The Children’s Center opened its doors in September 1971, beginning with only a handful of children in a donated space & a budget of only a few thousand dollars. Since then, the Center has grown into a model of quality early childhood education serving over 100 children every year for over 50 years, and receiving NAEYC accreditation along the way!
We are grateful to St. John’s Church for providing us a home in our early years. From our location in the center of town, we learned how rich an experience it can be to have the whole town as your classroom. In 1980, The Children’s Center bought the large Tudor building on Aspetuck Avenue, the former home of our founder, Dr. Barbara Hamlin. With nearly an acre of land, we were able to expand our building and programs, allowing us to enroll over 70 children a year without losing the warm feeling of the original home.
Compliance with health and safety standards is essential for the well-being of the children entrusted to our care. As such, The Children’s Center meets or exceeds all the guidelines required by the Connecticut State Department of Health.
Using the Connecticut Preschool Curricular Goals & Benchmarks and Connecticut’s Guidelines for the Development of Infant & Toddler Early Learning as a framework; teachers plan curricular goals and monthly lesson plans that address Cognitive Development, Personal & Social Development, Creative Expression/Aesthetic Development, Physical Development, and Language Development & Communication.
Daily activities encourage children to master self-help skills and provide opportunities to observe, perceive, explore, investigate, imagine, laugh, persist, and problem solve! Our Intentional Teaching practices emphasize balance: active & quiet times, indoor & outdoor activity, large & small groups, and structured & unstructured play. We recognize the value of play, as it affects learning in curriculum areas such as: math, science, language, literacy, creative expression, & motor skills.
The Children’s Center was the 1st preschool in Connecticut to receive National Accreditation by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the professional organization that sets the gold standard for preschools. We received scores of 100% on all ten of the NAEYC standards in a recent Accreditation renewal review. NAEYC programs are nationally recognized for their commitment to excellence in early childcare education through providing a safe and healthy environment, well trained teachers, excellent teaching materials, an appropriately challenging & developmentally sound curriculum. Though challenging to achieve, we’ve maintained our NAEYC accreditation since 1986!
