Sports, Sustainability and Sculptures at Love Kids Chadstone

Love Kids Early Learning Centre – Chadstone has been all systems go in the last few months! With sustainability projects, sports programs, pottery explorations and a whole host of exciting experience, there’s never a dull moment at this childcare centre in Melbourne.

Mara Santo, Centre Manager at the centre is proud of the highly qualified and caring educators at Love Kids. She says, “They are a team of professionally-certified early childhood education specialists, dedicated to providing children with the best start in life through loving care and learning development. It takes a unique set of skills, passions and attributes to make a fantastic educator.”

“Our screening and interview process ensures that the best possible educators are working at our centres. We have nine educators here at Love Kids who are working with this centre for over five years now and they just love it.”

Love Kids follows the Guardian Curriculum which embraces meaningful play-based experiences to develop a lifelong love of learning. This Curriculum, which was inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach and Boulder Journey Schools, encourage exploration, discovery and following the unique interests of each child.

Mara notes, “Educators here create a welcoming environment where all children and families are respected and actively encouraged to collaborate with educators about Curriculum decisions in order to ensure that learning experiences are meaningful. Partnerships are based on the foundations of understanding each other’s expectations and build on the strength of each other’s knowledge.”

Sports Day Fridays!

To encourage children to live active and healthy lives, Love Kids has engaged with evoL Sports who come into the centre on Fridays. Sports is not just teaching a child a specific sport, it is coaching about improving the physical and mental equilibrium of the competitor, as well as instilling and developing important life skills such as sportsmanship, fair play, dedication and commitment.

“The children enjoy their time at the centre engaging in play and building friendships with friends. We have positive verbal feedback from families saying they love the service we provide including all the additional educational programs,” states Mara.

Connecting with Nature

Love Kids Chadstone has two huge playgrounds which boasts two worm farms and a compost bin. The centre’s own Sustainability Champion makes sure the recycling projects are undertaking the best practices when it comes to sustainability and has instigated a number of projects and learnings at the centre to help children form an understanding of their effects on the environment and build up a respect for the land.

“We also have recycling games and books about recycling to educate the children the importance of recycling. Educators here at Love Kids take an integrated, holistic approach to education and learning and focus on connections to the natural world. Educators foster children’s capacity to understand and respect the natural environment and the interdependence between people, plants, animals and the land.”

The centre has set key goals for themselves to help reduce their environmental impact and improve the sustainability of their early learning centre. These goals include:

• Reducing their consumption of scarce environmental resources.
• Reducing their consumption of resources that have an adverse impact on the environment.
• Reducing the waste they generate.
• Renovating their outdoor play spaces to provide more natural settings and natural play materials.

In addition, they are seeking to help shape the environment of tomorrow by:

• Educating and inspiring their children about the wonders of the environment and the importance of growing up with a focus on sustainable practices.
• Influencing their staff and families to be more sustainable in their home lives.
• Partnering with their staff and families to do positive things for the environment, such as weekend tree planting initiatives.

Creative Creations with Pottery

While creative endeavours may not be taken seriously, much like singing and dancing, there is a world of learning and development happening for children when they undertake these experiences. Love Kids are firm believers in this which is why they introduced the much-loved Possum Potters into their educational program. Possum Potters introduces children to the world of art using clay explorations and helps children make sense of their world through a range of creative “languages.”

Learn more about Love Kids Early Learning Centre – Chadstone

To discover this amazing early learning centre in Melbourne for yourself, and to book a tour, head here.