The MHC Campus
Being located on the Medicine Hat College gives us great opportunities for students but also the children! Having access to the soccer fields, tennis courts, ponds, and playgrounds in conjunction with our own outdoor playground. Being located close to the coulees means we often are finding and watching animals and insects.
One of our favorite things about being on the College campus is the abundance of new and exciting opportunities for the children to learn and play. We often go on excursions and walks looking at animals and their tracks. Even construction and large trucks are great learning opportunities for kids.
Our CCDC Philosophy
Practices at the centre are based on a series of beliefs about children: about what is necessary for their healthy growth and development and about the importance of their relationships with family, friends and caregivers.
Children's needs range from the essential basics of security, safety, shelter, food and love to their needs for challenge, opportunity to learn about themselves, opportunity to interact with peers and adults as well as their environment, and opportunities to construct their own understanding of their world and their place within it.
We believe that children construct knowledge as they go about their daily lives. Development and learning occur through children's interactions with both the physical environment (toys and materials) and people (peers and adults). Development and learning also occur when children are actively engaged in experiences that expand and challenge their thinking and their knowledge. These beliefs provide the premise for our focus on providing play opportunities for children at the centre.
We believe that play provides opportunities for the development of:
INTRINSIC
MOTIVATION
Children become engaged in learning that is meaningful to them, rather than in activities that someone else thinks are good for them.
CHILD INITIATION
Children's curiosity is aroused when they experience making choices, such as those available to them in play.
CHILD DIRECTION
Children benefit from deciding the ways in which they will use materials or experiences to satisfy their interests, to answer their questions, and to add to their knowledge.
RISK
TAKING
All learning involves making mistakes. Children need to feel free to take risks and to venture into unknown areas. Play, which often occurs in a world of make-believe, provides safe situations for exploration.
RESPONSE TO CHALLENGE
Adults facilitate play situations in which children are confronted with information and challenges that are new to them. Children will also create these situations in their play in order to better understand their world.
PROCESS OF
BECOMING
Active involvement in play involves experimentation, observing, thinking, problem-solving, and creating - alone and with others. These processes are important to the development of children.
SELF- REGULATION
Play provides opportunity for children to 'try-on' other roles and to interact with others. It also provides and opportunity for children to experience positions of leadership and of follower.
In addition to self-initiated play, the program is based on beliefs that children learn from one another and from models provided by adults. As a result, caregivers in the centre work closely with parents and guardians in providing children with the social interactions and the adult models of behaviour that will enhance their development.
Play is the highest form of research.
— ALBERT EINSTEIN
Our Team & Experience
We have extremely low staff turnover and are very proud of our loyal and committed educators. Our current team of nine permanent employees has 191 combined years of service in the child care field.
Shirley Simmons
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
College Child Development Centre
23 years at CCDC
Anita Lepla
DAY HOME COORDINATOR
Family Day Home Program
24 years at CCDC