Linder Learning LandConvenience of a Daycare - Quality of a School |
(281) 537-9090
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FAQ'sContact us online or call (281) 537-9090 if you have any questions you do not see answered below. When is Linder Learning Land open? We are open Monday through Friday - 6:00am until 6:30pm. We are open year-round except for certain holidays. On what holidays are you closed? We are closed on:
What ages of children does Linder Learning Land enroll? We are an exclusive school for young children only and we specialize in early childhood education. We accept babies as young as six weeks and we go through Private Prekindergarten. We do not enroll older children. Learn more about our programs. Do you offer a summer program? Yes. We have a summer program for children up to first grade. We also offer a special program for the children of public school teachers. Ask an administrator about our ESP (Educator's Summer Program) for details. How do I enroll my child? We require that you come in for a personal tour of Linder Learning Land. At that time, you will be given an enrollment packet and we will be happy to answer any questions you might have. How to EnrollEnroll your child in Linder Learning Land. When can I enroll my child? Linder Learning Land enrolls children year-round if there is a vacancy in the classroom that would be appropriate for your child. What Are My Payment Options? Linder Learning Land charges tuition on a weekly basis. Parents may pay weekly, every two weeks, once a month or in whatever time period best fits their personal financial budget. We accept:
Tuition is paid to the administrator in the office. LLL does not send billing statements. What Physical Education do You Offer? We believe a great deal in the value of physical education and nutrition. Learn more about physical education and nutrition here. What types of behavioral guidance and consequences do you use? We are as consistent and as patient as we can be, always remembering your child's developmental abilities. The way you expect a four year old to choose to behave is different than how you would expect a two year to choose to behave. Our first behavioral guidance "tool" is positive reinforcement. A smile, a hug, a fragrant sticker or a compliment - these are the best actions to guide your child in making positive behavior choices. We strongly discourage giving sweets as a positive consequence or reward because we believe that this may influence later poor eating habits. If a very young child with a short attention span takes a toy from another child or pushes, using "re-direction" is best. This is a method of behavioral guidance where the adult distracts the child who is making the inappropriate behavior choice by saying "Let's read a story" or "Here's another toy". As children become older and are able to cognitively connect their own behavior with a consequence, we begin to introduce the concept of "with privilege comes responsibility". This is a rather grown-up way of describing this behavioral guidance technique, but, as stated in our goal, our goal is life long - to help our children develop into responsible adults. This means if a child, for example, chooses to behave inappropriately on the playground, then he or she will temporarily lose his privilege of playing because he did not act responsibly. Another common term for this is "time out". If you don't play nicely with your friends, your friends won't want to play with you. These are what we call natural consequences. From "you can't play with your favorite toy" to "no TV" to "you're grounded"-- this same principle of behavioral guidance will be part of your child's growth experience until he or she leaves home. Remember - you want to help your child learn that behavior is a CHOICE and that he or she is responsible for the behavior he chooses to do. A big lesson in life! Does Linder Learning Land help ME as a parent? Most definitely! Owner/Director Betty Linder is familiar with the questions and concerns of young parents as a person with over 40 years of experience! Children haven't changed and she is always willing to meet with you to answer questions, give advice, to listen or to just chat as a fellow parent. See her "Tips for Working Parents" and you are always welcome to email her at betty@linderlearningland.com Do you participate in the Neighborhood Center Program (NCI)? Yes, we do. "While searching for a daycare over one and a half years ago, I knew within a matter of minutes that LLL was the place for our daughter. She is always excited about attending school and raves about her experiences. Mrs. Teri's professionalism and kind demeanor were an important part of our decision. Mrs. Linder, you are to be commended for an exemplary program!" J & S Rhodes How do I know if a school is right for my child? Tour the WHOLE school - not just your child's potential classroom. A complete tour will give you an overall impression. Take several unannounced tours at different times of the day. Be realistic - toddler lunchtime can be a little noisy or just before naptime, infants may be fussy. You will have a "feel" for a school. If you don't feel comfortable, don't enroll! If you like it - ENROLL ! Then, be patient. For very young children, sometimes it takes a few weeks for them to adjust to new surroundings. Remember that young toddlers may cry when you leave them in a wonderful place. Always take a few minutes to talk to your child's teachers every day! Open and consistent communication is the key to knowing how your child is really doing in his/her new school! What should I ask when touring an early childhood school? When you are a parent, it is difficult to know what to actually look for when you are touring a potential facility for your child. Often convenience and price tend to have a too strong influence or places sell "the sizzle", not "the steak", meaning they have pretty buildings and shiny toys, but do they really offer what you want for your child - stability, nurturing, appropriate guidance, a steady staff and true education? To help you have a more informed visit when you tour various facilities, we have prepared a short list of the basic rules and regulations of Texas and areas about which to ask. Hopefully, this will help you in your decision. A) ASK THE SCHOOL "What criteria do you use to place children in classrooms?" Some schools go by chronological age. When a child has a birthday, that child is transferred to the next room. Think about this - for preschool age and older children - if the school says that it "teaches" and has a "program or curriculum", how could it transfer a child from one classroom to another in mid-year and be teaching a sequential curriculum? Do the public schools promote a child from one grade to another when that child has a birthday? No - because teaching is sequential; academics build on the previous skills learned. Linder Learning Land places children in preschool if they are three years of age as of September 1st (the date that Texas uses to determine grade placement) and the children stay in that classroom for the school year. Prekindergarten children must be four years of age as of September 1st and they also stay in that classroom for the school year. Infants and toddlers have a general range of age, but Linder Learning Land has two nurseries and three toddler classrooms, so children of these ages DO move during the year � as their abilities and skills mature. B) ASK THE SCHOOL "What is the age span of children in your classrooms?" Texas allows