Church daycares: Top 10 Christian Day Care Centers in Indianapolis, IN

Top 10 Christian Day Care Centers in Indianapolis, IN

Old Bethel Preschool

7995 E. 21ST STREET, Indianapolis, IN 46219

Costimate: $165/wk

Description:

The Preschool & Daycare is a ministry of the Old Bethel United Methodist Church and registered with the State of Indiana. Our goal is to provide a quality preschool and childcare program in a nurturingChristian environment that provides for the growth and development of each individual child. We are committed to offering an early childhood program that builds a sound foundation and a love for learning in all children. Each day we challenge our children to think, imagine, play, question, investigate and explore their world….

Description:

Our preschool/daycare is a registered ministry of Old Bethel United Methodist Church. Our goal is to provide a quality program in a nurturing Christian environment that provides for the growth and developmentof each individual child. We are committed to offering an early childhood program that builds a sound foundation and a love for learning in all children. Each day we challenge our children to think, imagine, play, question, investigate and explore their world. Classroom environments are safe, fun and engaging settings where children can have positive interactions and build meaningful relationships with peers and adults.
Preschool classes are available for children ages 2-5. Monthly preschool tuition ranges from $95-145 per month. Full and part-time extended childcare is also available. Please contact the director for more rate information. Approved for CCDF state vouchers….

Description:

Our program offers day-long care for children ages 6 weeks to 5 years. We keep a low adult to child ratio to provide more effective care. Our old children get to participate in centers focusing on preschoolconcepts like colors, numbers, letters, and social skills. We have plenty of recreation time for healthy development. Lunch and snacks are available. We welcome families using CCDF….

Description:

My name is Kayla. I am happily married with a son who is 1. I currently work at a daycare/preschool at my church. I enjoy working with children and watching them grow. I believe I have a calling for thechildren’s ministry, I have such a huge heart and beyond much love for kids. Being a mom is the best blessing anyone can receive….

Baptist Academy

2565 Villa Ave, Indianapolis, IN 46203

Starting at $280/flat

Description:

Baptist Academy is an early childhood education facility that offers academic programs geared towards kindergarten and school-age children. Located in Indianapolis Indiana, the company admits children threeyears old up to twelfth grade. The company uses a Christian-based curriculum focused on children’s academic and personal growth….

Description:

We believe that all children deserve a chance to have quality care and education. Our program is small and focuses on individualized care.

Description:

East Tenth United Methodist Children and Youth Center, Inc. offers various early childhood services geared for both preschoolers and school-age children. Located in Indianapolis, Indiana, the company offerseducational day care programs for kids six weeks of age up to five years old and before and after-school programs for elementary students. Summer enrichment programs are also provided by this facility….

Description:

An establishment situated in Indianapolis, IN, Sunrise Christian Academy Child Care Inc provides services for the students in the community. This child care organization is currently accepting children rangingfrom the ages of two to seven years old. This child care center started operating in the year 1992 and is accommodating a total of up to 101 students in maximum capacity….

Description:

Freedom Christian Day Care Academy Inc. in Indianapolis, Indiana is a Child Care provider that can accommodate a certain number of children. Their curriculum seeks to provide a high quality, nurturing, fun andsafe learning environment that is appropriate for the child’s overall growth and development….

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Thinking of Opening a Child Care Center in Your Church? Here are Some Things to Consider.

The decision to open a child care center in a church is one that will have a long-term impact on your congregation. There are many regulations that daycares must follow and opening one takes a big commitment, both in time and financial investment.

If your church is considering entering the child care industry, read on for some helpful tips on getting a daycare off the ground. 

Before we dive into the logistics of opening such a center, let’s take a look at a successful church-based child care program in Parker, Colorado, a suburb of Denver. 

The Parker Evangelical Presbyterian Church Early Learning Center has been teaching and caring for children for decades inside its church widely known as PEPC (pronounced like the soda Pepsi).

The church’s child care program has grown through the years, with 221 kids enrolled for this fall.

“We offer a Christian curriculum and we have the ability to help parents in need,” said Jennifer Tucker, the child care center director. PEPC offers scholarships and financial help to families who send their kids to the church’s daycare.  

