Children & Friends

Our Learning & Teaching Team

Early Childhood Educator & Founder
Emelia Prayogo (Sp.Dipl, M.A.)

Hello! My name is Emelia and I would like to introduce you to Children & Friends. As a mother and a licensed Early Childhood Educator (ECE), I understand that finding a right place for your child could be a challenging task at times. I hope I could offer you some insights by welcoming you to my program.

I started my career as an early childhood educator in March 2008 in Singapore. Over the period of 11 years, I have been appointed to various leadership roles such as Pre-School Director and Director of Pedagogy. In my role as a Director of Pedagogy, I conduct professional training, curriculum design, and provide advisory for new pre-schools set up.

I graduated with a Master of Arts in Education (Early Childhood) from the Roehampton University (UK) and am instrumental in sealing a strategic alliance between EtonHouse and the Reggio Children Network in Feb 2013. My dedication also earned me the MCYS Outstanding Early Childhood Leader Award in 2012. In September 2016, I moved to British Columbia. Continuing with my teaching profession as a preschool teacher in a junior kindergarten in South Surrey has certainly reminisced my best years of childhood. My mother, as my role model, naturally shapes my understandings of how learning in early years could be so experiential yet fun!

I believe that every child has the right to be listened to and respected. Therefore, in my ways of working with children, I always remind myself to be sensitive and responsive to their verbal and non-verbal expressions. I firmly believe reciprocal relationships empower children to be confident and competent of their ideas, thinking, voices, and feelings. I also believe that children learn from examples within their context. When children live with respect, they learn to be respectful. When they live with integrity, they learn to be responsible and caring for other

There are more to share with you which is why I would like to invite you to visit Children & Friends Day Care.

- Emelia Prayogo

Community Pedagogist (2020 - mid 2022)
Jiyeon Kim (BECE, M.A.)
Thinking with postmodern theories, Jiyeon situates her work with the community of Surrey. Recognizing Surrey’s diverse ethnicity and socio-cultural differences, her pedagogical work with educators is focused on creating inclusive, deeply responsive pedagogical spaces in the early childhood education.
We are excited to share with you that we will have an Early Childhood Pedagogy Network (ECPN) pedagogist working with us regularly for the foreseeable future. The ECPN began launching the new role of pedagogist—a pedagogical and curriculum specialist who works with educators and their early childhood centre—in January 2020. The ECPN is an initiative funded by MCFD. We are excited to be working with the ECPN and Jiyeon.
In the next few months, Jiyeon will engage with educators in conversations about curriculum and the BC Early Learning Framework. Jiyeon will participate regularly (e.g., once a week, every other week) in the day-to-day curriculum at our centre. You may begin to notice some changes in our curriculum, for example, the introduction of new materials and ideas. Please be assured that our work with the ECPN pedagogist will focus on collective curriculum engagement and not on the individual assessment of children or educators.
Jiyeon welcomes any questions. Please feel free to connect directly with her via email at jkim2783@uwo.ca. You can also let us know if you would like us to organize a conversation with Jiyeon on your behalf. For more information you can: Visit the ECPN website www.ecpn.ca Follow the ECPN on Twitter @EcpnBc Follow us on Facebook: Early Childhood Pedagogy Network BC Email the ECPN at ecpn@uwo.ca

The MCFD-funded Early Childhood Pedagogy Network (ECPN) is the governing body that is establishing and coordinating a provincial network of pedagogists to serve communities by supporting the ongoing professional learning of early childhood educators (ECEs) in BC.

Hi everyone, my name is Jana!

My family and I immigrated to Canada from Philippines in 2006. Growing up as the older sister and cousin built the foundation of my dream to work with children. Being unsure which direction to take, I started my career as a practical nurse in 2012. Shortly after, I landed a government job as a data entry and administrative clerk. After years of searching for my path, I took the leap of faith to chase my lifelong passion to work with children. Fast forward to now, I am in my second year in obtaining my bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Care and Education at Capilano University.

As an educator, I strongly believe in treating curriculum as a living inquiry. This gives the opportunity to open doors to a wide range of new possibilities through valuing the children’s voices, capabilities and curiosities. It all starts with building relationships with each other, materials, our environment, and showing children the respect they deserve. But most of all, I enjoy having fun with the children, and viewing the world through their imagination!

Thank you,

Jana

Curriculum Framework
Emotional Quotient & Intelligent Quotient

How do young children learn?
Research has informed us that children bring to any learning encounter, an existing body of knowledge constructed from their experiences and interactions with the world. This knowledge forms the foundation for our on-going learning experiences.

How do we plan our curriculum?
At Children & Friends, our curriculum is organised according to the four areas outlined in British Columbia Early Learning Framework: well-being and belonging exploration and creativity languages and literacies social responsibility and diversity.

How do we ‘see’ children?
With inspiration from Reggio Emilia of the image of child, Children & Friends incorporates the values and beliefs we hold about children, children’s learning through play and the role of the educator within the process. At Children & Friends, the image of child that we hold is a competent, creative, expressive, and full of potentials being.

Our image of child influences
How we define ‘learning’ for a child i.e. the type of learning through play experiences that we value and provide for children; How we construct the expectations that we hold about how, what, and when children should learn through play; How we design our indoor and outdoor environments to best support children’s learning; How we assess children’s development and progress of learning.

The types of learning environments that we design to best support learning
We believe that children learn best when the learning experience is meaningful to them. Play is acknowledged as a vehicle for the child’s learning and we see play as the integrative device which supports children in making meaning eg. a cooking experience offers children opportunities to observe, use mathematical and scientific understandings as well as participate in a social group.

How we assess children’s development and learning
Through our ongoing observation of children’s interactions with peers, materials and adults, we are able to assess your child’s current level of skill, knowledge and interest. In developing a profile of each child’s learning style and their existing knowledge base, our educators plan subsequent learning experiences designed to extend and challenge children’s thinking.

Environment as the Third Teacher in Children & Friends

We believe that children learn best when their learning spaces are designed
to their best abilities and interests in making meaning to self and others.