Carrie Benjamin

Welcome to Bright Eyes Academy! I am the owner and have been working with children for over 20 years in various programs from babysitting, camp counsellor, peer tutor, coach, to working in daycare’s, preschools, and out of school care programs. I also have an extensive back ground working with children and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder. My qualifications included: My ECCE Certificate and Licence to Practice obtained from Capilano University in North Vancouver. Prior to obtaining my ECCE certificate I studied business and marketing at Capilano University. I have training in Autism along with Non Violent Crisis Intervention training. Through my 20 plus years in this field I have obtained many certificates and attended many field related seminars. I feel strongly that learning is an ever changing on-going process.

A little bit about me

I am a wife and a mother of three beautiful girls and have two big boxers named Jager and Abby. My family and I lived in Ladner for 5 years. We loved living in Ladner especially for its great sense of community. We are now residing in Kelowna BC which is also a beautiful place to live! We have many connections to Ladner, one big one being Bright Eyes. We continue to spend a lot of time in Ladner! We moved to Kelowna with the hopes of expanding Bright Eyes, as well as, my husband had a great opportunity for employment within the security industry. When we are not busy with school and work, we love to go camping. We have a big trailer that we pack up to visit many nice places throughout BC. Our home in Kelowna is a very busy place and is always open to many of our friends and family who come to visit and sometimes stay with us.

Me and Childcare

Ever since I was a small child I had the desire to care for and teach children. I always had great games and activities planned for my sister and our friends. I am the older of two girls in my family so I often was in charge of looking after my sister when we came home from school. That turned into babysitting other neighbourhood children. I have always been actively involved in sports such as basketball and volleyball and often mentored and coached younger grades in school. I volunteered within schools and community programs when I was a youth. I always loved working with children. I am also the oldest cousin in my family so I spent lots of time caring for all my cousins right from the time they were babies. When I completed high school it was very obvious to me that I wanted to work with children, but had always wanted to have my own programs. That’s what prompted me to study business and marketing at college prior to taking the ECCE program. I worked in a busy daycare after I completed my ECCE and shortly after decided to stay at home and open a family daycare so I could care for my own children as well. This all eventually led me to open Bright Eyes Academy Inc in 2006. Our business has been very successful, which I am extremely proud of!

I have had the opportunity to work with so many children and their families of different ages and cultures. Every child is unique, and grows and learns in their own way. I enjoy meeting every child and learning about, who they are, where they come from, what they know, what they want to learn about and most importantly what they want to teach me. One of my favourite projects that I had the honour working on was with a group of preschool children ages 3 and 4. They were very interested in planting and growing. We, the teachers, provided them with so many means to explore this topic in the classroom, outside in the yard and in the community. To end this project the children, teachers and the parents worked together to plant a huge garden in the play yard both flowers and vegetables. This was several years ago and this garden today grows the biggest sunflowers that I have ever seen!

Conclusion

I believe in the Reggio approach to educating children. Children know so much and have so much to offer all of us and the world that we live in. Taking the time as an educator to really “listen” to children has given me some of the most rewarding experiences, and has provided me with endless opportunities.

On behalf of Bright Eyes Academy, we take pride in offering our programs to children and families of our community and invite all of you to come and join our family on our quest for knowledge.