Our Toddler Approach
Our toddler approach
Educating toddlers
At Wonderschool, our approach to educating toddlers is focused on three main pillars:
- Thoughtfully curated environments that enable children to build their autonomy and to support their behaviours, interests and needs.
- Building close relationships with educators and their peers.
- Emotional guidance to support toddlers to develop emotional awareness and to manage their behaviours and connect with and understand their underlying feelings.
Environments
Our early learning centre environments are thoughtfully curated to enable children to build their autonomy and to support their behaviours, interests and needs.
The toddler rooms offer challenges with consistency for our 2 to 3-year-olds. It is important for toddlers to know where they can find the resources in their space and be able to revisit their favourite activities and work each time they attend the centre. We structure the room to create small intimate play areas in the larger space so children can have a sense of seclusion and independence whilst engaging in play but they can be thoughtfully observed by our educators.
Respectful relationships
At Wonderschool early learning centres, toddlers are supported in building close relationships with our educators and their peers. We always ensure that we are laying the foundations for a deep understanding of respecting other people's personal space and boundaries and supporting toddlers to navigate complex interpersonal relationships.
We speak to children in a respectful way and role model positive interactions with our colleagues and other children to create a space of mutual respect and appreciation.
Emotional guidance
We use the techniques of emotion coaching to support toddlers to develop emotional awareness and to manage their behaviours and connect with and understand the underlying feelings.
Our educators make sure they acknowledge a child's feelings and discuss them so that children begin to be able to name their feelings, think about how to manage them, and work with educators to develop strategies to learn skills to self-regulate. We engage children by thinking about how to interact with those around them in a respectful way and to become aware of themselves in the context of our Wonderschool community as well as the wider Canberra community.
Our programs
Where little minds come to life
We look forward to welcoming children aged 6 weeks to 5 years and their families seeking an exceptional learning environment with contemporary approaches to early childhood education. At Wonderschool, we nurture your children to discover, learn and play in purpose-built centres with light-filled rooms, large open classrooms and expansive outdoor play areas, waiting to be discovered by little hands and big minds.
Ages 0 - 1
Infants
Wonderschool early learning centres are influenced by the work of Magda Gerber and RIE® (Resources for Infant Educarers), and the Pikler approach to infant care. This approach to childcare services focuses on the infant as a capable participant in their care and education, and is based on respectful relationships.
Ages 4 - 5
Preschool
At Wonderschool early learning centres, we believe children are confident and capable learners who are citizens from birth. Children should be co-collaborators of their own learning with our Educators, and they should be given time to develop at their own pace.