Daycare in Ledyard Center has successful first year
It’s not often a business nearing the end of its first year can look back and see improvement in each successive month.
But at First Leaps Together, a Ledyard preschool and day care center, that’s exactly what happened.
The school, which owner Krista Bordeleau formed in part to fill the void left when Ledyard Center Nursery School closed in 2013, began at about 50 percent capacity.
By its first graduation in mid-June, that number was closer to 100.
“It is a challenge in this field to go into a second year with that high of an enrollment,” Bordeleau said. “It’s something we’re proud of.”
But just because the regular school year is over doesn’t mean First Leaps is finished.
Bordeleau, who champions the center’s flexibility, offers a summer program, too. It’s like the regular school year — a combination of guided, meaningful play and teacher-structured time for half or full days, five, three or two days a week — but with themes and a bit of added fun.
Bordeleau invites guests who play into the themes, too, such as Ledyard Public Libraries Children’s Librarian Nancy Brewer.
Brewer, who performed occasional story times for Ledyard Center children beginning in the late 1980s, has the events down to a science: she brings along picture boards, stuffed animals, puppets and even goofy hats that relate to the book she’s reading, often encouraging children to sing or act out the story, too.
“I love watching the kids’ faces when I read something funny and they laugh, or when something happens and they get really nervous,” Brewer said. “One of my goals has always been to get kids to love books. Anything I can do to make that happen is really a fun thing to do.”
During the summer, she said, that goal becomes even more important to her.
“It’s been proven over and over again that, if (children) stay involved with books over the summer, they do not lose nearly as much learning as the kids who don’t,” Brewer said.
For Priscilla Quilter, a registered nurse who found First Leaps shortly after Backus Hospital stopped offering daycare, the summer program — and the flexible hours in general — gives her “peace of mind.”
“It’s a traditional nursery school, which I like, but with extended hours,” Quilter said. “Some mornings we’re there early, around 7:30 or 8. And most of the time, my kids are the last ones picked up. (Bordeleau) has been super accommodating.”
Her son, Ayden, 6, attended the center’s after-school program throughout the past year, which runs until 5:30 p.m. And her daughter, Allyson, who just turned 4, attends the school full-time, Monday through Friday.
“I think it’s great she stayed open all summer,” Quilter said, explaining that many summer camps aren’t yet available for 6-year-old children.
Quilter said she loves the structure of the school’s programs and the teachers, too.
“They’re just extended family at this point,” she said. “The teachers are very in tune to the kids — they can almost predict what’s happening, they know my kids so well. You can tell they love what they’re doing.”
Halley Muench, whose second child attends First Leaps — her first attended Ledyard Center — likes the flexibility for a different reason: she opted for the Monday-Wednesday-Friday choice, typically only keeping her child there for a half day.
That way, the stay-at-home mom said, she could still see her children while also knowing they were being prepared for kindergarten.
“We’re in a bubble, if you will,” she said. “We’re not always out there with other kids and interacting. I have seen that social aspect blossom in both of my children with those teachers.”
The teaching staff, she noted, is almost identical to that of Ledyard Center Nursery School.
“After hearing Ledyard Center had closed, I signed up for a (different) nursery, sadly,” Muench said. “When Krista called and said, ‘We’re opening, we’re opening,’ I ate the $100 fee (to transfer). That’s how excited I was to be with those teachers.”
Bordeleau said the experienced staff has been key to First Leaps’ success.
“To have veteran preschool teachers … that know what each other are doing and don’t even have to look is something you really can’t replace,” she said. “In the beginning of opening a school, it would take years to get a team in unison like that.”
First Leaps, whose summer program ends Aug. 21, still has a few spots open for the upcoming school year. Families who are interested can set up a tour through the school’s website, www.firstleapstogether.com.
“Krista’s done an amazing job,” Quilter said. “She had a vision and it’s unfolding before her eyes, it’s evolving every day. I think just every child that can have an opportunity in that learning environment should give it a try.”
l.boyle@theday.com
Twitter: @LindsayABoyle
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