Kid’s Mondo, established in Belleville in September 2021, expanded its commitment to early childhood education with a second location in Napanee in July 2022. A third centre and private school, the Kid’s Mondo Learning Centre, are opening. Our centres are dedicated to fostering a positive, safe, and loving environment, prioritizing our children’s health, safety, nutrition, and overall well-being. Guided by Ontario’s Pedagogy for the Early Years(2014), specifically “How Does Learning Happen?” we shape our programming and pedagogy to create a supportive framework. This framework promotes a sense of belonging, engagement, expression, and well-being for both children and families.

At Kid’s Mondo, we emphasize positive and responsive interactions among children, parents, staff, and educators. We believe in a partnership with parents, respecting their structure, culture, values, language, and knowledge. Valuing the unique perspectives of parents, we welcome their skills, talents, traditions, and experiences.

We recognize each child as an individual with unique ideas, knowledge, and experiences and encourage them to make sense of their world actively. Through an emergent approach to play-based learning, we create environments that support exploration, investigation, manageable risks, and creative problem-solving.

Our educators observe, reflect, and provoke thought, creating a relevant and meaningful learning environment that considers each child’s unique needs and interests. With child-initiated and adult-supported experiences both indoors and outdoors, we foster knowledge, understanding, and a sense of wonder.

We encourage self-awareness, emphasizing the importance of self-care, nutritious foods, physical activities, and rest, alongside social and emotional engagement. By balancing opportunities for positive interaction, problem-solving, and self-regulation, we strive to develop resilient and confident children who appreciate and empathize with others.

Kid’s Mondo Childcare Centre strives to promote a positive, safe, loving, nurturing and home-like atmosphere where the health, safety, nutrition and well-being of our children is of the utmost importance. We encourage mutual respect, patience and creativity in an inclusive environment while viewing children as competent, capable, curious and rich in potential. Using How Does Learning Happen? Ontario’s Pedagogy for the Early Years (2014) to guide our programming and pedagogy. We provide a positive framework to support our children and families in an environment that promotes belonging, engagement, expression, and well-being.

Kid’s Mondo believes in supporting positive and responsive interactions among our children, parents, staff, and educators. We encourage a partnership with parents where relationships are respectful of structure, culture, values, language and knowledge. We value parent’s unique perspectives and welcome their skills, talents, traditions, and experiences.

We view children as individuals who bring their unique ideas, knowledge, and experiences about their physical and social world to the classroom. Children begin to make sense of their world from the moment they are born. They are active and social learners who are influenced by family, gender, culture and previous experience. We are committed to developing children who love and believe in themselves by nurturing self-confidence and resilience by encouraging children to communicate and interact in a positive way. We encourage children to articulate their needs to others and help them to appreciate and empathize with the needs of those around them.

We appreciate that children have a variety of learning styles, methods of understanding and constructing knowledge. For this reason, we plan for and create positive learning environments and experiences in which each child’s learning and development will be supported. We believe that allowing children to actively explore, investigate, take manageable risks, and engage in creative problem-solving, is critical for their physical and mental health and well-being. Through our Emergent approach to play-based learning, we believe that children learn best by doing; exploring the world, and interacting with adults and peers.  Their explorations require flexibility and inventiveness. Children react to the outcomes of their investigations and create strategies for discovery. Play is their platform for inquiry and exploration. Through observation, reflection and provocations, our educators create a positive, relevant and meaningful learning environment that takes into account each child’s unique needs and interests. They provide child-initiated and adult-supported experiences both indoors and outdoors, during active play, rest and quiet times. Educators ask questions and build on children’s interests and ideas to foster knowledge, understanding, and a sense of wonder about their physical and social world. We encourage children to become aware of their bodies for self-care, nutritious foods, physical activities and rest, in addition to their need for social and emotional engagement. Through these approaches we balance opportunities for children to interact and communicate in positive ways; to support their abilities to overcome challenges, make choices, problem solve, and self-regulate their emotions and behaviours.

