Our Environments

Little Darlings aims to provide high quality care within a soothing and home like environment where the child feels safe, secure, and has a sense of belonging through strong connections with families and the community. The result of the child feeling this way will allow for education and learning to occur through the process of belonging, being and becoming.

NURSERY – Caringbah Only
The nursery has a separate outdoor and indoor area for play and learning, with also a separate kitchenette, bathing and change areas are provided to ensure the room is well equipped.

THE TODDLER ROOM
The room for 2-3 year olds has its own play area and separate outdoor area. A dining room is provided to ensure children eat meals in a hygienic environment, where nutrition and etiquette are discussed.

3-4 YEAR OLDS
This room has a separate indoor learning environment and outdoor area. A separate dining area is provided to ensure a hygienic environment. This age group focuses on an introduction to preschool program, in preparation for a more advanced preschool program in the 4-5 Room.

4-5 YEAR OLDS
This room in both our centres provides a more advanced preschool program for this age group, which assists in the transition to school. Our aim is to prepare children for school academically and socially, to ensure a smooth transition into the school system. Over a 2 year period, children will have organised activities, experiences and excursions to prepare for school, such as school visits, learning to take responsibility for belongings, hand preference and ensuring both social and academic readiness. Furthermore, staff have regular meetings with families to assist in making the transition from child care to school as simple and informative as possible.

We have designed our outdoor environment to include a balance of natural grass areas and trees for shade and gardens for exploration and teaching sustainable practices. We have also included safety by installing soft fall material on parts of the grounds to ensure a soft surface for children to run and play on. These areas include bike tracks, shapes, and visual pictures to make their environment fun.

To cater for development we also have included an outdoor program to ensure that children are stimulated and challenged while playing outdoors. Our outdoor environments provide shade through the use of large green trees and shade structures for children to play comfortably and explore the environment with ease.

Each age group has their own outdoor environment to provide safety as each area is age appropriate.

Our centre is a sun smart centre which is recognised by the cancer council and ensures children are kept protected whilst outdoors.

Our outdoor areas encourage sustainability awareness through the care of our vegetable and herb garden and also our digging patch that children use to water, care for and understand how we need to preserve our environment.

Our worm farm is a great way to teach sustainability to the children by making it a daily exercise to distribute food scraps into the worm farm. Eventually we use the developed compost into our garden beds, where we grow a variety of vegetables, herbs and flowers.

The children also have access to natural sitting areas such as a nature garden using tree stumps as seats and areas for children to explore and understand the natural environment.

We have our very own gardener to ensure the maintenace of the play area too be of a high standard for your children.

Our kitchen is designed to feel like the children are having their meals at their home.

A warm décor of curtains and colourful lunch tables are provided where children can eat lunch in a relaxed and soothing environment. The Children can speak to our chefs during meal times and watch our chefs preparing meals for them. Our Educators can eat lunch with children and use this time to teach manners, etiquette and establish a healthy attitude towards food.

Our Qualified Chefs and Menu Planners Mary Mitropoulos and Claire McLachlan prepare nutritious meals in accordance with the Nutritional requirements for Long Day Care and in accordance with Get up and grow Healthy Eating and physical Activity for early Childhood.

Our Chefs incorporate fun cooking and nutritional experiences with the children as part of our curriculum.