- Have plenty of space to move around in and explore and learn with extended outdoor play spaces with a natural setting and environment which accommodates growing and inquisitive bodies
- Play with lots of toys with flexible parts. Majority of our toys and materials have flexible or loose parts allowing for active exploration and different types of play. Flexible materials encourage open-ended learning. The materials can be used in many creative ways and offer an infinite number of new play scenarios. They help develop more skills and competence than most modern plastic toys.
Our rooms have been custom designed to nurture your child through each stage of their growth.
Our Nursery is designed with the needs of your baby in mind. The routine of your baby will be structured around the routine you keep at home and after consultation with you. It is a space especially designed to keep your baby relaxed and comfortable in. Your baby will be encouraged to bond with their caregiver. Feeding bottle times and nap times will be similar to your child’s day at the centre as it is at home, to encourage routine and regularity
Your baby will grow and learn more in their first 12 months than at any other time of their life. This is a period where they begin to make a connection to the world around them and to their emotions.
At this stage of their care, your child will have a main caregiver who they will be able to form an attachment with and feel comfortable to be left with. The main caregiver will be able to have on-on-one interactions with your child and be able to have ‘conversations’ and listen to the sounds your baby makes and learn to understand and respond to them.
Their care will involve singing songs to them, playing simple games like peek-a-boo and ‘this piggy went to market’ and give them simple toys to hold and play with and have lots of loving contact.
Your child between the ages of 12 to 24 months of age will make gains in five major areas; physical growth, cognitive abilities, emotional and social development, language skills and sensory and motor development. They will be encouraged to name animals, explore through music and art and craft.
At this stage of their care, your child will be encouraged to reason, to think, to learn and to remember.
They will be encouraged to make strong emotional and social connections through group play and singing and use a few words to help them communicate and explain themselves.
Their learning will happen that will develop their sensory and motor skills through touching and exploring Even though most children reach similar milestones at this stage but development can happen at an individual pace, and this will influence their learning outcomes.
Our Toddler Room is designed to encourage each child’s growing knowledge and development in mind. A balance of learning and experiences are provided at this stage which is both teacher and child initiated.
When your child moves to the toddler room, your child will be encouraged to interact socially with other children in a positive manner. They will be encouraged to recognise shapes and colours and count from one to five.
Your child will be encouraged to use language to communicate their needs and wants, to name common objects and the pronunciation of words and concentration skills and working alongside and playing along with others and interaction in small groups,
They will be helped in following instructions and self-help skills.
As your child matures your child will be encouraged to communicate with their caregiver and other peers and to name shapes and colours and to count from one to ten.
They will be encouraged to ask questions and to answer in small group settings and to identify their own name. They will be encouraged to ask questions about the world around them and speak in small groups. They will be encouraged to develop their listening and comprehensive skills.
They will also be encouraged with their self-help skills (for, e.g. putting their shoes on)
Our Pre-Kinder Room is designed with your child’s growing age in mind. At this stage, your child’s world is dominated by fantasy and vivid imagination and is excited about new experiences. Your child recognises more at this age and is usually curious about different subjects. Our Pre-Kinder Room is designed to cater for this inquisitive phase of their growth.
Our developmental and learning goals focus on your child’s positive growth and where your child will be encouraged to feel more confident in their world. Our aim is that your child furthers positive social interactions and recognises shapes and colours and gains more motor control.
At this stage your child will be encouraged to hold a scissor, grip a pencil and throw a ball forward, become more confident in counting from one to ten, recognise bigger numbers and be able to recognise their own name in typed style.
Your child’s listening and comprehensive skills will be developed further and be able to recognise number and letters and know the difference.
Children are encouraged to learn activities where they need to concentrate for at least 15 minutes. They will be encouraged to question the world around them through simple science experiments, gardening and cooking.
They are encouraged to learn through dance and rhythm and music.
Our Kindergarten Curriculum:
Our Kinder Room is designed around the needs of our growing children where they are much more aware of the world around them and eager to soak in knowledge and learning. Our Kinder programs are all evidence based and provide a structured and stimulating learning environment and focus on play based learning. Our aim for this stage of our child’s development is to prepare them for an easy transition to school. We structure each term in our Kindergarten curriculum to focus on school readiness and the various developmental stages that need to take place in your child to prepare them for the larger and more structured environment of the school classroom. Kindergartners are very active at this stage; they typically love to hop, skip, jump and dance. It is a big year for learning, to do new things and to discover new places. We provide a high quality and meaningful Kinder program underpinned by the Australian Government National Quality Framework and designed by qualified early childhood teachers. We believe in involving parents in decision making and also to listen to the needs of each individual child. Children at this stage of learning will be encouraged to name the letters of the alphabet, form lower case letters of the alphabet and know the phonic sounds of at least the letters of their name and be able to form their name without assistance. They will be helped in developing their problem-solving skills and be able to interact positively with their teachers and their peers when giving and receiving information.Communicating with our families is very important to us. Regular communication is our way to assure you how your child is spending the day at the centre. We want you to have a peace of mind that your child is being nurtured, socialised and looked after every day.
We know that sending your child to childcare is a big decision and no parent makes it lightly. As a parent you want to ensure, that the care your child is receiving is the best care possible outside the home, and that your child is being supported emotionally, mentally and physically.
To make sure that you are a part of your child’s everyday routine and education, we have launched our parent app: Kindy Hub. Kindy Hub is a new app especially designed with the ability to send instant notifications to your email and your smartphone with details of your child’s day, including photos and the learning outcomes they are achieving.