Nanaimo Innovation Academy Foundation
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Mission Statement
To providing children and families with high-quality educational and daycare programming that is unique, collaborative, and creative.
About This Cause
Nanaimo Innovation Academy offers an innovative, licensed daycare program in Nanaimo, BC for children ages 12 months to 5 years old. Inspired by the best parts of Waldorf, Montessori, Reggio, and play-based learning pedagogy, our daycare provides an inspirational and supportive environment for children to thrive. Nanaimo Innovation Academy Foundation became a non-profit society on December 22, 2017, received our licensing approval for a group child care program (20 children) February 8, 2018, and opened the daycare on February 15, 2018. The daycare is located on a large quarter acre lot in Nanaimo, BC. Over two thirds of the lot is used as outdoor play space. We currently offer three types of care at our daycare: • Age 4-5 Forrest Program (15 children max). The morning is spent outside in a local forest area and the afternoon is spent in our classroom. • 30 months- School Aged Program (20 children max)– This is a full day program from 8am-5pm for children aged 3-5. • Under 36 months (8 children max)—A full day Infant and Toddler program (IT) from 8am-5:00pm for children under 3 years old. Nanaimo Innovation Academy is a fee-based non-profit daycare. All revenues generated go back into the daycare. We strive to maintain the lowest fees possible while still maintaining a high standard of quality for our facilities and equipment (play structures, yard, etc.) as well as providing our employees with a livable wage and opportunities for training and certifications. Our Program: Every aspect of the setting and activities in the daycare have been designed to nurture each child's connection to themselves and the world around them, in recognition of the ways that young children learn and grow. Some examples of the ways that the staff are using their creativity to bring these philosophies to life include: • small caregiver to child ratio (typically 6-1 in the 3-5 program and under 4-1 in the IT program) • careful selection of furnishings and toys made of natural materials • we do 'loose parts' play-- open-ended to the child's interpretation. • we have a 'guiding question' that last for two weeks that allows us to explore a variety of topics. These questions are based on the children's interests, the season, and/or issues that are presenting themselves at the daycare. For example, one of our two-week explorations was about 'What makes a Story'. We had a child that was telling a lot of untruths. This was a way that we addressed the situation and taught all children about the difference between fact and fictional stories. The children watched and created puppet plays, they made their own story books, they read a variety of different types of stories and more. • Reggio documentation of our two-week explorations to share with our parent/caregiver community. • opportunities for play, creativity and outdoor time, including gardening and nature-based activities • we have a ‘zero screen time’ policy • following the United Nations calendar of internationally celebrated days, not just standard ones. • we teach kids about recycling. We made a rainbow wall of colour-sorted recycling from the children's lunch wrappers, outdoor leaves and pressed flowers. We make our own paper for special projects. We play with recycled materials. We do art with single-use yogurt containers. Children learn about environmental responsibility at a young age. • a variety of sensory activities • a wide array of exploration with art—painting, sculpting, drawing, music, dancing, singing. • teach inclusion and have a diverse and multi-cultural setting • currently collaborating with the children to design aspects of the outdoor play space • teaching math and counting through healthy baking projects, such as black bean and avocado brownies or sugar-free banana bread. The children write down the ingredients each Friday and then the older ones go to the small local store nearby with a teacher to find and buy the supplies. This has been a great experience as the store owner chats with the children and helps them find what they need. This helps to create positive social interactions within our community. • regular visits to the local park. We do a very thorough inspection of the parks, as there is a large homeless population in our neighbourhood. We teach the children about littering and the importance of keeping our playgrounds clean. We also teach them about the dangers of some litter (as we often find drug paraphernalia in our clean up of the playgrounds). We feel it is important for our children to use the local parks so that we are fostering community awareness. • regular monthly/ bi-weekly visits to the local library. We have connected with the children's librarian and he does a special story time/ rhyme time for us when we visit. He also helps us select materials for our guiding question. • in our yard, we encourage the children to explore with imaginative play. We