The child care management team at KU Kids @ Deanwood has over 50 years of combined experience establishing and growing state of the art child care facilities. KU Kids @ Deanwood by way of Kiddie University is the product of Mayor Bowser’s investment in early childhood care. The objective is to make child care more affordable to all residents in the District of Columbia and to create more infant and toddler, and pre-school spaces in the city. An early childhood “Supply and Demand” study, by the Bainum Foundation, has shown that there is a shortfall in the supply of childcare spaces verses families that need childcare throughout the city. This is particularly true with respect to infant and toddler spaces.
KU Kids @ Deanwood was chosen by the Mayor’s administration to provide affordable, high-quality infant, toddler, and pre-school care at the Deanwood Recreation Center. The Managing Directors of Kiddie University in partnership with Removing Boarders, Inc, non-profit formed KU Kids @ Deanwood, which is committed to providing quality childcare at an affordable tuition rate. This partnership along with public funding makes quality childcare assessable to those families who would otherwise find quality childcare not affordable. Kiddie University provides the management expertise and oversight for KU Kids @ Deanwood to develop a high-quality program for long term sustainability.
Management believes that children are like sponges and the earlier they are exposed to learning and exploration, the better their development in all aspects of growth. KUKD will incorporate Spanish immersion and STEM components within the creative curriculum to provide the most well diverse curriculum and educational experiences. It focuses on research based and national standards including ITERS-R rating scale and NAEYC standards. Locally, management has engaged the current child care programs in the Capital Quality program administered by OSSE. KUKD will become engaged in all the above, striving to reach the highest level of performance. Management also believes that community partnerships and parent involvement are key to bring the young child’s environment together for a high-quality program.
KUKD will adopt the view of that each classroom as a small learning community. Management believes in learning through play and use early childhood methodologies to foster learning in children. The utilization of the Creative Curriculum is an extension of KUKD’s philosophy and goals for the children.
Activities with children aim to be child-directed and teacher assisted. Classrooms are set up to allow children to explore, to question, and to work independently in a group or with a teacher. Play is a tool for learning that helps to formulate healthy relationships with the children, their peers and adults.
To further support children’s growth and development, the program design provides and encourages many opportunities for parent involvement. KUKD will maintain the approach of parents serving as primary teachers of their children. The goal is to form strong partnerships between teachers, children, parents, administrators, and the community.
