Simcoe Childcare Services has been proudly supporting families since September 2002.
Located at 2089 St. Paul Road, our facility offers high-quality childcare for children aged 12 months to 9 years, serving families across Innisfil, Simcoe County, and surrounding areas.
We are licensed by the Ministry of Education under the Child Care and Early Years Act (CCEYA).
With the guidance of our Director, Supervisors, and a team of passionate full- and part-time educators, we are proud to meet—and exceed—all Ministry standards and child-to-staff ratio requirements.
The Image of the Child
At Simcoe Childcare, we believe that every child is competent, capable, curious, and rich in potential. Our program is designed to foster a deep sense of well-being and belonging, where each child is treated with compassion and respect. By nurturing a positive self-image and enhancing self-esteem in the early years, we support children in building a strong foundation for lifelong learning.
Through play and social interaction, children are encouraged to express themselves, explore their interests, and develop meaningful connections with others. Respect and consideration for the thoughts, feelings, and ideas of peers, educators, and the environment are at the core of our approach. Our program reflects the importance of recognizing the value, worth, dignity, and diversity of every child. We document children's experiences and discoveries to celebrate their learning journey and ensure that each child's voice is visible in our community.
The Role of the Educators
Educators at Simcoe Childcare are more than teachers—they are partners in learning. Through meaningful engagement, they guide and support children's explorations while fostering curiosity, problem-solving, and creativity. Learning experiences emerge from both planned and spontaneous moments, allowing children to take the lead while educators act as co-learners and facilitators.
Our educators intentionally curate responsive environments filled with open-ended materials to provoke curiosity and inspire deeper thinking. By engaging in thoughtful, open-ended conversations, they help children expand their ideas and make meaningful connections.
Our Mentorship approach strengthens educator skills in observation, reflective practice, planning, and active engagement. Educators document children's play and learning in various ways, such as photos, Last Month at a Glance reflections, and individualized written insights for families. This ongoing documentation not only informs future programming but also highlights the richness of children's experiences and development.
The Role of our Families
At Simcoe Childcare, we believe families are key partners in their child's learning journey. Families are essential collaborators and advocates, and their trust and open communication with educators create a strong foundation for a child's success.
We engage families through daily interactions, documentation displays, and portal posts to ensure each child's growth is supported both at home and in our program. Our inclusive approach welcomes family input and encourages meaningful conversations about children's interests, challenges, and successes.
By working together, we inspire children to think deeply, explore confidently, and develop a love for learning that extends beyond the childcare setting. Through ongoing partnerships, we create a community that nurtures each child's curiosity, well-being, and potential.
We truly believe our families are the KEY!
Documentation
At Simcoe Childcare, we see documentation as a powerful tool that provides an inside view into the experiences, ideas, interests, and learning of both children and educators. Documentation not only makes children’s learning visible but also values and validates their contributions, fostering reflection and collaboration among children, educators, and families.
Through documentation, we can honour children’s ideas, scaffold their thinking, and plan intentional next steps based on their interests and inquiries. Documentation takes many forms, including:
- Written reflections - Last Month at a Glance board and portal posts
- Photographs and videos capturing moments of discovery and joy
- Children’s artwork and creations, displayed intentionally to celebrate their work
Emergent Curriculum
Simcoe Childcare follows an emergent, child-led curriculum that values open-ended discoveries, inquiry-based learning, and meaningful play experiences. Through observation and intentional planning, educators co-create learning opportunities that evolve from children's interests, curiosities, and ideas.
Key elements of emergent curriculum at Simcoe Childcare include:
- Observations: Educators closely watch and listen to children’s interactions, documenting their ideas and questions.
- Intentional Planning: Learning opportunities are developed in response to what children are naturally curious about.
- Loose Parts & Natural Materials: Open-ended materials encourage problem-solving, creativity, and exploration.
- Invitations & Provocations: Thoughtfully arranged play setups inspire deep thinking and engagement.
We believe that learning is about the process, not the product. Children gain knowledge, confidence, and essential life skills through their inquiries, investigations, and collaborative play.
The Role of the Environment
At Simcoe Childcare, we view the environment as the third educator—a space that is intentional, responsive, and reflective of children’s learning. Our environments are designed to support children’s interests, needs, and developmental growth, ensuring that each child has the opportunity to reach their full potential.
The environment:
- Honours and values each unique child by documenting and displaying their creations
- Encourages collaboration, communication, exploration, discoveries, curiosities and imagination
- Natural materials and loose parts are incorporated to stimulate each child’s thinking, test their theories, reflect on their discoveries and further enhance their learning through exploration and play.
