Features Reporter
One of the biggest decisions a parents’ life is deciding on the right daycare for their children. But if you’re a CMU student, faculty or staff, the perfect daycare may be closer than you think.
The Little Mavs Learning Center is open for business and ready to provide quality childcare, from children ages 12 months and walking to kids who are in the year before entering kindergarten. Little Mavs is open year-round with the exception of the week between Christmas and New Year’s and the three days for Thanksgiving break.
Located between the North Avenue dorms and the library, Little Mavs has been in its current location since January 2010. The facility is equipped with its own playground outside as well as classroom and activity space inside of the building.
Little Mavs has 11 full-time teachers as well as an assistant director and director to help with the 93 toddlers. Assistant Director Ruth Klaich has been with Little Mavs for the past 16 years and has a background in early childhood education as well as elementary education and special education.
“My job is to make sure the enrollment is staying right and just doing whatever’s needed to take care of the babies,” Klaich said. “My favorite part of the job is the contact with the kids and the fact that they’re always there to give you a hug.”
All Little Mavs are categorized into three separate groups: Little Tots and Toddlers (ages 12-20 months), Preschool (ages 2 1/2 – 4 years) and Pre-K. At Little Mavs, the toddlers aren’t mandated to be potty-trained.
“The toddler side is fully capable of doing diapers and potty training,” Klaich said. “Once they’re 2 and 3, they need to be potty trained and come upstairs.”
Unlike some daycares around town, Little Mavs focuses more on developmentally stimulating activities and only allows the kids to watch educational television on a very rare basis.
“We don’t have TV’s in the classroom,” Klaich said. “Every once in a while on a cold Friday afternoon they might put on an educational movie, but we try to limit it. By state regulation we can’t do it that often anyway.”
The type of activities the teachers perform with the students vary with age, but they try to prepare the students for their education down the road.
“We do developmentally appropriate activities that the kids need to do at the time,” Klaich said. “They do a lot with science and math and developing muscles and motor skills. And the toddlers just do a lot about being a toddler.”
Little Mavs also does not try to keep the kids inside during the winter time. According to Klaich, they try to take the kids out as often as they can because they need to fresh air and sunshine. They also need to be able to run around.
Little Mavs tries to keep their days in a routine fashion.
“In a typical day, usually they come in and we start playing a little bit outside, and then we go in and have a morning snack,” Klaich said. “After that, they go into their classrooms and do whatever activities the teachers have planned, and then they have some more outside time. We take walks around campus and then come back and have lunch, then play some more and learn some more and have rest time. It’s a friendly day.”
All snacks and lunches served are healthy, served with either milk or juice and always have a fruit and a vegetable present in the dish.
Little Mavs also has Early Childhood Education students as well as Nursing students who do observations on the facility.
“Being in the Early Childhood Education program, observing Little Mavs was very beneficial,” Junior Rachel Maslyk said. “I learned it is more than just child care. They offer preschool and pre-kindergarten in the program, and that a lot of students utilize their services. It was also really convenient for me to observe them.”
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