We are here.

Through all the changes, lockdowns, emergency breaks, and stay-at-home orders, we have continued to operate and be here. All educators continue to prove they are essential during this pandemic. Each day we put on a mask, and press pause on what is happening in the world around us to provide care, learning, and fun for each Chartwell child. This is an appreciation post for the Chartwell Educators.

Ms. Reid
Ms. Bialy aka TT
Ms. Albin aka Ms. A
Ms. G
Ms. F
Ms. O
Ms. Kaur
Ms. Rogers
Ms. Shannon
Ms. T
Ms. Marney
Ms. Costa
Ms. Hillis

Thank you.

Thank you for all you do for the house, for each child, and for being the superheroes you are.

“Not all superheroes wear capes.”

“This year has been a challenging year for us all. Although the numbers around us are rising, I’m thankful to have a job and be surrounded by caring staff, loving children and supportive families. We’ve all had our own struggles to deal with, not seeing family, missing important events and isolation making it hard to handle alone. I’ve had to make difficult choices that were hard in order to keep a safe work environment but there is little in the world that is as a wonderful as a child’s laughter and wonder. I became an educator because I believe children are much more capable than adults often realize and I love nurturing their curiosity on a daily basis. I’m thankful we’re still able to provide this environment for the kids. It not only helps them, but creates a sense of normalcy in all of our lives. We are essential workers, and although we may not always get that recognition… I’m here for the kids and that’s enough.”
– Miss G

“Working over the past year during a pandemic has been such a learning experience. It’s such a relief to have a job and being around people and kids and families that make this job worth it. Here’s hoping Covid only lasts the next 5 years instead of 10.”
– Ms. Rogers

“Even though RECEs are under appreciated during this difficult time during the pandemic, I am thankful to have a job that I can come to. Yes the children cannot see our smiles but we can see theirs and hear their laughs. It helps me forget about what’s going on for a little bit during the day. It helps to know that we are still able to come everyday and help make a difference in these children’s lives by providing a little bit of routine and comfort in these uncertain times.”
– Ms. Bialy aka TT

“Working during a pandemic has its ups and downs. Putting my trust in staff members and families that come and go throughout the centre is the most challenging. I come to work everyday so that parents can go to work as well, while doing that I’m putting aside my need for spending time with my parents. I love my job at the end of the day and wouldn’t change it for the world but during this time it can be difficult to show up everyday”
– Ms. Reid

“I feel we don’t get enough recognition in today’s society. We’re not “daycare” workers, we’re educators who provide quality childcare and provide early learning opportunities for the young children in our community. It’s not an easy job but at the end of the day it’s rewarding knowing that these young child look up to you.”
– Ms. F

“I feel it’s important to let everyone know that despite being able to work and be essential, the pandemic is very hard on everyone. We appreciate being able to come into work and provide for our families. But part of us would love to also stay home and spend this time with our loved ones, especially the staff with kids. It’s a real bittersweet type deal, we know we are essential and everything we do is for the kids and our passion for ECE, but being ignored by the government and being underpaid despite being an “essential worker” can be really discouraging. It is hard for us too – we just try to forget it all at the door and put a smile on our face and make the day fun for the kids. But when we leave work, we are tired mentally, physically and sometimes emotionally. So, please give your child’s educator a smile and a thank you, because they have their own life with many types of stress and hardships, they are just good at concealing it and focusing on what matters- which is the children.”
– Ms. T

“What it feels like to be an educator – praying that we can help our future generation become free and enjoy the small things in life again.”
– Ms. Costa

“In a time where the world is filled with such uncertainty and sorrow, coming to work and seeing the children who are smiling and happy, blissfully unaware of what’s going on, provides a much needed distraction for staff. Although RECE’s seem to be falling to the wayside by the government, the appreciation we get from the kids lifts our spirits. Whether it be through their laughter and enthusiasm or by them learning a new word or going a day without any accidents, they show us that what we are doing matters to them if no one else.”
– Ms. A

