About our

Centre (Home)

During the past 10 years I have taken note of what has and has not worked. During the pandemic, I decided to apply what I have learned over the past decade to renovate both the space and program. With over 2000 sqft of indoor space and 3000 sqft of outdoor space, Olio provides the spaciousness of a commercial centre with all the comforts and calm of home-based centre. Truly the best of both worlds.

Our Story

Olio’s first decade began in 2012 as solution to the lack of Vancouver, metropolitan-level quality care in Surrey, BC. As we reach the end of our first 10 yrs, I’m excited to enter the next phase of Olio!

Our Space

Where Wabi-Sabi meets High-tech.

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Wabi Sabi

A Japanese design philosophy where natural textures and shapes are valued for their ability to encourage calm. Our space emphasizes natural, found elements such as hard-woods, plaster, and plants to create a warm inviting space for kids to play and learn.

Hey Siri!

Powered by Siri’s Homekit, smart lighting automatically brightens, dims, and changes hues, based on the program’s schedule, while whole house speakers automatically shift the soundscape, helping to reinforce the daily rhythm. True HEPA filters are scheduled to power on regularly to maintain clean healthy air.

Safety

Olio is kept secure from fire, flood, and unwanted visitors via a security system that notifies staff of unlocked doors and suspicious movements. Security is enhanced with hardwired & wifi-enabled smoke and flood sensors, as well as discrete security monitors, creating peace of mind for staff and parents alike. All safety alerts are subtly sent to the manager’s smart-watch, out of sight of the children gaze.

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Our Program

Play-based Emergent Curriculum.

1. Montessori

Over 20 wooden Montessori trays are spread across child-height shelving, encouraging children to naturally move from one chosen activity to the next. Children learn to develop life-long decision making skills through this practice of engaging in carefully curated Montessori learning materials.
2. Reggio

The classroom is the “3rd teacher” (the 1st and 2nd being the child and teacher, respectively) that acts as a living organism, which adapts to the social and emotional needs of the children. This is why so much attention has been put into how the space looks and functions. Modular furniture coupled with a Wabi Sabi design philosophy, encourages the space to transform with ease.
3. Wardolf

Where Montessori materials encourage “real-life” learning, our Wardolf ones allow children to escape to a world of imaginative play. Warfolf playstands, arches, and a Swedish ladder, encourages children to learn in a more relaxed manner through dramatic and gross-motor play.

The 5 Domains

Cognitive

In the most traditional sense, children learn by reading and writing. At the pre-k age, children learn “academic skills” by mastering the precursors to school-age skills. For example, before they learn to grip a pencil, they strengthen their fine-motor skills by creating play dough sculptures, by painting, or by using tweezers to pickup wooden beads.

We live in a social world, where one’s social connections can often create more advantages than one’s actual intelligence. Naturally, the way activities are structured or even the behavioural interventions educators employ strongly impact the social skills young children interact with others. In some cases, allowing children debate can allow them to develop effective problem solving skills. At other times, it is important for staff to intervene and direct tension towards a solution. My education Sociology and Social Work provides me an acute awareness of social dynamics, allowing me to make these sort of decisions very efficiently.

Emotional intelligence is the ability to accurately identity others and one’s own emotions. It is also the ability to regulate them. When a toddler literally cries over spilt milk, it is because of an undeveloped emotional intelligence. Our aim is encourage children to feel ALL their feelings, while also helping their appropriately express them or respond to their own or other’s emotions. In a strictly Montessori atmosphere, children are often deprived the ability to engage in dramatic play, which is why we integrate the Wardolf approach, which we believe helps address the emotional domain more effectively.

Talking, reading ,and writing are the backbones of language. At this age, Group sing-a-longs, puppet shows, and art activities help children develop their language through repetition and play. Contextualizing language in a diorama helps children place new words in the context of the real world, speeding up the rate at which children identify, categorize, and store new words and phrases into their working and long-term memory.

The mantra “let the kids play!” largely in response to the sedentary nature of modern life, where children have less opportunities to move. Indoors, we’ve dedicated an entire space of climbing, crawling, jumping, and balancing. Our outdoor space have even larger structures and open space for children to just run, play, develop coordination skills so that they physical confidence.

Schemas

Children use patterns of repetitive behaviours to learn new skills. You might observe your children stacking rocks over and over again, or repetitively dumping toys down the slide. Keeping these concepts top-of-mind allows staff to guide a simple 5 minute activity into a longer more complex one with more learning opportunities.

Transporting

Children learn that objects can be moved from one place to another, such as moving play-doh from its container to the table.

Basic Info

Hours

Mon-Fri, 745am-5pm

Age Group

1 – 5 yrs

Location

16141 90 ave Surrey, BC

Indoor Space

2000+ sqft

License

310 Multiage

Outdoor Space

3000+ sqft