Inventive Minds Child, Youth and Family Center

Inventive Minds Child, Youth and Family Center Inventiveminds Child, Youth and Family Support Center is a not-for-profit organization with a mission Find all our Safety Inspections & Certifications here.

Our Vision and Philosophy

Inventive Minds Child, Youth and Family Support Center, was established in 2011. We are a not-for-profit organization with a mission to support and empower families and children to be the best version of themselves. We help families to develop the skills needed to build a harmonious and supportive home and educational environment and a safe space to thrive. We believe the community and educational environment of children help to support and shape their future. With that in mind, we nurture their emotional and intellectual intelligence starting from pre-birth through the teen years. To raise independent and responsible children, we help them to develop high-level social and communication skills, emotional self-regulation, independence, and academic confidence. Childcare & Elementary

At Inventive Minds, we believe in working with the families to provide the healthiest environment for the children in our care. We do this by providing high-quality child care at our Thornhill facility for infants to age 6. We also offer child care through our in-home child care providers trained under the Positive Early Childhood Education (P.E.C.E) and licensed under the Ministry of Education CCEYA Act. Inventive Minds College is our private elementary school. We offer a full day curriculum and programs for Junior Kindergarten to Grade 3. Our curriculum combines the best of three complementary educational methods—Montessori, Core Knowledge and High Scope—in an inspiring environment. Children learn and explore in a safe and nurturing setting with educated, trained and qualified teaching staff. Our educators show children that learning is fun and start them down the path to future success! Counselling & Mediation

We extend our services by offering Community Programs, such as Family Therapy sessions by registered Positive Parenting Practitioners, therapists, social workers. In addition we offer Parenting Mediation & Litigation Services. Our experienced family mediators can assist you to work out all aspects of your separation including parenting plans (custody and access), child support, spousal support and division of property. We can also help you make changes to existing arrangements or to address issues that have arisen.

09/29/2026

Want your preschooler to read? Start with sounds, not just letters. 🔤

Most parents begin with the ABCs, but phonics is the real secret to early reading. Here's a simple 4-step way to teach your child to read at home:

1. Teach letter sounds first. Show the letter "s" and practice its sound.
2. Blend the sounds together. Once your child knows a few letter sounds, start putting them together to build words.
3. Start with short, simple words your child can sound out.
4. Turn it into a game. Hunt for objects around the house and ask, "What sound does this word start with?"

Read together every day. Point to the words, sound them out, and talk about what they mean.

Keep practice short, positive, and consistent. Learning to read isn't about memorizing words. It's about understanding how letters and sounds work together to unlock words.

Save this for your next reading practice session and share it with a parent who needs it!

And if you'd like more support along the way, we're here to help. Inventive Minds Academy nurtures curious, confident young readers. Want to know how we can support your child's learning journey? Visit www.inventivekidz.com 🌟

Every kindergarten child is impulsive and distractible to some degree. The developing brain at this age simply does not ...
09/28/2026

Every kindergarten child is impulsive and distractible to some degree. The developing brain at this age simply does not yet have the wiring for consistent self control.

The question is not whether a child struggles with attention and impulse control. It is whether the degree of difficulty is significantly greater than peers and whether it is showing up consistently across multiple settings, at home, at school, and in social situations.

ADHD is formally diagnosable from age four. When hyperactive, impulsive, or inattentive behaviors are markedly more pronounced than developmental peers and persist across contexts, a professional assessment provides clarity and opens the door to effective early support.

The American Academy of Pediatrics is unambiguous on intervention sequence. For kindergarten aged children, behavioral strategies are the recommended first line approach.

Structure, routine, clear expectations, and consistent responses are the most powerful tools available at this stage.

Medication is not the starting point. Skills and environment are.

At Inventive Minds, our JK and SK educators and ADD/ADHD support team are equipped to identify early indicators and work with families to build the right support structure.

👉 Visit inventivekidz.com to learn more about our special needs support services.
📞 +1-905-886-5437
📧 [email protected]

When a child refuses to go to school, the instinct is often to treat it as defiance. The clinical picture is almost alwa...
09/25/2026

When a child refuses to go to school, the instinct is often to treat it as defiance. The clinical picture is almost always different.