“I am very appreciative to have a job and a job I love! The children make me smile and make me want to show up during this pandemic. I am scared, scared of the unknown, do we trust that our parents are bringing in their children healthy. I am scared I will bring it home to my family. I wish I was able to stay home when my daughter has to do online learning. I wish I am able to be her educator when schools can’t stay open but we are “Essential” and I show up everyday and do my job and do it for the children! RECE’s are underpaid and not shown enough appreciation but my coworkers make it worth it. We have each other’s backs! We are a team!”
– Ms. Shannon

“Working during a pandemic has been a difficult experience for a lot of people. Things are constantly changing, but I am glad to have a job that I love and to be able to still be there for the children during such a difficult time. It’s also scary as there are so many unknowns and I have to put my trust in each family and all my coworkers that they are coming in healthy and haven’t been around anyone sick. Being an ECE in normal times is challenging enough, it’s exhausting mentally and physically and sometimes we feel under appreciated. However, my love for this job and these kids has always been the reason why I chose to be an ECE. We are here for the children to provide stability and help them grow and develop. When the children walk through the doors each morning with happy faces and excited to be at school, sometimes I forget for a moment that we are in a pandemic at all. Keeping our focus on the children, and having an amazing team of ECEs here makes all the difference in knowing we will get through this together.”
-Ms. Marney

The Preschool classroom did do a Superhero Day, where they did wear capes…

And then one little superhero again proved not all heroes wear capes.

The past year has been a roller-coaster for everyone, we have all been through ups and downs. We have faced many challenges, weaved our way through obstacles, and continue to face what comes our way. Chartwell educators will continue to adapt, continue to follow the changing rules and regulations and will do so while providing a learning environment for the children.

We will continue to do our best. And we will do so, together.

Easter is in the air!

They say, “don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” “They” must not have been doing an egg hunt on Easter!

There is a lot of Easter puns that I could use throughout this post, however, I will save you and just get them all out now…

This will be EGG-cellent!
Don’t worry be HOPPY!
These crack me up.
I carrot believe it’s Easter already.

Okay, okay…yolks over!

Let’s hop into the photos of the week: Easter inspired!

You are really seeing the photos below, that really is the EASTER BUNNY making an appearance at the House this morning! Check out that vest!

Easter may come with another lockdown, but if you stick to your Family peeps, we will remain open for business!

The Chartwell House.

Rain Rain Go Away!

Welcome back to the Chartwell House happenings! Where you get a closer look inside the classrooms, and at what your child is working on, learning, exploring, creating and building.

Here’s that closer look…

The toddler classrooms have been covering the basics – A, B, C easy as 1, 2, 3. Working on their number and letter recognition.

The Toddler Two classroom has been all about the wildlife and used the children’s interest to work on the numbers 1 to 10. Children are using early math skills throughout their daily routines and activities, this doesn’t mean they are bringing out the calculator during free play, but most children will start to develop an understanding of addition and subtraction through their daily interactions. For example, if a child has two cars, and another child takes one car, the child realizes very fast they are only left with one car. Other math skills may be introduced when walking up steps, counting each step as they go up or down. The activity below with the hedgehog allows the child to see the connection between the number, language and quantity of the number visible – this is 1:1 correspondence – the ability to match an object to the corresponding number and recognize that numbers are symbols to represent quantity.

The Toddler One Classroom have been working on their letters, this week they focused on the letters – S, T, U, V. Stomp. Teeth. Umbrella. Volcano.

Toddlers can start recognizing sounds and letters by introducing educational music – our go to is, Jolly Phonics. This is a fun approach to teaching literacy through synthetic phonics. Each day our four classrooms will listen to, follow along with, or sing-along to jollies that help them learn the sound of each letter. The Toddler One classroom along with the sound of the letter, worked with items that started with the letters of the week.

As the children move into Preschool, they continue to learn both number and letter recognition and skills, but the activities and learning process changes according to each child’s development. New math skills will be introduced, writing and tracing numbers and letters will become of interest, and some will even work towards writing their name before heading off to JK.