The center uses the Orange Bible Curriculum in all of its classrooms. The curriculum’s message is simple: church + home = greater impact. It combines the light of the church (yellow) with the heart of home (red) to create orange.  

The curriculum’s offerings include a monthly theme, a memory verse and interactive songs to help children memorize important messages in the classroom. Each week, the children learn a different Bible story, as well as crafts and activities to go along with the story. Kids also attend chapel twice a month and the worship service is broadcast live over its Facebook page so parents can participate. 

When deciding whether to open a center, think carefully about how much space you have to support it, said Holly Sprague, the PEPC child care program’s assistant director. Most churches already have classrooms being used for Sunday School and other children’s ministries that could serve as daycare rooms. 

Six years ago, PEPC had to reconfigure its building to accommodate more kids. Before that, the center didn’t have infant rooms. It added them to fit the needs of the families they serve.  

And Jennifer said they could use four more classrooms now. 

When asked what advice they have for churches considering opening a child care center, Jennifer and Holly said not to make it a separate entity from the church.

“Don’t break away from the church,” Jennifer said. 

Both stressed the importance of finding great staff. PEPC focuses on finding staff from within its congregation, or who attend a church with similar core values.

“Staff is what keeps this program doing. And without good staff, a program will fail very quickly,” Jennifer said.

PEPC doesn’t do much advertising and gets new families by word of mouth. And it’s frequently recommended on Facebook by happy families.  

That kind of name recognition is something every new child care center must earn. If your church is considering taking the leap into daycare, check out these tips and questions you should ask yourself before opening your own.

Once you’ve decided that it’s time to start a child care business, the first thing you’ll want to do is create a business plan. 

A business plan is a written document that explains the goals of your business and how you plan to achieve them while turning a profit. 

Here’s what to include:

• Create a mission statement for your child care.
• Outline your child care philosophy and values.
• Decide what kind of child care to open – will you operate in a center, or in your family home?
• Research other child care businesses in your community – what can you learn from them? What will you do differently?
• Create a budget for launching your daycare operation.
• Decide what services you will offer and how much you plan to charge.
• Create a plan to market your business in the community.
• Set financial goals for your business.

Creating a daycare business plan helps you establish a vision for how your business will earn money by providing services to your community. It also allows you to clarify details about your business, including where you will operate, what services you will provide and how much you will charge.

Location plays a major role in the success of your child care operation.

Once you’ve chosen a location, you’ll need to consult with your local and state zoning offices to find out whether the location you want is properly zoned for a child care center.

Once you’ve settled on a location, it’s time to get familiar with the child care rules and regulations that apply in your area.

As a daycare operator, you’ll need to fully understand and comply with the child care rules and regulations in your state to obtain your child care license and remain in good standing with your state regulatory agency.  

You’ll learn about things like:

• Staff-to-child ratios and group size requirements
• State learning and curriculum guidelines
• Required health and safety training for child care providers in your state
• Recordkeeping requirements for daycares

Should you decide to open a center, you’ll need to apply for a child care license (requirements vary from state to state). You’ll also need to complete background checks, obtain a health evaluation and complete required training for child care providers as part of the application process.

Then you’ll need to create a detailed floor plan so you can purchase furniture, equipment and supplies.

And as Jennifer and Holly of PEPC said, staffing is critical. Check within your congregation, and also search online job boards and confer with local colleges with early childhood learning programs for referrals of recent graduates. 

And you’ll need to do marketing. Here’s how to get started:

• Get in touch with schools near your daycare and ask them to refer parents in your neighborhood who are looking for child care services.
• Add your daycare to Google My Business and you’ll start appearing in local search results and on Google Maps, making your business more visible to families in your area.
• Create a Facebook page for your business and ask friends to share it with families in your community who may be looking for child care services.
• Set up a simple website for your child care center. Make sure to include pictures, highlight what makes your center different, and make it easy for parents to contact you.

Opening a daycare in your church could be an incredibly fulfilling way to serve your community. If you think it’s a good fit, don’t be afraid to reach out for help to start on this new path for your congregation!

Procare provides trustworthy, modern and easy-to-use software that helps you successfully market and manage your child care business, including giving you the tools to digitize the child care enrollment process.

