Early Childhood Learning Center (ECLC)

Our Vision

• We strive to be a community of learners who honor and support loving, honest and open relationships.
• We honor the rights of each individual to discover, explore and have a sense of wonder and joy through authentic, inspiring, and natural environments.
• We recognize and encourage the sharing of early childhood knowledge within the community to create a better world.

Our Vision

The Early Childhood Learning Center’s mission is to maintain a quality early childhood program led by qualified early childhood professionals, while promoting lifelong learning and opportunities for children, parents and students.

Our Philosophy

Our program’s philosophy is based on our beliefs of how a quality program encourages and supports children, families, and early childhood professionals.

We Believe

Incorporating children’s knowledge, experience, and interests into the learning process is crucial in building new knowledge.

Integrating children’s social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development assists children in making critical connections in brain development and develops the “whole child.”

Offering a safe, nurturing, active, social, learning environment allows children to build relationships, work independently and cooperatively, learn from others, make choices, be creative, and discover new meaning and understanding.

Self-regulation is a process of guiding children in a positive way to be independent, to respect the rights and feelings of others, and to see the positive results of acting appropriately. Involving children in the process of solving problems socially through negotiation, discussion, compromise, and standing their ground is instrumental in the process.

Recognizing and embracing our similarities and differences encourages us to accept, value, and empathize with ourselves and others in our world.

Parents are the most important influence in any child’s life.

Partnering with families by sharing knowledge, experiences, cultures, and goals for their children is essential in the development of each child.

Employing and mentoring quality early childhood professionals is a key component to the success of our program, which integrates children, families, students, and teachers in the process of teaching and learning.

Serving as a quality lab-site for early childhood students provides a valuable cooperative learning opportunity for not only the lab students but also for our children, families, and teachers.

Goals

The ECLC goals for children are based on developing the “whole child”, which includes social, emotional, cognitive and physical development. Individual goals will be developed cooperatively between parents and teachers. Assessment of goals will be discussed at Parent/Child visits and Parent/Teacher Conferences, and compiled in the individual child’s portfolio.

What makes us unique:

When you walk through our doors, you will notice that we look and operate differently than most childcares in town. All of our classrooms have degreed teachers who create weekly lesson plans based on what they observe the children are interested in and where the children are developmentally.

We partner with the early childhood education program here on campus, acting as a lab site for their students to practice what they are learning in a real-life, high-quality early childhood setting.

Our environments are utilized as a third teacher in the classroom through the intentional choice of authentic and beautiful open-ended materials. They are set up to be home-like and welcoming.

We allow for children and staff to be barefoot in the classroom and outside (weather permitting).

We believe that children deserve to have a relationship with nature and utilize our outdoor learning environment daily (unless inclement weather prohibits it). This means we are outside in all weather conditions—sunny, rainy, and snowy.

Preschool and Childcare Center

• Main office phone number: 307-268-2586
• Ages: Infant to 6 years

Accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. ECLC participates in the CACFP program. USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.