Along with literacy and numeracy skills, comes creativity. Allowing children to express themselves through art allows them to develop motor skills, builds confidence and self-esteem, accelerates brain development, reduces stress, and supports language development. Arts and crafts can encourage self-expression and decision making and will help develop a child’s imagination and emotional understanding.

And when you work this hard – You play harder.

That’s a wrap on the happenings.

And incase you missed it – we had a special visitor this week at the house – a wandering lonesome Turkey.

Enjoy the weekend!

The Chartwell House.

Winter today. Spring tomorrow.

With St. Patrick’s Day in the middle of the week, we got our green on! And it was a PADDY!!

The toddlers were all about the wild life, counting and number recognition, while preschool got their Bill Nye on, stayed in their PJ’s for the day and dressed up as their favourite characters.

That’s a wrap on this week and winter!

Hello SPRING!

Enjoy the sun this weekend!

The Chartwell House.

Spring forward this weekend!

When the weather allows, we take to the outdoors. And we play!

Outdoor play is a very important part of childhood. When children play in the natural environment they are able to explore their surroundings and follow their curiosity and find excitement in seeing and doing new things. They will see the leaves change colour, jump in the puddles, and watch flowers sprout during the spring all of these things will have a great impact on a child’s development.

Studies have shown that more and more children are spending less time outside, and we won’t have it! Outdoor play is vital to a child’s overall development and learning – it can increase spatial recognition, improve physical development, help make friends and gain social skills. Outdoor play will increase and motivate a child’s imagination, and will teach children about the natural elements and about their surroundings they will learn about the weather, change in seasons and all about the animals they see outside, and some times the animals they smell too!

It’s simple – get outside and play!

Indoor learning of course is important too….

Number and letter recognition, fine and gross motor skills, self-help skills, counting, spelling, problem solving…it’s a busy day in the classroom for the little ones.

So sometimes it’s nice to just let their imaginations soar. By providing different materials, and giving the children a choice and chance to express their emotions and creativity helps build confidence in themselves, and the work they do! Let them create!

Whether indoor or outdoor, we are learning through play and loving it day to day!

The Chartwell House.

F R I D A Y / V I B E S

Before we take a closer look at the happenings of the house this week, let me introduce you to our newest Chartwell friends!

Say HELLO to: Daisy Peach.
Daisy P came from a loving home, and we are very excited to welcome the swimmer into the Preschool classroom. Daisy P’s crib may look a little bare, but don’t you worry this is only the before picture. Once the delivery truck drops off the goods, the after picture will follow. Daisy Peach, it’s a pleasure to welcome you to the house.

Along with Daisy P, we welcomed Carl Fishy-Fish to the house! Carl….please swim up!

**Carl may have found treasure and struck gold in Preschool, but he’s a little camera shy! Here he is, showing off his best angle. We are happy Carl has made his home bowl here with us**!

With two more happy residents settled into the Chartwell House, let’s continue on with what the people want.

The happenings of the House!

Preschool was focused on all things Wild Life, with Wild Life Day falling on March 3rd. They incorporated wild life into a sorting activity. Sorting is a very important skill in a child’s development. It involves making a variety of decisions. The ability to sort using two or more attributes embodies higher order thinking. Here Preschool uses their sorting skills to place the items into the correct category.

The best way for children to develop different skills is to PLAY! There are many types of play, and one of them is: Constructive Play. This type of play involves manipulating elements of the play environment to construct something new. This may involve all sorts of construction methods – stacking, assembling, disassembling, sorting or molding. Constructive play develops a range of skills and behaviours for children including: fine and gross motor skills, problem-solving skills, flexible thinking skills, the ability to plan the use of materials to visually see a design idea become reality, the ability to test new ideas, overcome challenges, and teamwork skills.

Another type of play is: Small World Play. This type of play allows for children to act out scenes from real life, stories and/or imagination in a miniature play scene created with small figures and objects. Small World play is usually set up based on a certain theme, like farms, construction site, dinosaur world or a wild life theme like Preschool explored.

