In early 2025, pedagogist April Martin began working alongside the Kits House childcare team, through a grant-supported partnership with the Early Childhood Pedagogy Network (ECPN). They began working alongside children and educators across our childcare programs.
April brings a varied background to the role. They have a Bachelor of Education, completed a master’s degree in education with a focus on pedagogy, and has experience working in neighbourhood houses. April is also an active artist.
When April first began working at Kits House, they spent time in the childcare programs and joined children on walks. Before beginning their work, they wanted to understand the existing culture of each program and get to know the children and educators.
“Everything is relational when you come into a program,” April says. “The first part was getting to know the children, families, and educators. What is actually happening here? What are you doing that you would like to continue to nurture, and what are some things you would like to transform?”
“We started by doing walks and getting to know what was happening. You’re embedding yourself into the program so that you can understand its culture. Then you begin to notice things that are happening, and you might bring those things into conversation with the educators.”
Drawing Together
Drawing became one of April’s first ways of building relationships with children at Kits House childcare. Drawing materials were already a familiar part of the childcare environment, and April began exploring alongside children and educators what else might be possible, using these in new ways.
“I use drawing as a way to develop a pedagogical relationship because it’s ubiquitous. We always have materials for drawing,” April says. “Particularly with infants, I wanted to do large drawings so that they could use their bodies, and that was how we started.”
Together, they began experimenting with larger surfaces that allowed infants and toddlers to draw using their whole bodies. They also invited groups of children to collaborate on the same drawing.
“I often offer collective drawing because that changes the way children draw,” April explains. “Instead of, ‘This is my drawing, and it’s only mine,’ you offer something big and collective. Children draw together, and they start to share ideas more.”
April says drawing can be a language through which children explore ideas, make connections, and show how they are thinking.
“The way I introduce drawing to educators and children is: Let’s try to draw differently,” April says. “I use different materials, and I think about drawing as a language – as a way to develop ideas and understand how children are thinking. Drawing is thinking.”
These drawings became part of the program’s pedagogical documentation. Alongside photographs, observations, and records of conversations – recording the children’s thinking that might otherwise be lost.
Working with Insects
In another program, the starting point was a group of unexpected visitors. Insects had begun finding their way inside the classroom. Rather than removing them, April and the educators paid attention to the children’s interest.
“We were thinking about where something actually belongs,” April says. “There was this idea that the insects were not supposed to be there, but why would insects be drawn inside?”
“We wanted to follow that line of thinking with children: Where would they be hiding? Why are they hiding? Where is their home? Do we make a home for them outside? Do we make a home for them inside? We used those questions and then made the ideas visible through drawing.”
Children considered how the insects moved and whether they could move their own bodies in similar ways.
The encounters also raised some hard questions. Children wanted to touch the insects, but sometimes the creatures were harmed by accident.
“How do we care for something that is different from us?” April asks.
“Normally, we might use language such as, ‘Stop,’ ‘Only be gentle’ or ‘Look with your eyes,’” April says. “We asked, ‘How can we talk about that differently?’ Can we say, ‘Go slowly’? Instead of only saying, ‘Look with your eyes,’ how might we touch? Do we want to touch them?”
For April and the educators, these moments also created opportunities to reflect together on familiar practices, and consider them from different perspectives. “One educator said that made her think differently about how she might engage with children in that situation.”
The Black Flowers
While working with children at the Maple childcare centre, April encountered another idea that could easily have passed without further discussion.
The children were drawing insects, bees and flowers when some of them began describing what they had created as “black flowers.”
“The children started drawing things and saying, ‘These are the black flowers.’ To me, that was curious,” April recalls. “I asked, ‘What do the black flowers do?’ They said, ‘Those are special flowers. This is for this insect, and that is for that insect.’ The children were thinking very deeply about those things.”
For April, moments like this demonstrate the importance of listening without assuming that the adult already understands what a child means.
“If you approach conversations in a way that gives children respect and agency, things will grow and blossom,” April says.
“When we think about young children, there are these things we assume: they’re young, and they only have their developmental stages,” April says. “But children are small people exploring the world who have less experience. Sometimes their insight gives you a different experience, even if you’ve been doing this work for years.”
In each story, learning began with something the children noticed or created. By reflecting together, April and the educators explore their ideas by staying curious and asking questions.
“It offers a way of doing education differently from an authoritative, ‘I know all the answers,’” April says. “Instead, it’s, ‘Let’s find out together. Let’s investigate this together.’”
Reflecting, growing, and continuously evolving our practice has always been part of our work. Having a pedagogist like April working alongside our experienced childcare teams has created even more space for that work – bringing another perspective, asking questions, exploring ideas together, and building on the thoughtful practice already happening across our programs. With community support, we hope to continue having a pedagogist work alongside our childcare teams.
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