Procare’s online registration software includes simple solutions for child care billing, capacity management/waitlisting and a customizable registration form so you can collect the information you need to comply with state recordkeeping requirements.

Our years of experience and expert community give us the wisdom to know what your child care center needs to succeed, and with live support available on demand, we’re here to support you every step of the way.

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Orthodox kindergarten? This is real! — Kamensk diocese

“A special area of ​​educational work is the protection of children, adolescents and youth from one of the biggest troubles – the emptiness of the soul, lack of spirituality … A real person begins where there are shrines of the soul.” VASukhomlinsky

At the end of April, representatives of the Kamensk and Yekaterinburg dioceses arrived in Belgorod to participate in the All-Russian practical seminar “Programme-methodical and didactic support of the spiritual and moral education of preschoolers on the basis of preschool educational institutions of Belgorod. ”

Teachers from the Urals learned about the close cooperation between the Church and the system of pre-school education in Belgorod at the Christmas Readings. At the same time, a proposal was made from the participants of the preschool education section about a closer acquaintance with the experience of working on the spiritual and moral education of preschoolers.

Surprising is the desire of the inhabitants for spiritual rebirth, which takes place not only in the kindergarten, in the temple, but everywhere. Cleanliness in the city, the streets are decorated with the Russian tricolor, flowers and monuments are everywhere. We understand that we live in Russia. A sea of ​​tulips: red, yellow, orange, black… And announcements: “A territory without smoking, swearing and drugs”, “You can’t say without swearing – it’s better to be silent.”

The city is guarded by revered saints, whose images are embodied in sculptures: St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir, St. Joasaph of Belgorod, Archangel Gabriel.

“Children should live in the world of beauty, games, fairy tales, music, drawing, fantasy, creativity,” said teacher Vasily Sukhomlinsky. A person is educated by his immediate environment.

With the close cooperation of ecclesiastical and secular authorities in Belgorod, an experiment was carried out on the spiritual and moral education of preschoolers. It lasted three years, 14 kindergartens participated in it. It resulted in the emergence of three Orthodox kindergartens. One is more interesting than the other!

“Rozhdestvensky” and “Pokrovsky” kindergartens are located in Belgorod, in the city center. These are non-state kindergartens, but financed by the state, as they have licenses to conduct educational activities. Each kindergarten has its own house church, with a “children’s” iconostasis, the Royal Doors in the height of a child. Every week, the Divine Liturgy is celebrated in the temple, in which children and parents (if possible) take part.

Each group has a corner with icons and lamps. Teachers and priests are working on the upbringing of children.

In the city of Stroitel there is a municipal budgetary educational institution kindergarten “Sretensky”, which has two founders: the Belgorod Metropolis and the municipality. This preschool is simply amazing! It is located on the vast territory of the temple. The building and the territory surrounding it are adapted for the active life of the child, educating him in the spirit of Orthodoxy, taking into account the ethno-cultural characteristics of the region.

The staff of the kindergarten closely cooperates not only with the Church, but also with the closest social partners, traffic police officers. There are road markings on the paths between the walking areas, road signs along the roadsides, a traffic police post. Children know the rules of the road well.

Much attention is paid to labor education: there is a greenhouse, beehives, flower beds. The building is equipped with a variety of activity centers that meet the most modern requirements. Children play, experiment, read, participate in children’s holidays, make candles for the temple themselves, get acquainted with the culture of their people. In this kindergarten, an interesting, eventful life.

People from all over Russia came to the seminar: from the Far East, from Kaliningrad, Petrozavodsk, Omsk… Representatives of both secular and church authorities worked with us. Teachers from kindergartens designed an exhibition of methodological and didactic aids, which impressed us with the variety of materials presented, the imagination and creativity of the performers. We were given the opportunity to purchase teaching aids.

Much more can be said about Belgorod, for example, that now more than twenty kindergartens in the city have chosen the spiritual and moral education of preschool children as a priority. And when one of the guests asked about funding (kindergartens are well equipped), we were told that the education of the future is more valuable than money.

Yes, this is true, we have seen how Orthodox kindergartens work.

