The Ontario Early Years Centre - Haldimand & Norfolk is also a place where parents and caregivers can get answers to questions, and have an opportunity to talk to early years professionals, as well as other parents and caregivers in the community.
For a full listing of programs see "Your Guide"

Programming focuses on early learning and literacy. Parents/Caregivers and children can go to:

Play and Learn: A drop-in program for parents and caregivers to attend with their children. No child is too young. At Play and Learn children can play with toys, paint, and enjoy stories, songs and make new friends.

Moving with Music: Music is fun and educational. It helps with rhythm, coordination, mathematics, attention span and more.

Daddy and Me: Drop-in program lead by a man, for men and their little ones.

Infant Massage: Program designed to teach parents how to massage their babies for the purpose of nurturing, bonding, and relaxation. Massage has been found helpful to relieve gas and colic in some babies. Other benefits of massage are explored during the workshop series.

Parent-Child Mother Goose: Come and sing songs, tell rhymes and stories and see how much fun you and your child will have together!

Family Math: A fun, hands on program for parents, caregivers and their children aged 3-6. The program is based on the Junior Kindergarten (JK) Senior Kindergarten (SK) Ontario curriculum. Come and explore math with your children and have fun while doing it!

Baby Picasso/Toddler Art Works: Little ones explore art and creative mediums with their parents. Messy Babies at Play!

The staff at the Ontario Early Years Centre offer workshops for parents and professionals. Workshops vary from season to season so keep an eye on "Your Guide" to see what is currently available.

Some of the most popular workshops are:

Common Sense Parenting: Practical training program that gives parents effective discipline skills and helps them to be more positive with their young children.

Kids Have Stress Too: This workshop will help parents and caregivers learn how to recognize stress in children, identify causes and teach effective easy ways to manage stress.

Kindergarten Readiness: This workshop helps parents to get their little ones ready for the big step of going to school.

Parent Workshops: Other workshops include sleep, toilet learning, nutrition, ages and stages, value of play, safety, creative experiences with infants, etc.

The Ontario Early Years Centre offers workshops for professionals, including:

Seasonal Make and Takes: Create new file folder games and activities to use with the children in your programs. Good for updating your resources.

Ellison Die Press Training: Learn how to use the die press machines to their maximum potential to create exciting new resources, games and activities for your program.

Raising the Bar: Keep an eye on the Professional Development Calendar for a current list of workshops you may find interesting and meets your needs for "Raising the Bar"