Small World Play helps children’s development in a number of ways. It will help the child’s emotional development by providing them with opportunities to re-enact certain experiences, this activity will motivate children to reflect on feelings and events and use emotion to act out scenes in their play. It will help develop personal and social skills, inviting children to be creative, and will boost confidence when children are able to experiment with new and familiar materials and build something they believe is SO COOL! Small world play encourages children to use their social skills, by taking turns, expressing idea’s and listening to other’s ideas too. This type of play will help children learn how to problem solve, reason, work on their numeracy skills and language development. Small World Play offers real world benefits.

Along with play comes creativity. And creativity can be expressed in many ways…especially when it comes to Fish names!

It is still on the chilly side out there, but the sun is shining, and it’s FRIDAY!

Have a great weekend!

The Chartwell House.

A Picture Says a Thousand Words.

A look into the happenings of the House this week…

We will start in the Preschool classrooms:

Just a few thousand words more….brought to you by the Toddler Two’s:

The Toddler One Classroom were focused on the power that words and voices have:

Snow eh?

It may have been short, but the week was sweet! After Family Day and a Snow Day extending the weekend we were happy to be back and geared up for an action packed three-day week at the house.

With the grounds covered in snow, we couldn’t help ourselves. After the long haul of bundling up, we eventually got to the outdoors and dove right into the fresh powder.

With the temperatures well below zero, and travel out of the question the Seniors of the House decided to bring the beach to Chartwell! While the snow was falling outside, the Seniors had their hands in the sand, swim suits on, and the Beach Boys blaring in the speakers. It was HOT HOT HOT in the Coach House, and the only way to cool down was to purchase a fresh glass of lemonade at the local stand, or dive into the water play.

There must have been heavy traffic at the beach, because the youngest of the house worked on patrolling the roads by producing traffic lights. They worked all morning constructing the lights by using their fine motor skills to glue, pat and place the red, yellow and green lights.

Before I go, let me stop and slow down for a second…(see what I did there?)

Let’s talk about how we got a whole extra day to spend with Family this past weekend. Now, more than ever we have realized just how important it is to spend time with loved ones, whether it is virtual, over the phone, or distanced spending quality time with those you call family is the best feeling, and medicine going! The Toddler Two classroom kept Family Day going for the week as their main focus was all things Family.

The Preschool classroom had their creative juices flowing all week, as they used eye drops, salt and paint to create neon-coloured paintings, and crafted designs with chalk.

A lot of letter recognition has been seen in both Preschool classrooms – all different activities but all the same objective – to learn and conquer those 26 letters. Tracing the letters, choosing the letters, matching the sound of the letters and tracing over names or words all to work on letter recognition. But make it fun!

And that’s a wrap on the action packed short week!

See you back at the House next week – enjoy your weekend!

The Chartwell House.

CELEBRATE good times!

Lunar New Year, SNOW, Valentine’s Day and Family Day! What a weekend! Lots to celebrate, and no where like home to do it!

Before we pack up for the long weekend, let’s take a look at what happened this week inside the House. And I say inside, because outside we have been dealing with an ice age!

A lot of letter recognition, and loose parts play with the Preschoolers.

Oh, you are wondering what I mean by loose parts? Well, let me explain!

Loose parts are materials that can be moved, carried, combined, redesigned, lined up, and taken apart and put back together in multiple ways. Loose parts can be used alone or combined with other materials. There is no order, or direction, it is only the child who is in charge of what happens to these loose parts. Okay, I’m guessing your next questions is, “why are loose parts important in my child’s development?” I’ve got this covered too…loose parts are important because when a child interacts with loose parts they enter a world of ‘what if’ – they are taking on problem solving skills, and theoretical learning. The use of loose parts will enhance the child’s use of imagination, and motivate the child to find solutions. Loose parts will bring a sense of adventure and excitement into the child’s world of play, and that alone is beneficial.