Vangie and Eric
We are very satisfied with the level of service we receive from Boat Day Care. We have a five year old daughter who has been attending Boat since she was three. The staff at Boat are caring, friendly, and responsive to the needs of the children. One can’t help but notice they really enjoy what they do. The programs and activities are fun, as well as challenging and educational, with a lot of variety. We would have no hesitation in recommending Boat Day Care as an excellent day care facility to anyone.
Roger
My son has a lot of fun at Boat. He gets lots of outdoor exercise, has learned many skills (counting, alphabet, and more) and is learning positive social interaction. I’m very pleased with the warm, secure setting and the dedication of the staff at Boat. Having Trout Lake next door provides plenty of opportunity for interesting outings for the kids.
Shanna
I was told about Boat daycare from a friend whose daughters had been there some years before. They all spoke so highly of the quality of care and the respect the staff held for the children, many of whom are still with Boat, that I was determined to send my own son there. I have nothing but praise for the staff and program of Boat Daycare. My son gets to enjoy a wonderful playground with lots of green space. He has made some wonderful friends and has learned valuable social interaction skills.
Diana
Two of my children currently go to Boat. They have also gone to family and university daycares and I particularly like Boat because it is a neighbourhood centre where they meet other kids their age. I also like the fact that they play outside everyday and go on trips to Trout Lake every week. The “teachers” are committed and nurturing professionals. They have helped my girls negotiate conflicts and get along better at home.
Siobhan
My son attended Boat Daycare for over a year. Our primary reason in selecting Boat, after extensive interviews with other daycares, was it’s positive programming around lifeskills. Also, it is one of the few, if not only, centres to have a FULL-TIME MALE caregiver (currently on leave Jan – July 2007). This was a particularly important feature given the lack of regular positive male role models in my son’s daily life. This simple and yet significant feature contributes to broadening any child’s view of gender roles beyond what they might experience in their home or family. Boat daycare teaches respect, cooperation, caring, personal safety and about cultural diversity through books, holy-days, representation of staff and children. They don’t allow weapon play and have no toy weapons. This showed us a wonderful sensitivity and planning around curbing aggressive behaviour while encouraging a more creative mind-think.
As many of us struggle with not having our kids swamped at a young age with mind-numbing BUY-BUY-BUY mentality. Boat staff and parents are sensitive to various socio-economic backgrounds and the pressures on parents to buy in to so may commercialised holidays like valentines, Halloween, Easter bunny time. They de-emphasize this by moderating the centre’s relationship to these times. At Halloween they assemble dress up items and activities at the daycare so that no outside costumes are allowed, that way if a family can’t (or chooses not to) buy a costume all kids get to participate equally. On valentines everyone must receive a card if cards are planning to be given but there is no big build up so families can opt-out without it being a big deal. Our experience was predominantly positive with the Boat holiday attitude. We knew that we could choose not to participate in any given holiday without my son’s feelings being hurt because he hadn’t been wound up to expect it.
As a parent run daycare you have the opportunity to be actively involve with programming. I often did story time with the children, leading them in recognizing culturally specific times like February’s Black History Month or environment issues like our relationship to water, nature and historical facts or people. My son has benefited from his time at Boat Daycare which has ended only due to his starting school outside their area. It is one of three centre’s that he experienced between the ages of 2-5 yrs old and I would rate it the highest and recommended it to others.
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