have a mud kitchen, a pirate ship play structure, and actual boat for the kids to pretend sail. • we do written developmental narratives for parents twice a year (Jan, reviewing Sept-Dec and May, reviewing Feb- April). This look at the various developmental progress of each child and is given to the parent. Each teacher contributes to the narrative and initials what they write. We then hold a parent-teacher night where the families get to speak with all of the teachers. • we have visual aids and other strategies for children needing extra support • we actively teach children about consent and have a greeter at the start of our "Together Time' who is to welcome all the kids. The kids chose from a list of how they would like to greet the greeter--hug, fist bump, high five, hand shake or pass. We have a very strong and supportive parent community. We have a parent advisory panel of 7 parents, who are also members of the society. This panel is made up of current and alumni families. They meet 4 times a year and are included in decisions with the board of directors about our events, budget, and planning. We also hold parent work parties throughout the year to help with grounds maintenance. We have a parent event once a month so that parents can network, gain skills, and support the work that we do at the daycare. Some parent events that have happened are: • a parenting workshop on communicating with children • a sexual health workshop teaching parents how to keep kids safe from sexual predators • baby sign language classes (open to our parents and the greater community) • a free baby sensory play group (open to our parents and the greater community) • parent and tot yoga (open to our parents and the greater community) • clothing swaps at least twice a year • parent-teacher meetings twice a year to discuss the developmental narratives provided to the parents • 'Burger and Bevy' fundraisers -typically happen twice a year. Parents donated a number of items to our silent auction. • we hold an annual summer yard party each August. In 2019, we had over 80 attendees. • in October we hold a Thankful Evening, where the children make ‘Stone Soup’. We also have a parent sing-along in the yard and small supervised bonfire to roast hot dogs. In 2019, over 60 people attended this event. We actively invite the general Nanaimo community to some of our events by posting it on our Facebook Page, adding information about the events to a number of Nanaimo Mom Facebook groups, and word of mouth. Nanaimo Innovation Academy welcomes all families regardless of ethnicity, gender, religion, political view, or sexual orientation. All-Access: We currently have a ramp to the 3-5 program and have a sloped entry on the ground floor. We have an all-access washroom upstairs and are in the process of adding an all-access washroom downstairs. We currently have some all-access play equipment in our yard but would like to add more. First Nations Community: We provide daycare services to Indigenous and non-indigenous families. We collaborate with an elder to provide instruction on a casual basis We have also connected with a 1st Nations daycare that is close by and have been invited to join their events when they have guest speakers come in. Currently, we have a number of toys that highlight indigenous culture--- puzzles with Indigenous patterns, puppets that are designed with Indigenous designs, and we have some musical items. We have stories that are traditional and modern that highlight Indigenous culture. We take out pre-made kits from the library that are about Indigenous culture. Vulnerable Populations: We are located in the downtown area of Nanaimo, which tends to have a lower socio-economic population. Over 75% of our currently families utilized the new Affordable Child Care Benefit (ACCB). We have a couple of families that are working with a social worker and are fully funded by the ACCB. They are young and/or single mothers. We offer parenting events, like the 'Compassionate Parenting Workshop' and 'Baby Sensory Group' for free. We will continue to provide educational workshops throughout the year. We work with the Child Development Centre (CDC) very closely and have identified and supported children that need additional support. The CDC has provided some training to our staff on Positive Behaviour Supports. The CDC has also provided us with some tools and resources that we use with children-- visual aids, activities to help with anxiety, training aids for new staff. Multicultural: We offer daycare services to all families, from all backgrounds. We celebrate our differences. We learn about other parts of the world. We read multi-cultural books--some we own and some we take out from the library. We have multi-cultural puzzles and a matching game that matches children from around the world. In our Reggio documentation, we have explored multi-cultural topics. Diverse Families: We are mindful of diverse family dynamics and have had discussions with families prior to various cultural celebrations. Throughout the year, we celebrate family uniqueness. We have books depicting a wide-variety of family dynamics.