We care for the school age children attending grade 1 – 6 at Hidden Valley, Valley Creek and Simons Valley Elementary schools. We provide transportation to and from schools, and offer full-day care during school holidays including summer. Our school age children enjoy their summer field trips that give them opportunity to explore the provincial and national parks around Calgary, museums, lakes, water parks and playgrounds.

Children are encouraged to plan and participate in various community outreach activities that includes fund raising activities for the charities of their choice and non-perishable food collection campaign for the Calgary food bank. Staff facilitate public speaking avenues for the BAS children during Daycare’s Spring concerts and other social events. BAS room currently has a Talent Club that organizes monthly talent shows. Older children are encouraged to offer peer mentoring to their younger peers in in the room.

This group comprises of 4 ½ to 6 year olds, some of who attend the half-day kindergarten program at schools and others attend our full day program at the daycare. We transport Kindergartners to Simons Valley and Hidden Valley elementary schools. They attend AM kindergarten program at schools and join the rest of their peers at the daycare for lunch and for the rest of the day.

Kindergartners engage in a variety of activities including gross and fine motor activities indoors and outdoors where they gain increased agility, balance and control over their movements. The socio-dramatic play areas offer ample opportunities to apply their creativity to develop scenarios, assign and assume roles and to practice negotiation and conflict resolution skills. Staff strive to engage children in cognitive activities that enhances their academic readiness.

The 3 to 4 ½ year olds are keen to learn about the world around them and with their developing proficiency in language, they effectively communicate with their peers and adults in the environment to acquire and master new skills. Emergent curriculum and its project approach helps the young learners to acquire, assimilate and apply the knowledge in their daily planned activities. Staff takes into account the various competencies of the preschoolers while planning the curriculum, physical layout of the environment and activities.

As the preschoolers learn to identify their own and their peers’ emotions, our skilled staff assist them to verbalize their own feelings and empathize with their peers through coaching and modelling. Staff, with their training and experience, play a prominent role as facilitators, as the preschoolers navigate through the important phases of emotional and social development. The primary elements of literacy and numeracy are introduced through developmentally appropriate and play-based activities, based on individual readiness of the child.

Children aged 20-36 months are cared for in our toddler room. While the staff strive to assist the toddlers gain developmentally appropriate social skills and self-help skills, they also foster the toddlers’ desire for autonomy. The secured attachment developed between toddlers and their primary caregivers help them freely explore and experience their environment by which they gain self-confidence and emergent problem solving skills. Consistency in developmentally appropriate behavioral expectations and limits set by nurturing caregivers, facilitates toddlers’ ability to self-regulate and curb impulsiveness.

Small group and one-on-one interactions between experienced caregivers and children throughout the day enhance toddlers’ evolving language and cognition. The daily gross and fine motor activities conducted both indoors and outdoors including music and movement activities, nurture their physical, emotional and creative development while practicing crucial social skills like sharing and turn taking.

We care for babies aged 3 to 19 months in our infant room. While most of the babies start with us around 12 months of age, we do frequently receive younger infants in our care as we are one of the few daycares in the City that accepts younger babies. The adult-child ratio for babies under 12 months is 1:3 and for babies over 12 months is 1:4. We often exceed the regulatory staffing requirements to ensure optimal care. We typically care for around 12 to 16 babies in the infant room.

Studies show that secured attachment with one adult proves to be beneficial for developing stable and healthy long-term relationships. Hence we follow a primary caregiver system in the baby room, where a particular caregiver is permanently assigned to the care of a specific group of babies. This service model enables the caregivers to learn about the babies’ individual traits, needs and interests and understand their non-verbals while they develop a warm bonding with each other.