Parent Involvement Activities 2014.2015
Please check out the Parent Involvement activities we have available at University Ave. Discovery Center!
Testimonials
a month ago
We found the perfect place for our son to learn life skills and enhance his capabilities with his peers! UADC teachers and staff are top notch making you feel right at home. We love the healthy food, the educational lesson plans, field trips within the community, and the open communication.
A Google User
We love UADC! Long-serving teachers with plenty of energetic teaching assistants from the UW-Madison care for the children very well. The large classrooms, the large indoor exercise space and the breakfasts, lunches and snacks are great for our child. Don’t let the “lower level” distract you – the children have a lot of space and time out in the playground and on field trips. I’ve heard other parents say that they have never had such involved and detailed parent-teacher conferences at other daycares/preschools. We appreciate that the teachers are very wise about the developing social/emotional skills, and use any toy-pulling argument as a “teachable moment” for the entire classroom! Location is great, and timing/scheduling is very flexible.
A Google User
UADC has been a great place for our son (in the preschool program) and our daughter (summer camp). Teachers are wonderful–smart and nurturing, really on top of our children’s personalities, likes and dislikes. The hot, homemade meals served family-style are a huge plus, offering great variety and nutrition and saving us the hassle of packing lunches. The huge running room offers a great way for kids to work off their energy on days when it’s too rainy or cold to go outside. Location is very central, convenient for most parents.
by anonymous
University Avenue Discovery Center is a nurturing and supportive child care center. With VERY low staff-to-child ratios and high rates of parent involvement this school is QUALITY. My daughter flourished here and she transitioned beautifully into Kindergarten, thanks UADC!!
tiffmack 6/19/2013
We initially went to visit UADC when our oldest daughter was staying home with a Nanny and just needed some additional time with other kids. Our neighbors had sent their 2 girls to UADC and couldn’t say enough about the wonderful staff and teachers there. After touring the school we signed up and haven’t regretted it for a day since. The teachers really are phenomenal and they do an amazing job of preparing the kids for the transition to kindergarten and teaching them other very important skills like how to behave in a classroom environment, how to get dressed yourself and how to resolve conflicts with other children. Our oldest daughter just completed kindergarten and many of the staff at her school asked where she attended preschool because they were so impressed with her self assurance and abilites in the classroom. We are equally impressed with how our now 4 year old has flourished at UADC and thrilled that she will be joining the 4k (wizard) classroom in the fall. I always feel like the staff takes the time to listen to us and our children and really feel like the school is one big family. Additionally, the school provides many special field trips including: spanish, dance, yoga, art and music. They take the children on many fieldtrips, stress the importance of time outside and offer wonderful healthy meals! We can’t wait for our baby to start in the preschool classroom (buckaroos) in the next year. I would definitely recommend UADC to anyone who is looking for a child focused center.
ML Anderson
We desired to move our son from an in home daycare setting to a preschool setting when he turned 3 years old. We were very discouraged after 14 visits to daycare/preschool settings and not feeling a connection to any of them. We registered at a center that felt "acceptable" and then googled for a preschool for one last time finding UADC. We enrolled upon completion of our tour and have not doubted our decision for a moment. Our son is now 5 years old and will be entering into kindergarten next year. The development our son has experienced is beyond words – he is a well rounded child – emotionally and intelligently. The teachers at the school have been great "coaches" to myself as a parent … Thanks to them we discovered at an early stage our son needed glasses. We are going to be heading to kindergarten next year and have been told our son is exceeding in all areas of development and is very well prepared for the next chapter of life. It is great having a child who likes going to school! I would want to mention that the school is not fancy, does not have a lot of the high-tech components (the classrooms do have iPads), however the connection between the educators and the children are admirable. I highly recommend UADC to all parents who are looking for an exceptional preschool program that is truly child focused.
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Start School Days with Special Time!
by Julianne Idleman
On busy school day mornings, we try to send our children off with love. We sandwich “I love you. Have a good day! between “Where’s my homework?” and “Can you pick me up after soccer practice?” We’ve got a suggestion that can help you build the feel of your love into a child’s morning routine, so you can actually accomplish your goal.
Set the alarm fifteen minutes early. Five minutes is for you to enjoy the quiet of the morning before the stampede begins. Ten minutes is for pajama-clad Special Time before anybody has to rush anywhere. First thing in the morning can be a wonderfully effective time to connect with children, especially children going to school where they won’t get to see you all day.
Fill them up with your warm, playful attention before worrying about their balanced breakfast. Turn the snooze alarm into the snuggle alarm. Make sure everyone in the house knows they are loved and cared for, and welcomed into this new day, before any of the many mundane chores gobble up your attention. Even ten minutes of your undivided attention can bolster a young child who is anxious about the separations morning often brings.
Children often experience sleep as a separation. Much of the morning’s usual dawdling is often a child’s reluctance to let go of you now that they feel reunited after the long time away in Dreamland.
Allowing a child to experience morning as a happy reunion, rather than a disconnected push toward yet another separation, can change the tone in the house and set them on a path toward a happier day.
You’ll be amazed how much more effective and cooperative children can be when their need for affectionate connection is given first priority. A happy, confident child is much easier to wrangle out the door to face the busy activities of the day. And a child who feels emotionally connected and relaxed is better able to transition into the school environment and to absorb the day’s learning.
Here’s how it can work.
When my son started preschool, getting used to the new routine was hard for us all. We were all used to our laid back mornings where my son would sleep until he woke up on his own. When he did wake up, we would hang out in pajamas and play for a while and not worry about breakfast until he said he was hungry or get dressed until we were ready to go out.
Of course preschool changed all this! Now I was giving orders all morning: Time to get up, eat your breakfast, we need to get dressed, and worst of all, “We don’t have time to play, we have to go!” All this happened even though I’m actually pretty relaxed about having to be at school “on time.” As I said to a friend, there are no tardy bells in preschool!
My son didn’t like this scenario at all. He became frustrated easily and I listened to may tantrums around trivial issues like the shoes he wanted to wear, or whether I put milk on his cereal (or not!). I understood that it was good to listen to his feelings, and was OK about doing that (most of the time). But I was still feeling like a drill sergeant, and I could tell that my son was left feeling like he never got to do what he wanted to do in the mornings. It was a lousy way to start the day for us all!
After reading a success story in which the parent did Special Time for five minutes every night, it occurred to me that we might try Special Time in the mornings. We already do Special Time with him several times each week, but usually in longer chunks. It hadn’t occurred to me that such a small amount of time would be useful, but it certainly seemed worth a try.
When we introduced Special Time into our mornings, I made a chart with pictures of all the things we have to do in the morning, including Special Time. As I was making the chart, I thought about where to put Special Time in our morning routine. The temptation was to put it after all the “business” had been taken care of, but I realized that in order to build a good current connection with my son, it would be best if Special Time was first thing we did.
The changes have been tremendous. Where before just getting out of bed was sometimes a struggle, now when he wakes up (even if he has to be gently woken) he hops up and says, “Let’s do Special Time!” Our struggles over getting dressed and ready to go are significantly diminished. Now when I need to get him moving, I can just ask him to look at the list and tell me what we need to do next. Now I don’t have to be the nag, I get to be the assistant who helps him get dressed, brush teeth, etc. when he tells me it’s time. We still have days where getting out the door is a struggle, but things are much smoother. Taking just five minutes to make sure that things go his way first thing in the morning starts us out on a note of connection and cooperation.
—a mother in Arlington, Virginia
http://www.handinhandparenting.org/news/12/64/Start-School-Days-with-Special-Time