People working together in a strong community with a shared goal and a common purpose can make the impossible, possible.
- Tom Vilsack -
For our Community
It is our commitment to the community that led us to open Nature’s Nest Early Learning Centre. Thunder Bay is lush with wildlife, vegetation, farmland, and opportunities to truly embrace nature. As an urban preschool, we aim to educate children how to make the most of their surrounding community, how to embrace nature even in its urban forms, and how to create space for nature to coexist in urban settings.
We understand that our community is rich in Indigenous heritage, and aim to respect the practices that are taught to us by elders and educators of Indigenous traditions; incorporating as many into our program as we are given permission to.
We are committed to collaborating with local producers in order to support our community through ‘keeping it local’ at every opportunity. Whether that is filling our bookshelves with local children’s authors, filling our kitchens with farm fresh food, or supporting local artists and creators of child-focused and/or environmentally friendly products.
For our Families
We value parents and caregivers as a child’s first nurturer, guide, supporter and teacher. We aim to become close partners with parents and caregivers in order to gain the best understanding of each child within the program. This will be achieved through open, honest communication as well as working in collaboration between home and our centres. We provide regular asynchronous updates about the children’s day via videos, images, and email. We encourage our families to linger at pick-up time and engage with their child’s educators, and truly build that critical bond that is needed for a strong working relationship.
Each classroom is equipped with parent information boards, visual learning schedules, and children’s art displays. As well, each classroom utilizes a private Instagram account to keep families informed of their child’s day-to-day activities and learning. These prompts provide opportunities to seek out the educators for more meaningful connections, and truly allow the educators to offer their attention to families specific areas of focus. It is essential that we collaborate with our families and authentically become a united front for the children in our care. It is through collaboration we can emulate the age-old ‘it takes a village’ approach.
For our Children
We offer an environment where all children and families are treated with respect, honesty and trust. We as owners and educators recognize and accept each family and child’s individual needs, interests, capabilities and circumstances. We strive to create a space where the children in our care learn the skills to aid in and encourage their own personal growth. We create spaces enriched with opportunities for children to explore at a pace and level that is meaningful to them, ensuring open communication with families and caregivers regarding their child’s development.
A child’s daily rhythm is integral to their sense of self. It sets the tone for their day, it keeps their world consistent, predictable, and allows them to have some semblance of control over their self. Children live in a world where nearly all their decisions are made for them, through our daily rhythms they are provided an adult structured space to freely make choices for themselves.