In our ongoing commitment to the health, safety, nutrition, and well-being of each child, we provide:

• A clean and safe environment:
• Meal plans based on Canada’s Food Guide recommendations;
• Access to drinking water throughout the day;
• Policies and procedures that promote sanitary environments and limit the spread of communicable illness;
• Limited transitions and unnecessary disruptions to play;
• Safe play environments that reduce hazards that may cause injury.
• Policies and procedures that ensure effective supervision, and safe play environments;
• Policies and procedures that ensure emergency preparedness;
• Educator certification in Standard First Aid and CPR;
•  A strong commitment to outdoor play and building connections with the natural world;
• Where possible, providing fresh air, natural lighting, and a reduction of toxic chemicals, loud noise, and clutter to create healthy environments that contribute to a sense of physical and emotional calm.
• Our educators familiarize themselves with all information concerning medical conditions & medication requirements, exceptionalities, allergies, food restrictions, and parental preferences in respect to diet, exercise, and rest time.

We appreciate how important it is for both parents and educators to have regular information about children’s experiences at home, in the community, and in our environment. Communication is paramount; we encourage two-way dialogue and use various tools for communication between parents and educators. We also use HiMama, web-based software that aids our staff in document management and increases parent involvement and engagement with our centre. It’s important to us to create and maintain a trusting, respectful bond between parents, staff, and children to provide optimal care for each child. By partnering with parents through ongoing communication, we ensure interconnected, positive support for every child.

Emotional well-being is nurtured in an environment where educators interact in warm, responsive, and meaningful ways, and communicate in a manner that ensures children, families, and colleagues feel understood, valued, and respected. When positive interactions and responsive communication exist, authentic relationships are built, and a sense of belonging, trust and comfort are fostered.

What does this look like in practice?

• We consistently greet children and families by name and seek to build relationships that prioritize the best interests of each child.
• We supportively respond to the ideas, concerns and needs of children, families, and colleagues
• We establish inclusive environments and interact with children in culturally, linguistically and developmentally sensitive ways.

Involving community partners is an instrumental part of creating a positive and supportive environment. We engage in constructive relationships with community agencies; they provide resources, information, and classroom support to better meet the needs of our children, families, and educators. We work collaboratively with our local universities, community colleges, and high schools to offer opportunities for student training and experiences. Partnering with these institutions provides us with additional knowledge and resources to further support our program. We also welcome volunteers from the community as well.

What does this look like in practice?

• Additional staff from outside resource agencies who are observing, providing 1:1 support to a child.
• College and high school students who are completing a placement in our classrooms.
• Educators often invite special visitors into the program. For example community helpers (police officers, firefighters), dental hygienists, humane society, librarians, etc.
• Educators also plan walks and field trips for the children to explore their community.
• Requests to support community campaigns (e.g., women’s shelter, Food Bank, etc.).

Kid’s Mondo is committed to supporting each child’s developing capacity for self-regulation and positive interactions, in a safe and nurturing environment. By focusing on our ability to live effectively with others and value both one’s own rights and attributes, and the rights and attributes of others, we support the developing understanding of our classroom as a community, our responsibilities to one another, and the value of collaboration.

 What does this look like in practice?

• We help children to develop positive connections with peers by   their efforts to join and sustain play, by focusing attention on positive interactions with others, and by encouraging children to value one another’s individuality
• We support children in their efforts to respond to challenges and conflict by encouraging each individual to take an active role in problem-solving and identifying alternative solutions
•  We respond sensitively to emotions and encourage children to identify and label feelings. Educators recognize that feelings of distress, fear and discomfort may take time to resolve, and they allow children the time and support required to recover from hard feelings
• We encourage children to identify what sorts of activities and experiences help them to remain calm and focused, and what type of activities they need to limit to maintain self-regulation
•  We routinely provide small group experiences and transitions that minimize distractions, and allow time and space for high-quality interactions
•  Our educators receive ongoing mentoring and regular monitoring to support their ability to develop and implement positive child guidance strategies

Children are most likely to become fully engaged in play that develops from their natural curiosity and allows them to actively explore their world. Genuine involvement and engagement is fostered when educators value children’s imaginations, ideas and interests, and follow the children’s lead in their adventures. When children are engaged, they develop important skills for lifelong learning, including the ability to plan, problem solve, and develop theories about the world around them.