I thank the Lord for giving me the opportunity to see the dream of many of our Orthodox teachers come true

| Magazine “Pravoslavny Vestnik”

The baby hasn’t been born yet, but dad and mom are already running to get in line for the kindergarten. He takes the first steps – and the parents are already looking impatiently into the mailbox in the hope of seeing the long-awaited ticket. A year and a half is running out, the kid begins to babble funny and play tricks around the apartment … Is it time to send him to a preschool? Or maybe a private kindergarten? These questions overwhelm many parents who need to go to work as soon as possible or who seek to free up at least a little time from the child … More than three decades have passed since the organization of the first post-perestroika private kindergarten, and the dilemma “to give or not to give” is still relevant .

Today we will talk about kindergartens in the context of attachment theory, which is the subject of a series of articles under the heading “Family Pedagogy”.

There are two extreme parental positions regarding kindergarten. The first states: “Kindergarten is an absolute evil, I will never send my child there, he will be brought up at home, no matter what it costs.” The second sings praise: “We ourselves went to kindergarten with joy, and our child runs there with joy every morning, he has communication, socialization, friends. Everyone must attend kindergarten.” There are different life situations, there are different mothers, and there are different children. We will not look for some universal recipe for everyone and give unequivocal advice on whether to send your particular child to a particular kindergarten, but we will try to reason on this topic so that you can make an informed decision.

Since Soviet times, when nurseries and kindergartens appeared, handing over children into the wrong hands has become a tradition. Mothers were forced to go to work during the first months (or even weeks!) after giving birth. Therefore, even babies were given to a nursery for a five-day period, running to them to breastfeed. Later, the kids flowed into the kindergarten team, so that later it would be just as natural to join the class team, the October community, pioneers, Komsomol members, and so on. “Nesadikovskiy” were children with special health conditions or with a suspicious parental position. Since then, kindergarten has been associated with joy, children’s health, upbringing, successful socialization of the child and the liberation of women from domestic slavery.

When at the end of the 20th century everything Soviet was called into question (especially everything connected with a collective approach to upbringing and education), Russians began to remember pre-revolutionary traditions, reconsidering their attitude towards kindergartens. Home education of a child from birth to school is one of the pedagogical traditions of Russian culture. In wealthy families, governesses helped mothers, and in peasant families, older children and numerous relatives and neighbors. During the time of suffering, when the entire able-bodied population, including “preschool children”, went out into the field, grandmothers-neighbors remained with the kids.

If today the family bears the entire burden of raising and caring for a child, then this is a completely different story. It’s good if there is a large resource of help from grandparents, and dad takes the main blow on his days off. In other cases, for several years, the advanced front is covered by the mother, who quickly parted with illusions about her strength and falls into despondency. Indeed, preparing dinners, keeping order, and not leaving a child is a special skill that is unfamiliar to a modern relaxed person, few people easily master the role of a home mother and housewife.

It often happens like this: having the opportunity to spend the whole day with the child, the mother is so exhausted that there is no full emotional contact, nourishing the child with attention and love. The child himself begins to annoy, cause a desire to hide from him at least for a few minutes and sit in silence, or simply fall on the bed and fall asleep.

The main thing is that you can clearly answer the question for yourself: “why am I now sending or not sending my child to kindergarten, does this make me a better mother or not?”

If you recognize yourself in the mother described above, ask yourself: will kindergarten make me a better mother? After all, if a woman sends her child to kindergarten, returns to her favorite job, which pleases her and fills her with positive emotions, and when she comes home, she gives all her strength and emotions to the child, fully nourishing him after separation, then this is a healthier situation. Yes, you have to sacrifice to your own interests the basic needs of the child in love and co-existence with his mother, take risks by introducing strangers and strangers with their own values ​​and behavior patterns into the life of the baby. But you have to choose the lesser of two evils.

Let’s talk about some of the strong opinions that exist about kindergarten.

First opinion: “The child needs socialization, communication with peers.”

