About Us
Adventures in Learning.
At Happy Explorers Learning Academy, our focus is on adventures in learning – in helping children see the exciting possibilities in the world around them as they grow and experience life. We opened in 2019 as a family-owned licensed childcare facility offering 49 full-time spaces for children between the ages of 3 months and 5 years. In 2024, we are excited to be expanding to provide an additional 39 spaces at Happy Explorers! We strive to ensure that every explorer and their family feels comfortable and has a sense of belonging in our centre and with our educators.
Our program is an inspiring play-based and child-led curriculum which draws from the Reggio Emilia approach. These approaches engage the explorers through discovery, music, movement, process arts, imaginative play, and language. Children are able to explore the outdoors and create a positive relationship with nature.
Providing your explorer with a total curriculum that follows the Ministry of Education’s pedagogical foundation document entitled “How Does Learning Happen?”, while maintaining a free but structured environment that optimizes their natural curiosity to gain confidence and a positive sense of self.
Our goal each and every day within our learning academy is to provide each child with a safe, nurturing environment to discover more about the world around them, grow friendships, and explore the world of learning.
An Explorer is defined as "a person who explores an unfamiliar area".
At Happy Explorers Learning Academy our explorers have the opportunity to examine, evaluate, discuss, discover and inquire - every moment of every day.
FOUNDER’S STORY
Happy Explorers Learning Academy is more than a licensed child care facility – it is a family-based learning environment founded in 2019. As one of the founding families, Ashley and Scott Folkard, working parents to 2 children experienced firsthand how difficult finding quality child care is in the Township of Wilmot. By opening New Hamburg’s only licensed, full time childcare facility, Happy Explorers hopes to fill the void in the community by providing child care programs with an emphasis on self-discovery, self-respect, respect of others and respect of the environment.
From the beginning and continuing today, every aspect of Happy Explorers is very family-oriented from the renovation, design and maintenance of the daycare. As the small-town community is also very much a part of our extended family, every effort is made to support the local community and businesses first.
“It takes a big heart to shape little minds.”
-unkown
Happy Explorers wouldn’t be what it is without our team of educators.