 What does this look like in practice?

• We actively observe play and interactions to identify what the children are interested in, and what they know and understand about their world, and plan experiences and resources to build upon these
• Our educators join in children’s play, while being careful not to direct the course of activity; they are purposefully curious about new experiences, and participate as a co-investigator, co-learner and co-planner, by asking questions such as
  • What do you see?
  • What do you think?
  • What do you wonder?
  •  How do you think we could find out?

We offer the opportunity for children to meet challenges and take appropriate risks that extend the boundaries of their learning.

Our dedicated Early Childhood Educators are all registered through the College of Early Childhood Educators and adhere to a Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice. Our educators are trained in First Aid and CPR and are carefully selected and screened to provide a safe, secure, healthy and inviting environment. With a sustained commitment to ensuring a quality program, we support, encourage and provide opportunities for our educators to participate in continuous professional learning. Investing in our educators in order to remain current in knowledge, skills and professional values is important to us. Through ongoing reflection of their practice, they identify ways in which they can grow professionally.

Kid’s Mondo actively participates in ongoing assessments of our environment to measure the impact of the strategies set out in our program statement. These strategies include, but are not limited to:

• On-going two-way communication with parents;
• Daily program documentation;
• Observations and reflections;
• Monthly team discussions and reflections;
• Monthly one-on-one meetings between employees and managers;
• Annual environmental reviews and observations;
• Annual parent surveys & annual work environment surveys;
• Staff performance reviews with goal setting;
• Staff and team meetings that focus on professional development and support.

Goals are developed from this information to support continuous, quality improvements within our program.

It is essential for us to provide a nurturing environment with experiences that encourage all of our children to reach their full potential. Our program at Kid’s Mondo reflects our philosophy and program statement. To ensure consistent implementation across Kid’s Mondo, all staff, students, and volunteers review the program statement prior to interacting with children. At a minimum, this statement will be reviewed annually by staff, educators, Supervisor and the Director. Any modifications will be reviewed by educators to ensure timely implementation.

This Program Statement highlights the guiding principles for our practice.

Guiding and Supporting Documents

• How Does Learning Happen? Ontario’s Pedagogy for the Early Years
• Ontario Early Years Framework
• Think Feel Act: Lessons from Research about Young Children
• Early Learning for Every Child Today

Young children benefit from an affirming approach that encourages positive interactions with other children and adults, rather than from a negative or punitive approach to managing unwanted behaviour. Rather than setting out practices to be used to manage children’s behaviour, Kid’s Mondo has set out in our program statement how we will support warm, positive, supportive interactions and relationships between children, families, staff and the community.

The provision of prohibited practices forbids corporal punishment and other harmful disciplinary practices to protect the emotional and physical well-being of children. These practices are never permitted at Kid’s Mondo.

No employee, student or volunteer shall permit a child receiving care at Kid’s Mondo Childcare Centre to experience any of the following while under their care:

(a) corporal punishment of the child;

(b) physical restraint of the child, such as confining the child to a high chair, car seat, stroller or other devices for the purposes of discipline or in lieu of supervision, unless the physical restraint is for the purpose of preventing a child from hurting themselves or someone else, and is used only as a last resort and only until the risk of injury is no longer imminent;

(c) locking the exits of the child care centre for the purpose of confining the child, or confining the child in an area or room without adult supervision, unless such confinement occurs during an emergency and is required as part of the licensee’s emergency management policies and procedures;

(d) use of harsh or degrading measures or threats or use of derogatory language directed at or used in the presence of a child that would humiliate, shame or frighten the child or undermine his or her self-respect, dignity or self-worth;

(e) depriving the child of basic needs including food, drink, shelter, sleep, toilet use, clothing or bedding; or

(f) inflicting any bodily harm on children including making children eat or drink against their will.

The Program Statement Implementation policy sets out requirements and procedures to ensure that the approaches outlined in this Program Statement are implemented within our program and that the stated view of the child is observable in the program.

Responsibility for monitoring this policy rests with the centre supervisor and with the Director monitoring compliance.