Our Values
At Garderie Griffin – Jardin d’Enfant, a child’s education follows his natural evolution and respects the different stages of his cognitive development.
Our teaching method is based on the principle that children must be active in their education and autonomous. Our primarily role is to provide guidance and support in their progression through the different stages of development. Learning, discovering, creating, imagining, etc., are skills that all children possess, and it is these abilities that will allow them to integrate and assimilate any new discoveries made.
With adults, it is too late to make a difference; we must concentrate our efforts on children. – Françoise Dolto
Natural Development
Our entire teaching method is based on a child’s natural development. Every stage of growth corresponds to something new that an infant – or toddler later on – learns. We give equal importance to motor, affective, creative, emotional and intellectual development.
Your child will develop his abilities and self-confidence fully if he is allowed to develop naturally. Confidence is a state of mind that is inseparable from learning and will allow your child to acquire all of the tools necessary for school over the next few years. The amount of information and knowledge that your child accumulates by the age of five, and which he then needs to understand, master and apply is at the very least equivalent to what he will learn in the years leading up to adulthood.
Like the Finnish model, Garderie Griffin – Jardin d’Enfant will respect the natural development of your child. Our daycare is not an academy, it is a loving, joyful, playful environment for discovery and learning. Children are at the core of our teaching program and will be the architects of their own education. We believe that all children are unique and follow their own path of development, which cannot be accelerated. Progress from one stage to another is completed in the same order, and even if children of the same age are generally at the same stage, every child develops at his own rhythm.
Our daycare is a loving, fun and playful environment of discovery and learning where infants, toddlers and young children alike are our main priority.
Teaching through play
Children are surrounded by play in their lives. Their life is a game; everything leads to laughter, improvisation, reinvention and interpretation. The term “infant,” from the latin infans, means “unable to speak,” playing, therefore, is the only way infants and subsequently young children have to express themselves – language skills and proficiency come much later on.
Games and toys adapted to every stage of child development will be available to your child. Our plan, however, is to leave the path open to improvisation and creativity. Aside from the usual games (blocks, puzzles, painting, manual activities, etc.), we will encourage curiosity and bodily expression.
When a child begins to be aware of others, his interest for his environment increases at the same time. The child asks questions about everything and wants to know everything. Children observe us and everything we do becomes a game for them: setting the table, putting toys away, shovelling, cooking, getting dressed… In short, everyday life is a game for your child.
Why not let children play from the time they are in the cradle until they want to try new things on their own? Their education will be even better, because it will be playful, interesting and adapted to their individual personality.
Child’s play evolves at the same rate as cognitive development. A child’s curiosity and imagination will push him to explore other ways to play that will enable self-fulfillment and achieving inner balance.
Our Role
I would like to think that it is us, the parents, who educate our children, develop their curiosity, intelligence and social skills, and instill in them the pleasures of everyday life and the joy of living that comes from it … and I would like to think that daycares take care of my little treasures the same way I would.
This is an illusion, however, because no one can take better care of your child than you can, but it is important to choose a daycare that corresponds to your vision of education and provides your child with everything he needs to blossom.
Children need coherence in their lives. Their number one models are their parents and brothers and sisters. These will be the first people who they will want to imitate and mock. It is therefore essential that the educational program in our daycare correspond to your expectations for your little treasures.
During an infant’s first stage of development, our main role will be to satisfy his need for physical contact and affection. This need is vital for an infant and it is only by satisfying this primary need that a baby will develop as normally as possible (R. Laval’s study, 2004).
Throughout their development, our role as early childhood educators is to encourage children to explore, innovate and discover. We take into consideration every child’s ability to absorb new information and assimilate new experiences. We adapt to every child’s way of learning, which is a process of active learning.
Interaction is essential between ourselves and the children, and seeing that it is generally accepted that one of the best ways to instill knowledge is by transmitting it, we will encourage children to “discuss” among themselves subjects that draw their attention.
Our children will be evaluated so as to better pinpoint tasks that engage them and to encourage them to move on to the next stage. Our priority is the learning process and not the results that may come from it. We will encourage children to ask questions and multiply their experiences, even if this involves making mistakes along the way.
And above all, we will create a space for play and exchange in which children can interact freely and learn from each other.