As part of the Nova Scotia Curriculum Framework, the staff at Wee Care Developmental Centre has gone through the process of identifying five traits in children that we find integral to their development. We believe that children innately have these abilities and it is our job to maximize and enhance these qualities.

The following are the five traits that we chose and the definitions we assigned to each one. At Wee Care Developmental Centre, the staff continually strives to find ways to encourage the development of each of these traits within our daily program and interactions with the children.

Inclusive: Willing and capable to learn diversity and inclusion. Open, ready and willing to include others. Understanding that there are different ways a person can accomplish this goal.

Resilient: The ability to persevere despite obstacles.

Brave: Acknowledging feelings (worry, anxiety, fear etc) and trying (a challenging task) anyways.

Empathetic: Understand, recognize, react and respond mindfully to the social, emotional and physical well-being of others.

Curious: The desire to investigate, wonder, learn, engage, and/or explore the world around us (and the opportunity to do so.

The Reggio Emilia Approach

The Reggio Emilia Approach® is an educational philosophy based on the image of a child with strong potentialities for development and a subject with rights, who learns through the hundred languages belonging to all human beings, and grows in relations with others.

The Reggio Emilia Approach is founded on:

• collegial and relations-based work for all workers,
• the daily presence of a plurality of educators and teachers with children
• the atelier and person of atelierista
• in-school kitchens
• the environment as an educator
• documentation for making creative knowledge processes visible
• the pedagogical and educational practice co-ordinating group
• the participation of families

For more information on the Reggio Emilia Approach and the Image of the Child.