School refusal at kindergarten age is primarily an anxiety response. For many children, entering a structured institutional environment for the first time is a genuine neurological stress event. It combines separation from the primary caregiver, exposure to unfamiliar adults and peers, and the demands of a structured setting, all simultaneously.

For children with higher anxiety sensitivity, that combination can feel genuinely overwhelming.

The critical mistake is allowing avoidance to continue. Every day a child avoids school, their brain records additional confirmation that school is threatening. Avoidance provides short term relief while making the return progressively harder.

Gradual, structured, and supported re-entry is the evidence supported response. Working collaboratively between parent and educator to rebuild the child's sense of safety in the school environment consistently produces better outcomes than either forced attendance or extended absence.

At Inventive Minds, our JK and SK educators and counselling team work closely with families navigating school transition anxiety to make the process as smooth and supported as possible.

👉 Visit inventivekidz.com to learn more about our kindergarten program.
📞 +1-905-886-5437
📧 [email protected]

09/16/2026

How do you build critical thinking in a preschooler? 🧠

According to Harvard's Center on the Developing Child, executive function skills like problem-solving, flexible thinking, and self-control develop through practice and everyday experiences, not through worksheets or flashcards.

So how can parents support critical thinking skills in preschoolers?

✅ Give your child age-appropriate challenges and let them have time to work through it
✅ If they're trying to complete a puzzle, build something, or solve a simple problem, resist the urge to step in and do it for them
✅ Let them try, let them make mistakes, and let them try again
✅ As their skills grow, gradually step back and give them more chances to manage small challenges independently

Critical thinking in early childhood grows through practice. Sometimes the best thing you can give a child isn't the answer, it's the opportunity to figure it out.

This is exactly the kind of intentional, play-based learning we build into every day at Inventive Kidz Academy.

📍 Want to see how we nurture problem-solving, independence, and confidence in our preschool and daycare programs? Visit www.inventivekidz.com to book a tour or learn more.

Sharing is one of the most frequently demanded behaviors from preschoolers and one of the least developmentally appropri...
09/14/2026

Sharing is one of the most frequently demanded behaviors from preschoolers and one of the least developmentally appropriate demands we place on them.

Genuine sharing requires a sophisticated sequence of cognitive capacities. Understanding ownership, developing empathy for another person's desire, tolerating the discomfort of delayed gratification, and choosing to give something up voluntarily. None of these capacities are fully developed in children under five.

When a preschooler refuses to share, they are not being selfish in the moral sense. They are operating at the edge of their current developmental capacity.

Forced sharing consistently teaches the wrong lesson. When an adult compels a child to hand over a toy, the child learns that resistance eventually loses, not that generosity feels good. That is a compliance lesson, not a social one.

The most effective developmental bridge is structured turn taking. Turn taking introduces the concept of waiting, the experience of receiving after giving, and the social reward of a fair exchange, all within a framework the preschool brain can actually process.

Voluntary sharing emerges naturally from a child who has had enough positive turn taking experiences to understand that giving something up temporarily does not mean losing it forever.

At Inventive Minds, our preschool educators build social cognitive skills through intentional, structured peer interactions every day.

👉 Visit inventivekidz.com to learn more about our reschool program.
📞 +1-905-886-5437
📧 [email protected]

Toilet training is one of the most common sources of conflict between preschoolers and their caregivers, and one of the ...
09/11/2026

Toilet training is one of the most common sources of conflict between preschoolers and their caregivers, and one of the most mismanaged.

The foundational principle that clinical research consistently supports is this. Toilet training cannot be forced. It requires a level of neurological development, specifically the ability to recognize and respond to bodily signals, that arrives on the child's timeline, not the parent's.

When training is pushed before readiness, the child experiences it as a loss of control in a domain that belongs entirely to them. The body is the one thing a preschooler owns completely. Resistance in this domain is not defiance. It is a boundary being enforced by the only means available.

The clinical evidence on forced toilet training is consistent. Pressure does not accelerate the process. It extends it. Children who experience high pressure toilet training take significantly longer to train reliably than children whose readiness is followed.

Child led, low pressure approaches, where the child initiates and the caregiver supports without urgency, consistently produce faster, more lasting results with less conflict and fewer setbacks.

