The new All4Learning Childcare Center held an Open House at Washington Elementary School this evening to showcase the new rooms, services, and people opening in Crookston soon.
The Center is at the south end of Washington Elementary School and has two rooms for children ages birth to five.
“We have an infant room which will serve newborns to children up to eighteen months old, and our toddler/Pre room will be children ages eighteen months to about three years old,” All4Learning Childcare Center Director Stephanie Okroi explained. “The state of Minnesota makes it so we can’t have children in a classroom that are over two years of age for each other, which is a bit of a struggle sometimes if you have siblings.”
The Center is not open yet, but Okroi hopes to officially open the doors on Monday, March 6, as they are waiting to receive a Certificate to Serve to allow them to serve certain meals. If they are unable to open by Monday, the Center will be open by April.
The Childcare Center will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday-Fridays but will follow the time schedules and calendar days as Washington School. Such as being closed for major holidays, weekends, during storm/snow days, and opening at 10:00 a.m. if the school has a delayed opening. The Center will contact parents via phone calls about any updates to the Center’s opening and closing times and any other issues or updates with the children to the parents. At the Childcare Center, children will have access to many of the necessities in Washington Elementary School and parts of the city to help them have fun and begin learning.
“We’ll have access to the gym and the playground at Washington and the City Park down the road,” said Okroi. “We will also have a curriculum that we’ll follow, so all of the children will be doing all sorts of things. Even infants will be doing art as sensory stuff is important at a young age, so we will have lots of fun as we go.”
The Center will also complete daily infant sheets to inform parents of what their child completed and how their day went. The Center will also ask parents when the child ate last and when they will be picked up to ensure the child is fed, changed, and happy when the parent picks them up in case they have to run any errands after they pick them up. The Center is currently employed with six staff members, which will have two members in each room, and the remaining two floating between them to help in any way they can or in case a child needs an extra one-on-one with a staff member.
The Center currently has 22 children registered to join the Center, with eight and fourteen toddlers, but is open to taking more in both rooms.
“In our infant room, we have eight babies, but we will be licensed to house up to 18. We will be starting with eight as a start to fully develop, and putting 18 babies in one room is kind of a lot, so we’re starting eight, and we only have two spots left,” said Okroi. “Then, in our toddler room, we have 14 toddlers, which we could have 22, but we are starting in that lower bracket to get our T’s crossed and know what we’re doing with the state. But, we are filling quickly, and I hope to serve as many families as I can as time goes down and branch off and grow in Crookston.”
Pictures of the All4Learning Childcare Center can be seen below-
