Welcome to Creative Garden Early Learning Bendigo!

We are excited to open Creative Garden Early Learning Bendigo located in the heart of Evergreen Waters.  Our state-of-the-art childcare centre provides quality care and education for children up to school age.

For your convenience, the centre boasts a range of services including nutritious meals, exciting incursions and a specialised Kindergarten program to prepare your child for school and beyond.

We have hand-picked and trained an amazing team of qualified early childhood educators to provide children with play based learning and development experiences to ensure they flourish in our care.

Creative Garden Bendigo promotes learning though natural resources and environments.  Recycling is a significant part of our curriculum with a recycling centre displayed in the foyer for families to add to as they enter and/or leave the service.  In the classrooms educators utilise these recycled goods for construction, art, drawing, imaginative play, classification, sorting and many other valuable learning experiences.   At present the 3 and 4 year old children are in the process of creating their own recycled paper which is very exciting. The children are encouraged to water plants with “leftover” water and share in the life journey of plants.

Our service has a vegetable patch which we will involve the children in exploring foods suitable to plant at this time of year and then involve the children in all steps of cultivating the soil, planting seeds, watering and eventually picking the foods grown. At present we are also exploring implementing worm farms into the centre which will support the richness of the soil for our vegetable patch.

In the outdoor area we have a fort that encourages imaginative play and also a hand crafted cubby house.  These areas are already popular with the children who engage in imaginative play and have already created some wonderful pirate ships.

The centre in its design is very environmentally friendly with high ceilings, sensor down lights, large expansive windows to enable the centre to be flooded with natural lighting.  Outdoors the garden incorporates a variety of materials and textures including dirt/mud, sand, woodchips/tanbark, pebbles, stones, large boulders, red gum seating, a wooden bridge, decking and concrete.  Such a variety of textures we believe promotes children as competent and capable of learners.

We have an open door policy and welcome you to visit the centre to learn more about our amazing educators, facilities curriculum and more. 

Our centre proudly offers a kindergarten/preschool program to ensure your child is supported for their transition to school every step of the way. With a focus on language, literacy, numeracy, social skills and more your child will become school ready. 

Amy Kinder

My name is Amy Kinder which is a very appropriate surname for this industry. I am a mum of 3 beautiful daughters who have my heart. I have worked in childcare for over 17 years now, having managed a few large centres in Bendigo. I have a Diploma in Children’s Services and recently extended my learning of child development and understanding with 5 years of Social and Community Services.

Psychology and children are a passion of mine. I enjoy figuring out how the child thinks and learns. It certainly helps around here. They do not get nearly enough credit for how much they understand at such a young age.

I enjoy engaging with educators and parents, to support the children so they make the most out of the learning opportunities that we provide here at Creative Garden. In particular, I have a soft spot for the children with additional needs, or the children with challenging behaviours. It just takes a higher level of sensitive engagement, which I find comes quite naturally for me.

I enjoy putting my heart and soul into things I am passionate about. Whether that be absolutely loving my own beautiful children or in my role of mentoring and motivating children’s services staff, offering high level customer service and support for the parents, extending the learning of your child or even playing a game of netball for my beloved club. I cannot help being a busy, positive, optimistic person. It is what I am. I see my staff group as a team and everyone has their own styles, and specialty skills…and together we are a tight unit. Trust, loyalty and respect are expectations I have of all team members towards every aspect of their time with us.

In the busy routines of family, work, studying or general day to day, life can be challenging on a good day. You need a place you can trust to hold your child in the highest regard, just as you do. They all have their own kind of special and we should nurture their needs as such. Hopefully I get to meet with you soon, for a tour and a chat about how I can best support you and your family.

Our Educators

Take A Virtual Tour!

Photo Gallery

Rooms

Our centre provides care for the following age groups:

Facilities

Our service provides the following facilities:

• Nappies included
• Breakfast
• Morning Tea
• Lunch
• Afternoon Tea
• Other meals – late snack
• Sustainability program
• Veggie garden
• On-site parking
• SMART Interavtive Whiteboard
• Classroom technology – computer/s
• In-house cook
• Halal Meal options
• Fully air-conditioned
• Large, natural play environments
• Water Play Area – offered regularly
• Early Childhood Teacher
• Government Approved Kindergarten program
• Hey Dee Ho music program every fortnight!
• Kindyhub – a parent communication app that will keep you up to date about your child anywhere, anytime, from any device
• We are ‘Building up a community garden for the children and community to work in together

Reviews and Testimonials

See what some of our parents say about our centre:

“From the first moment I contacted Creative Garden Early Learning Centre, I noticed that each and every staff member has been hand picked for their commitment to the support, care and education towards children. 

The facility is amazing and is the perfect setting for creative learning and in talking with the staff, it is fantastic to hear about their enthusiasm for developing the space even further. The staff are engaged in ensuring that the environment and routine is dependent on the children’s needs and desires. The most amazing aspect from my perspective is that the class sizes have been limited, to ensure safety, development, patience and the opportunity to know my child. This being integral as I believe his day care needs to be an extension of a family environment and I truly believe this of Creative Garden Early Learning Centre Bendigo.”

–  Prue and Oliver

“No words are enough to describe the centre. My son was first to get an admission into the centre and from that day onwards we have never looked back. Great facilities, great atmosphere and great support staff.”

–  Manthan

“We love Creative Garden Bendigo.  The facility is beautiful it’s so light and airy and wonderfully resourced with toys and equipment that encourage children to imagine and play.  The caring staff have spent time getting to know my child and family and are never too busy to answer questions or share stories about my son’s adventures and celebrations during the day.  

I enrolled my son at Creative Garden because of the convenient location but he will be staying because I know he will be nurtured, happy and safe every time he is there.”

– Amy

“Since my daughter started at Creative Garden her speech and fine motor skills have improved tremendously. She enjoys learning about growing grass and thoroughly enjoys the learning tables set up by the educators. She has become more self confident. I chose Creative Garden because when I walked through the center and spoke with staff I felt very at ease. I like that the toys are wooden and the children are encourage to use their imaginations. Truly a fantastic center. The staff are amazing, warm, welcoming and very informative.”

– Natalie

“As a mother new to day care I was very nervous and apprehensive about sending my girls to day care, until they started at Creative Garden Bendigo. From the first day the team at Creative Garden made us feel welcome, and through thier experience and kindness allowed the transition period go smoothly and easy. Being welcomed each day by Carlie  (Centre Manager), and given regular updates and photos throughout the day to let me know my girls were great.

The whole environment is warm and friendly which really makes you feel apart the Creative Garden family. Highly recommended.”

– Amber

“We could not be happier with Scarlett’s transition to Creative Garden. Right from the beginning, it was evident that the focus of this centre was not only to build another child care facility, but to develop a rich sense of community. The staff at Creative Garden are extremely welcoming, competent and caring. They show a very genuine passion for catering to the individual needs and interests of the children in their care. As a parent, it is reassuring know that your child will be cared for and nurtured throughout their day at care and so lovely to collect a happy child when it is time to go home!!! Congratulations and thank you to Carlie and all of the staff at Creative Garden.”

– Alannah

We’d love to welcome you to one of our Creative Garden Early Learning centres. If you would like to register your interest in a place at Creative Garden Early Learning Bendigo, please fill out the childcare enrolment form below. One of our educators will then be in touch to discuss your needs.