About Us – Little Smiles Day Care

Who We Are

Welcome to Little Smiles Day Care Centre where all children are treated with respect and kindness. My name is Bal Thind; I have an Early Childhood Education certificate and First Aid/CPR. This website will help parents understand our programs policies & procedures. Your child will be exposed to many different aspects of learning and having fun. Please go through all the pages carefully. I request you to discuss any questions, concerns or suggestions with me in person. Thank you for choosing Little Smiles Day Care Centre as your child’s care facility!

We offer children a warm and safe environment, and we will be doing many activities that encourage social, physical, intellectual, creative and emotional development.

What We Do

Little Smiles Daycare Centre's Goals

Our main goal is to keep your children safe and healthy. We will provide them with home like care and help them grow both physically and mentally. We have and will always continue to create and accomplish our goals!

Safe & Sound Environment

We will provide your child a safe, loving, caring and nurturing environment that promotes all social, physical, intellectual, cultural & emotional growth and development. We will do this by practicing fire, earthquake, and safety drills with the children once a month to help them become aware of their surroundings and the steps to take in an emergency. There are pre-packed snacks and water bottles for each child incase of an emergency. Parents will be contacted immediately.

Activities

We provide structured and less structured activities throughout the day including free play as part of our daily routine. The children will have optimum time to learn and play with new activities that will assist them in all aspects of their growth. Please visit our home page on more information about the games and activities we provide.

Communication

We will try our best to strengthen communication & trust between staff, parents & children. We send out weekly emails about changing schedules or new events such as children’s birthdays. We always try to keep the parents up to date with any new changes with our policies or care taking. Emails and text messaging is often used to communicate but we are happy to schedule a meeting that is of accordance with the parent and facilities schedule to discuss any other questions and changes that the parent has.

Responsibilities and Policies

As your child care provider, I am responsible for:

Providing a safe environment for your child
Providing supervision at all times for all indoor and outdoor activities
Maintaining all necessary records for your child
Updating you about your child’s progress

Child Drop Off and Pick Up Policy

Parents/ guardians must enter the centre with their child/ children. Parents/guardians should sign the daily attendance on arrival and departure.

Our policy to release children must be signed by the parents or guardians. Only those adults on your child’s pick up list will be allowed to pick up your child without a written and verbal notification. If someone else is picking up your child in an emergency situation please advice the manger with a written and verbal notification. Persons name must be on the file and a valid picture ID must be presented at time of pick up. No child will be released without proper identification. A digital picture will be taken of all persons, including parents on your child’s pick up list. This will be kept on file for identification purposes we will not allow your child/children to leave the centre with anyone other than a person authorized by you or with anyone who is under the influence of drugs or alcohol. When this would happen we will contact the next authorized person from you registration form to pick up your.

Meals and Snack

Little smiles daycare centre does not provide any food. Parents are responsible to provide a healthy snack and lunch for the child. Our Nutrition policy is to encourage the development of good eating habits that will last a life time. Please do not send junk food, for example-pop, chocolate, potato chips, gum and candy. When one child has something they all want it. If your child arrives after the scheduled mealtime you are responsible for feeding them at that time. All lunches will be refrigerated. I will also be able to heat simple foods like soup, pasta or noodles. We encourage parents to only send healthy foods, snacks and drinks.

Birthdays

If your child would like to celebrate their birthday with other children, please send a cake or cupcakes for snacks. Other treats are welcome but not necessary.

Clothing

Inside: – Daycare time is a time for exploration and discover. Children need to wear comfortable, washable, and easy to manage play clothes, which encourage independence. Please label all your child’s belongings.

Outside: – Outdoor play is a daily activity therefore clothing must be weather appropriate. As with all activities I cannot guarantee your child’s clothing will remain clean or free of stain as I encourage hands-on exploration and sensory play.

Nap time

Children are given 1-2 hours to rest in a separate, quiet room. Sleeping mats are provided. Please send a small washable blanket, sheet and a small pillow with your child.

Medication Policy

Little smiles day care does not provide medication of any kind. Under no circumstances will any medication be administered without the prior written authorization and permission. This includes routine, temporary medication. If your child requires prescription or non-prescription medication, you must provide it. The initial dose must be given by a parent in case of adverse reactions. All medications must be in the original container and must include the child’s name, a pharmacy or manufacturer’s label to include: dosage instructions, current date, name of medication and times to be administered. A medication administration authorization form must accompany all medications. Parents have completed and signed a consent form giving staff permission to administer medication. You will be requested to fax your child’s medication form to us in the case of an emergency situation.

Illness Policy

If your child becomes ill while at home, do not send a sick child to the day care centre. If your child is out for more than 3 days due to a communicable illness, a doctor’s note is required. If your child becomes ill while at the centre during the day, you will be notified to pick him/ her up. In case you can not be reached than emergency contact person will be contacted. Your child must be picked up no more than 1 hour after you have been notified. Following are the symptoms of illness that will require your child to be picked up:

Nausea, diarrhoea, vomiting
Difficulty breathing and running nose
Fever of hundred degrees Fahrenheit (38.3 Celsius)
Sore throat of difficulty swallowing severe itching of body or scalp
Infected skin or eyes or un diagnosed rash
Have a communicable disease (Mumps, measles, chicken pox, pink eye etc.)

Hygiene Policy

The staff at the centre promotes good hygienic habits. Children wash their hands before eating and after using the bathroom. The instructions for properly washing hands are posted in the child care centre.

Policy Against Child Abuse

The centre is required by law to report any apparent incidence of child abuse or neglect defined as “non accidental infliction or threat of infliction of physical, emotional, sexually, or mental harm to a child.’’ All such reports must contain the name and address of the person responsible for the care of the child, and other pertinent information. We are obligated to report it.

The BC inter ministry child abuse hand book, 1988
The BC hand book for action on child abuse and neglect
The child, family and community services act

As a licensed day care we need to record child information such as dates; an incident report is required to be completed and these reports will be sent to the licensing office.

Guidance & Discipline Policy

Our discipline policy focuses prevention, redirection, love, consistency, remind, problem solving and firmness. Discipline is for teaching/learning process by which children develop socially acceptable and appropriate behavior as they grow to maturity. Each child will be viewed as a unique individual, and disciplined according to child’s stage of development, background and culture. Children are given an opportunity to take responsibility, make decisions and disciplined with reasonable limits, to experience the natural consequences of their actions.