an eighteen month age span of children to be in the same classroom. Linder Learning Land believes this age span is too big and so for our younger classrooms - infants and toddlers - we have separate classes of approximate six to eight months age spans. Think of the differences of a two month old and a seventeen month old. How could the activities in the classroom and the room itself be appropriate for this very big difference of abilities and needs? LLL's older classrooms have a one year age span. C) ASK THE SCHOOL "What is the teacher to child ratio in your child's classroom?" First though, think about the situations of one staff with fewer children versus two staff with more children. Parents often tend to "like" a classroom with less children and one staff BUT it isn't the best situation. Who supervises the children when that one staff person goes to the restroom, has her back turned while diapering, is chatting with a parent or is in similar situations? Linder Learning Land prefers to have TWO staff in a classroom - regardless - so that someone is always carefully supervising the children and able to interact with the children. Just so you know - Texas teacher/child ratios: An infant is a child from 6 weeks to 18 months of age. Texas allows 1 staff with 4 infants or two staff with ten infants. Nurseries MUST be a separate room. A toddler classroom has a ratio of either 1 staff with 9 children or 11 children (with a group size limit of 18 with two staff) depending on if the majority of the children in the room are still two years old or have turned three years old. For older classrooms, the rules state that a ratio/class size can be doubled if there are two staff. Once again, even though Linder Learning Land does believe in having two staff in a classroom, it doesn't believe that group size should be increased and so, in the best interest of the children, LLL keeps the classroom sizes smaller than Texas allows. Preschool (three year olds) can have 1 staff to 15 children and Prekindergarten (four year olds) can have 1 staff to 18 children. At naptime, toddlers and older children ratios may be doubled because the children are not active. D) ASK THE SCHOOL "What do you do when a teacher doesn't come to work?" You will probably be told that they have a substitute list that they call but then ASK- "What do you do if the substitute already has plans for the day and can't come to substitute?" That's the real situation in the majority of facilities. Unlike an office where when someone is absent, someone else can just "cover" the phone, in a classroom environment when a teacher is absent, another person must be present. As important, Linder Learning Land believes, is that the substitute person be someone who knows the children, who the children feel comfortable with and who is knowledgeable as a teacher and with all of Linder's parents, policies and procedures. Because of this strong belief that children need to feel secure and comfortable, Linder Learning Land has its own in-school substitutes, several staff that come every day, as their regular job, to be available to substitute. If they are needed to substitute, they just go to the classroom where a teacher is absent. There is no confusion or chaos or shifting of children to other classrooms as experienced in most facilities. The substitute knows the children, knows you and knows LLL's policies and procedures. IF no one is absent, then the substitute has a regular homeroom assignment and is a THIRD staff person in that classroom. E) ASK THE SCHOOL ...to explain its teaching philosophy. Depending upon your own personal ideas and goals for your child, one philosophy will probably appeal to you more than another. (Also, you will learn just how much the potential facility knows about early childhood teaching). Basically, there are two main teaching theories. One is called Montessori and one is called Piaget (each named after the person who developed the teaching strategy). Simply summarized, Montessori does not divide the children by age - often twos through fives are together, believing that the children learn from each other. "Hands on" learning is emphasized; the children play in learning centers (arranged areas in a room that have different types of play activity) and the children often physically put their "hands on" various manipulatives (toys, blocks, puzzles, etc). This is effective with young children because they have not cognitively developed enough to be able to use symbols (letters and numbers). Montessori often discourages paper work activities and teacher-led activities, preferring that children explore at their own pace. Simply summarized, Piaget believes in dividing children according to age because different ages have different abilities and needs. Piaget is the teaching theory used in the public schools. When children are ready cognitively, Piaget encourages more traditional academic teaching- from learning how to hold a pencil, recognizing and writing letters and learning phonetics to recognizing, writing and learning the concept of quantity with numbers, then on to adding, subtracting and so on. Linder Learning Land believes that teaching should be a balance, so it utilizes BOTH teaching philosophies. This is more obvious in Preschool and Prekindergarten because each class actually has two separate but adjoining rooms. One room is very Montessori, totally arranged into learning centers; the other room is more Piaget and looks like a traditional academic classroom. This helps the children start becoming comfortable in a "public school" environment while allowing them to have variety in their daily experiences by also being able to play and explore in learning centers. F) ASK THE SCHOOL ...to see its employee work schedules. A school that tends to details and has smooth and consistent classroom coverage should have this work schedule in writing for your review. Having a properly "covered" school means all classrooms have steady teachers with appropriate assistance, and that teachers have regular lunch times and are not stressed due to lack of help or unrealistic classroom demands. Scheduling is a highly detailed task and reflects the overall management style of the school. G) ASK THE SCHOOL ...to see their HEALTH DEPARTMENT Certification and their cook's FOOD HANDLER certificate. Schools that serve food are inspected regularly by the Health Department, just like any restaurant. They are given percentage scores. The school that you choose should have at least mid-90%'s or up. H) ASK THE SCHOOL ...who cleans their building. Almost all facilities require their classroom staff to clean their own rooms and usually the rest of the building. Linder Learning Land believes that management has a choice: Either have staff clean the building but have poorly supervised children or have a professional janitorial crew clean at night and let the staff do what they are trained to do - teach your child. Linder Learning Land has a nighttime janitorial crew. Choices like this will indicate to you whether the facility that you are touring is a "corner cutter" or is willing to invest the monies needed to support its staff fully, thus allowing them to give their energies to your child. Contact us online or call (281) 537-9090 if you have any other questions and to discuss enrolling your child in Linder Learning Land. |
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Contact Us Online or Call us at (281) 537-9090 to enroll your child at Linder Learning Land |
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