This is true, but only partly and with reservations. Communication and the ability to successfully fit into society in the future is not a skill that needs to be trained. The attitude “the sooner we start, the more we will achieve” was originally associated with the intellectual and physical development of the child. However, many parents think that if a child is placed in a peer society from an early age, then there he will learn to communicate with people. But what is real socialization? Socialization is a process of self-knowledge, connected with the knowledge of the surrounding world. In the process of socialization and individualization, the child reveals his talents and needs, learns to feel the talents and needs of other people, he learns to work in a team, remaining himself, learns to empathize and sympathize, to be open and at the same time neutralize the destructive influence of others. He learns on his own, at his own pace. All this is not the result of training, but the result of psychological maturation that occurs under certain conditions. These conditions are related to the fact that the parent creates a “psychological womb” for the child, a safe relationship in which the child can relax and spend his life forces on development, and not on maintaining an attachment relationship. He does not need to check: “Does my mother love me? Will she leave me if I misbehave? Simply put, a child who is sure that his mother loves him, no matter what, will live in peace, develop, solve his problems, without being distracted by clarifying and establishing relationships.

One psychologist gave an interesting analogy. If a person has matured, then he has become like a puzzle: somewhere he has a convex place, somewhere a small notch, he will easily fit into the appropriate place in a specific overall picture. At the same time, if a person has not yet formed, he looks like a piece of plasticine that can be placed anywhere and with your fingers where you need to stretch, where you need to flatten. But will it be fair to your child?

A mature person will perfectly fit into HIS society. But WHAT he will perceive as HIS OWN depends on who and what values ​​\u200b\u200binvested in his soul, whether his parents or someone else’s aunt did it in kindergarten. Up to three years, the child receives the necessary experience through the immediate environment, he does not have an urgent need in a wide society. After all, this is the nearest society – his family – not only a source of life guidelines, but also a guarantor of their inviolability.

So, the opinion about the need for a kindergarten for socialization is a myth.

Second opinion: “Sitting at home with a child, I cannot provide him with so many games and benefits, engage in his intellectual development as fully as in kindergarten.” This is true. But here it is important to understand such a psychological pattern. When a child perceives the external environment as unfriendly, when the child is overwhelmed with anxiety and wants to return home – then he is no longer up to creativity and intellectual development, then he would survive.

A friend of mine recently told me this story. She sent her son to kindergarten. Bring in in the morning, pick up after work. Six months later, the teacher tells her with surprise: “And your son, it turns out, is talking!” Mom is shocked: “What, was he silent all this time?” Teacher: “Well, yes. We saw that he had smart eyes, that he understood everything, he just didn’t speak. ” One can only guess what stress the child was in if he decided to speak only six months later.

Developmental classes are great, but, like any training, they are second only to relationships. It is much more important whether your kid in the kindergarten will have “his own” reliable adult, to whom you can run up to cry when you want, or who is not afraid to ask for help. Set your priorities: if your main goal is, say, to prepare your child for school, “pass him through the crucible so that he becomes hardened”, then the kindergarten will suit you. If the goal is to provide the child with unconditional acceptance in the first years of life, a reliable base (“psychological womb”) for development, self-knowledge and realization of personal potential, then you will cope with this much better than a kindergarten.

Studies show that the level of cortisol (stress hormone) in three-year-olds in kindergarten goes through the roof and decreases only at home. The younger the child, the higher the cortisol level. Constant stress can undermine the immune system, leading to frequent and prolonged illness.

“In terms of risks to a child’s development, elevated cortisol levels over long periods of time have been shown to be associated with learning disabilities and disease in animals and humans,” says psychologist Olga Pisarik.

If it is possible to send the child to kindergarten later, it is better to wait. Be attentive to your child, do not force him. If he feels bad without you, do not rob him or yourself in communication, because he will grow up so quickly!

Third opinion: “He is bored at home.” It happens. We need to figure out why the child is bored. The leading activity of a preschool child is a game. And, if his internal tank is full, then he easily goes into free play. He does not need any special toys, he can come up with games with those items that are at hand. A simple stick can become a horse, a sword, and a bridge – anything, provided that the child is nourished by parental love and there is no anxiety for relationships. A parent should not turn into an animator for his child and constantly entertain him. It is enough just to periodically fill its tank, and the child will find activities for himself. For example, when a preschooler whines about being bored, don’t rush to make up a game for him. Instead, you can hold it on your lap for five minutes. He will eat and run to play himself.