Our role in the Community
At Simcoe Childcare, we believe that being an active partner in our community fosters a sense of belonging and provides children with invaluable real-world learning experiences. By engaging with the world beyond our centre, children develop connections, empathy, and an understanding of how they contribute to the greater community.
Through neighborhood walks, visits to Lakeside Retirement, trips to the library, parks, and the fire station, children build relationships with the people around them. These experiences offer authentic opportunities for children to ask questions, observe, interact, and make meaningful connections between their learning and the world.
In addition to these community experiences, we actively collaborate with resource consultants, behavior consultants, and occupational therapists to ensure that every child receives the individualized support they need to thrive. These partnerships allow us to:
- Support children's developmental, social, and emotional growth
- Provide early intervention strategies tailored to each child’s needs
- Work closely with families to ensure a consistent and inclusive approach to learning
We also bring the community into our centre through special events and enrichment programs that expose children to a variety of unique experiences. These may include: Magic shows,Yoga sessions, Petting zoo, Monkeynastics.
By immersing children in their community, fostering meaningful collaborations, and offering enriching experiences, we ensure that each child feels connected, valued, and inspired as they grow and learn.
The Importance of Play Indoors and Outdoors
Simcoe Childcare believes that engaging in authentic play provides children with the best opportunity to prepare for an ever-changing world. Uninterrupted, meaningful play allows children to discover their interests, follow their passions, and develop essential life skills.
We provide as many open-ended opportunities for play as possible, allowing children to:
- Discover, hypothesize, create, and critically think
- Build resilience, independence, and confidence
- Develop problem-solving skills through hands-on experiences
- Strengthen their social and emotional intelligence
- Collaborate and communicate with their peers
Through both indoor and outdoor play, children naturally develop key skills that support them throughout life, including:
- People skills (teamwork, cooperation, leadership)
- Social skills (empathy, conflict resolution, emotional regulation)
- Communication skills (expressing ideas, active listening)
- Character traits (confidence, perseverance, adaptability)
- Critical thinking (problem-solving, decision-making, creativity)
- Physical development (coordination, balance, strength)
While children are deeply engaged in play, they are also learning literacy, numeracy, emotional and social skills, new cognitive concepts, and fine and gross motor development. Children learn best through pretend play, creative and sensory experiences, games and puzzles, small and large group interactions, singing, and storytelling.
The opportunities and experiences are endless. Children learn through repetition, and need many chances to explore, manipulate, and revisit materials. We embrace the messiness of play—because it is in that mess where discovery happens. As children explore, they learn more about the materials, refine their skills, and gain new understanding by observing and interacting with their peers.
By prioritizing the process over the product, we ensure that every child is supported in exploring, imagining, and growing in ways that are meaningful to them.
Loose Parts
Loose parts invite children into a world of "what if"—a space where imagination and innovation take center stage. By incorporating a variety of natural and man-made materials, we empower children to create, build, experiment, and extend their thinking in limitless ways.
Loose parts play fosters:
- Creativity & innovation – Children explore endless possibilities through hands-on experiences.
- Problem-solving & resilience – Open-ended materials encourage children to test ideas, make adjustments, and persist through challenges.
- Collaboration & communication – Working together with loose parts supports teamwork, negotiation, and shared discovery.
By focusing on the experience rather than the end product, we ensure that every child has the freedom to explore, invent, and engage deeply in their own learning journey.
Risky Play
At Simcoe Childcare, we believe that risky play is essential for building confidence, resilience, and real-world problem-solving skills. Under careful supervision, children are encouraged to safely explore challenges such as using real tools like hammers and nails, balancing on large logs, climbing, cutting with scissors, and experimenting with materials like toothpicks. These experiences help children assess risk, develop coordination, build strength, and learn to trust their own judgment.
We believe that by allowing space for healthy risk, children grow in independence, capability, and courage—skills they will carry with them well beyond the classroom.
Diversity, Inclusion & Family Traditions
Simcoe Childcare proudly celebrates the diversity of our families and community. We understand that every family is unique—with their own backgrounds, traditions, celebrations, and values—and we embrace and honour those differences in our daily practices.
We welcome you to share your family’s traditions, holidays, stories, and ways of life, so we can bring them into our classroom through books, discussions, activities, and celebrations. We read stories about a variety of family structures, including same-sex parents, blended families, and multigenerational households, so every child feels seen, valued, and respected.
Our commitment to inclusion helps children develop a strong sense of belonging, empathy, and respect for others.
