We support your family values and work with you to expand your child’s world. Mastering new, age-appropriate skills, your child will build on accomplishments. Learning through play provides a solid foundation they can take to kindergarten and beyond. Led by experienced and caring staff, kids at YMCA Children’s Academy are encouraged to use their creativity, develop new skills and play with peers.
Children learn a lot through interaction and exploration. In other words, playing is learning. Playtime builds organizational skills. Playing with blocks teaches innovation and so on. We take every interaction we have as a learning experience to develop your child’s creative, intellectual, emotional, social and physical skills.
Your child’s safety and security, as well as their body, mind and spirit, are our central focus. We incorporate the fundamental focal points of personal development, physical activity, education, awareness and nutrition. We layer in learning through play with time to rest and recharge to give your child a healthy, well-rounded foundation to grow.
We use Creative Curriculum® with developmentally appropriate experiences to foster joyful learning, address specific needs, build skills for success and incorporate STEAM activities.
Benefits of Early Care:
Your maternity leave is coming to an end and sending your child to a new and strange place for the workday is probably the last thing you want to do. But enrolling your kid in daycare is one of the best things you can do for them.
When children are around other children their age, under the supervision of professionals, it’s beneficial for their emotional and social development. At the Y, children learn to share, resolve arguments and play well with others. They also make new friends, adopt skills that will help them later in life, and learn to become better at communicating. YMCA early care doesn’t just give parents the time they need to provide for their family, it also provides children with important social interactions that help them to learn and grow.
Children participating in a daycare program participate in a structured and supervised environment. While it may be more laid back than traditional schooling, it still follows a schedule including snack times, engaging learning activities and playtimes. Your child will follow a similar schedule once they begin Kindergarten and progress through grade school. Kids starting their ‘school’ career in YMCA Children’s Academy will find it easier to adjust to formal schooling.
It may seem like kids in daycare are always sick. All those early childhood sniffles pay off down the road by toughening up your child’s immune system. Similar to vaccines, exposure to germs and diseases when they are in daycare helps your kids to be better able to fight off illnesses as they grow older. In short, they’re getting it all out of their system now so they can grow into healthy adults.
“I realize putting your child in the care of someone else is a huge decision. Personally, I wrestled with it for quite some time before a neighbor recommended the YMCA Children’s Academy at University Park. The Y wasn’t just a place where my daughter learned how to play and socialize, but she also gained educational and nutritional components from her teachers. I feel the Y provided crucial social interaction skills she would not have learned anywhere else. I am deeply grateful to the Y. My daughter felt deep love and care from her caregivers. Now that I’m expecting my second child, I know exactly where I will be taking them.”
Frequently Asked Questions