Do you think there is no boredom in kindergarten? A familiar picture from the life of a preschool institution: the children were taken to the playground, the general game was not organized, the teachers were talking to each other, and the children were running around screaming and squealing. You might think that they are splashing out children’s enthusiasm, sitting up in the room. But in fact, both screams and chaotic movement around the playground are a signal that children are bored, like animals in a cage. Therefore, if your child goes to kindergarten, see if the teacher organizes common games, teaches children to play together, separates conflicting ones, or is he just present on the playground. Unfortunately, today it is very difficult to find a teacher by vocation among educators, but it is possible!

What to do if kindergarten is a vital necessity for your family?

Being in kindergarten, from the point of view of attachment theory, is separation. Separation must be compensated by giving a sense of connection at a distance. Here are just a few compensation options available to everyone:

– Emphasize the similarity with the child in everything possible: in appearance, color of clothing, taste preferences. The teacher can also emphasize the similarity of the child and the parent: “Today I noticed that you have the same eyes as your mother, you are very similar to her. ”

– Come up with your own secret ritual. For example, give the baby some kind of trinket and say: “I filled this thing with my kisses, when you get bored, you can put it on your cheek, as if I kissed you.” Talk about feelings, about how you missed being apart, to give emotional warmth. Prepare notes, unexpected small gifts and other signs of attention.

– To delve into, question, support, be interested in, take into account the opinion of the child.

At the age of 4-5, he reaches the level of attachment through emotions and can already survive the separation from his attachment quite easily. The younger the child, the harder it is to endure separation, since there are fewer tools in his arsenal for feeling in touch and closeness.

How else can you make your child’s stay in kindergarten easier?

– Come early so that you have the opportunity to slowly undress and perform the so-called ritual of transferring a child from one attachment to another. Mom should have time to talk with the teacher, smile at her, demonstrating to the child that the teacher is “their own person”. The teacher should greet the child, squat down, make eye contact, smile and lead away. It is good if the child leaves for the teacher himself. And if he immediately starts crying, fantasize together about what you will do in the evening.

– No need to talk about how fun the child will be in kindergarten (he just won’t hear you, he’s already overwhelmed with worries about the upcoming separation, don’t add fuel to the fire) – focus on the fact that when you you will come, you will go there and there together, you will do such and such.

– It is very difficult for a child to fall asleep in the kindergarten, therefore, if possible, take him to sleep. If this is not possible, bring your own homemade set of linen or some thing from home, a T-shirt with a mother’s scent.

Remember! The child should have the opportunity not to go to kindergarten, if he does not want to, but to sit at home for a day with his mother, father or grandmother. You can do this regularly, for example, leave the child at home on Wednesdays.

– After kindergarten, there should be practically no physical separation between you and your child. After the kindergarten, you don’t need to take the baby to some additional classes, circles, evening “razvalki”. You can compensate for your stay in the kindergarten by sleeping together.

A good kindergarten – what is it like?

Based on the above, a good kindergarten is a kindergarten in which your child has a reliable, caring adult who can always be approached with some problem, in which the child can always cry and sit on his lap, if sad, scared, do not want to play with other children. In fact, you need to find a second mother and additional brothers and sisters for your child, because the filling of his soul will depend on the teacher and classmates.

Therefore, the main criterion for finding a good kindergarten is the personality of the teacher, and not the presence of a swimming pool or English classes. Visit your kindergarten while the children are walking and quietly observe from afar, listen to the intonations that dominate the teacher’s speech.

Some educators are said to be “God-given” educators; perhaps the person has never heard of attachment theory, but he intuitively feels your child, he understands that relationships are EVERYTHING. If this is a person with an Orthodox worldview, then you are very lucky. Try to find a teacher who will sincerely like your child. It is advisable to introduce the child to the teacher in advance, in a calm environment, to conduct the so-called “matchmaking” ritual. Some time before you have to give the child to kindergarten, you can buy him a small gift and say that it is “for Marivanna, who we were with you and who, by the way, really liked you.” And in the opposite direction, too: “Marivanna, Vanya remembered about you, asked.”

Summing up, I would like to say that kindergarten is a service that you can use. Sometimes it can be a boon when the baby, and, very importantly, the mother is ready for it.