At Inventive Minds, our preschool educators and parenting workshops support families through toilet training with patience, evidence informed strategies, and zero pressure.

👉 Visit inventivekidz.com to explore our preschool program and parenting resources.
📞 +1-905-886-5437
📧 [email protected]

09/07/2026

Back-to-school can bring new routines, new responsibilities, and new decisions—especially for families navigating life after separation.

An existing parenting agreement may have worked well when it was created, but circumstances can change.

Children grow. School and childcare needs change. Work schedules shift. Expenses increase. A move to a new home or community can create new questions about transportation, parenting time, travel, and communication.

Before the school year begins, it may be helpful for parents to revisit:

• Parenting and transportation schedules
• School and childcare arrangements
• Extracurricular activities
• Communication with teachers and the school
• Homework and technology expectations
• How shared or unexpected expenses will be handled
• Changes to work schedules or living arrangements

The goal is not for both households to operate exactly the same way.

And it isn’t necessarily about creating an entirely new agreement.

The goal is to create enough clarity, consistency, and flexibility that the plan reflects your family’s circumstances today—and gives your child a clear sense of what to expect.

When making changes together feels difficult, family mediation can provide a structured space to discuss what has changed and explore practical options.

Sometimes, the best plan isn’t a brand-new plan.

It’s an existing plan that has been updated to fit the family you are now.

Not sure if your parenting plan still fits your family? Visit www.inventivekidz.com to explore how mediation can help you find clarity before the school year begins.

When your preschooler looks you in the eye and tells you something you know is not true, it can feel alarming. It is act...
09/07/2026

When your preschooler looks you in the eye and tells you something you know is not true, it can feel alarming. It is actually a sign of developmental progress.

Lying requires a sophisticated cognitive leap. A child must understand that you do not know what they know, that reality can be represented differently in language, and that different versions of events produce different outcomes. That is advanced thinking for a three or four year old.

Preschoolers lie for three primary reasons. To avoid a consequence they anticipate will be unpleasant. To protect someone else's feelings. And to test what is socially possible in their world. None of these motivations are signs of a dishonest character forming.

The response that backfires most reliably is shame. When honesty is met with harsh reactions, children do not stop lying. They become more careful about when and how they do it.

The environment that produces honest children is one where telling the truth feels safer than the alternative. When a child knows that coming forward with the truth will be met with calm, connection, and fair consequences, honesty becomes the rational choice.

At Inventive Minds, our educators and counsellors support families in building the kind of trust based relationships where children feel safe telling the truth.

👉 Visit inventivekidz.com to explore our preschool program and parenting resources.
📞 +1-905-886-5437
📧 [email protected]

09/04/2026

If your child cries at drop-off, it doesn't mean you're doing something wrong. 💛

Separation anxiety is a completely normal part of early childhood. Your little one's brain is still learning that "goodbye" doesn't mean "gone forever."

Instead of trying to stop the tears, you can help their nervous system learn that separation is safe:

🧠 Talk about preschool in advance: what their day will look like, who they'll see, and when you'll be back
🕐 Practice short separations at home so they experience "mom/dad always comes back"
💛 Remember, the goal isn't zero tears. It's helping them learn "I can be away from my parent, and I am still safe."

Every child adjusts at their own pace, and that's okay.

👉 Visit www.inventivekidz.com to learn more about our preschool programs and how we support little ones (and their parents!) through this transition.

09/02/2026

Your toddler doesn't need more praise. They need better praise. 👇

If "good job" is your go-to at drop-off, it's probably not landing the way you think. Kids respond to specific feedback, not generic phrases, because specific praise creates an emotional response that makes them want to repeat the behavior.

Small, consistent recognition (paired with something visual, like a sticker chart) does more for a child's confidence than we usually give it credit for.

📖 Want the full breakdown of why this works? Read the full article on our website: https://tinyurl.com/3jjvyzf7

Address

7751 Yonge Street
Markham, ON
L3T2C4

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 8pm
Tuesday 9am - 8pm
Wednesday 9am - 8pm
Thursday 9am - 8pm
Friday 9am - 8pm

Telephone

+19058865437

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