Daycare

Daycare Under-Twos (Kiwi) Programme: A loving, inspiring home away from home

A day in the Kiwi nest is flexible, tranquil and filled with wonder." Our Kiwi children just love exploring the wider centre during their day with their primary caregivers – from our homely family room and creative experiences in our messy play area to having fun in our wonderful sand pit and safe water play area in the waterproof overalls we provide.

We are dedicated to celebrating those precious, milestone moments with you – our under two children have a baby stones book that travels between home and the centre each day. We celebrate each moment and every day, and we share this by emailing you a picture of one of our favourite celebrations of your child’s day.

Our Kiwi whanau start each day with a warm embrace from their devoted teachers. Fila, Anjum and Nicole have taken care and attention to present the Kiwi nest each day with resources and furnishings that will inspire a snug, heartening environment that meets their every need.

Our delightful Kiwi nest is right next door to our cot room where they each have their own full size cot in a cosy bedroom. We are committed to ensuring we mimic our under two’s home routines as best we possibly can at Stepping Stones. We sit as a family at meal times – complete with table cloth, flowers, warm facecloths and a warm whanau of carers and friends to sit and enjoy each meal time with.

Daycare Pukeko / Moa (Over-Twos) Programme:

A day with our Pukeko / Moa family celebrates a careful balance of allowing ample time for our children to freely experience our magnificent site; this includes a balance of structured centre rituals that provide the opportunity to engage in carefully planned learning experiences that extend children’s personal interests, and those of the curriculum areas, so that our children have the very best transition to school possible.

Our centre rituals are close to our hearts as they provide time to come together as a family. Structured learning times are part of our rituals and are offered in three different parts of the day – Moa time, which is a carefully planned programme to develop children’s knowledge and skills, a baking or sensory experience after morning tea each day and a story time in the afternoon. These structured times provide the opportunity for our children to engage in learning times as a whanau; to promote their confidence, social skills, to celebrate their achievements and to foster a love of life-long learning in a fun setting.

During free play times, children can explore the entire 1170sqm site and, because of our very high ratio of teachers, are team are active observers and fully present in seeing rich play unfold.

These precious times allow us to genuinely get to know your child and what their individual interests are. We are also there to scaffold play, experiences and interests as we see, using our extensive range of high-quality resources available for use – from our variety of storage sheds on site – as the day unfolds.

Stepping Stones environments are thoughtfully created, with the individual child in mind to ensure we have ample resources, variety and quantity of each to inspire rich play, friendships and learning in the areas that we have noticed they are interested in.

Regular planning meetings mean that our teachers have the opportunity to share with each other their observations, and to plan our curriculum and environment according to those insights. Family involvement is very important to us and we welcome whanau spending time at the centre and providing additions to current areas of focus. Staff are also committed to ensuring we go out of our way to email pictures and update our whanau book on display in the foyer weekly so that you can be involved in ways that work for your family.

Our kai times are such a loved time of the day when we sit together and talk; totally committed to enjoying a meal together. Another example of our centre rituals is our daily baking / sensory experience where again, our children know that after morning tea each day they have the opportunity to engage with their friends in cooking or a sensory experience that nourishes the senses and the taste buds!