The Wee Care Center, Inc., was founded in 1964 as a mission of the First Presbyterian Church. The January opening of their pre-school and child day care facility consisted of three teachers, five children, and a five hundred dollar grant from the church. The Center's mission is to provide support for families by developing each child's intellectual, social, and emotional potential in a nurturing educational environment. Although still housed in the church and one of the church's ongoing missions, Wee Care Center's educational component is best described as having a secular orientation rather than one of faith based teaching. Speaking with Public Relations Liaison Julie Miller and Program Director Kathy Wigal, we received an in-depth look at their facility and their mission;
Wee Care Center, Inc. provides high quality child care and early childhood education for children from age two and a half through third grade. From the very beginning, our purpose has been to offer a valuable way for children to spend their time when they're away from their parents. We host a pre-school sector, a group for kindergarten students, and we provide care for first, second, and third graders before and after school complete with bussing to and from most Wooster City elementary schools. We're open to the public and with our access to church and United Way funding are able to offer a sliding scale for tuition based on family income.
We divide the year into themed units with our teachers planning their lessons around that particular theme. Our theme for one week may be numbers and another week's theme might be dinosaurs but each week, we build our lesson plans around providing the children with more knowledge about the current theme. During the pre-school portion of our day, the children will participate in literature, art, and music classes followed by time to develop their motor skills either outside or in our indoor facility. For students who attend our before and after school programs, we offer arts, crafts, and science activities in addition to providing time for homework completion and, of course, time for play. We have our own kitchen and provide breakfast, lunch, and an afternoon snack for the children every day.
Our goal is to maintain smaller teacher to child ratios than are required by the state with each pre-school class having two teachers at all times. The ratio for our two and three year old children is kept at two teachers to every ten children. Our three and four year olds have two teachers for every eighteen students, the four and five year olds have a ratio of two teachers to every twenty-two children, and the ratio for our school age students is one teacher for every twelve students. We're large enough to offer a variety of activities yet small enough that our staff knows each of our children by name and can address their personal needs.
Wee Care Center, Inc. is continually offering new programs designed to enrich the children's lives. Our new language enrichment program for our pre-schoolers helps prepare the children for school by working on speech articulation and pre-reading skills. Basic sign language is incorporated into language enrichment, as well as other areas of our program. We've also added computer facilities so the children can use their free time to play educational games. It gives them the opportunity to combine play and education while learning basic computer skills.
While providing our children with a variety of experiences, we encourage them to communicate their feelings, treat others with respect, and to negotiate appropriately with their classmates. When conflicts do arise, the children are taught to go to our "peace carpet" and to use their words to resolve their differences.
Top quality child care can be hard to find unless you know where to look. The next time you're searching for a nurturing environment for your child, call Wee Care Center, Inc. and don't forget to tell them that The Advocate sent you!
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