Bridging the gaps in Valley daycare

A new preschool may be saying “hello” to the Platte Valley in the near future.

Or they might be saying hola … they also could be signing “hello”, too.

Tomorrow’s Promise, a Rawlins-based preschool and learning center, is considering expanding to Saratoga to offer a new learning and child care experience to the Valley.

“We are a trilingual program, so we teach Spanish, Sign-Language and English all-day long, as part of our curriculum,” Director of Tomorrow’s Promise Elizabeth Ridgeway said.

Right now, Ridgeway is in the process of collecting surveys from Valley parents. The survey is intended to see what size enrollment they might expect. In order to make the move to Saratoga, there needs to be a minimum of 10 students.

Ridgeway has found the only daycares available in Encampment and Saratoga were only for qualifying families. Their goal is to provide for kids who do not meet special criteria.

“What we would like to do is go in a provide a consistent, quality care to kind of bridge some of these gaps,” she said. “It’s a big undertaking,” she said. “We want to make sure if we go (to Saratoga), it’s going to be a service that people want and a service that is viable.”

Ridgeway, who has a Master’s degree in Child Psychology, said the state-licensed program is unique in that it works as a two-pronged immersion program. Other than teaching Spanish, English and Sign-Language, kids are broken into developmental learning groups, not age groups.

“The United States is one of the few industrialized nations that believes we should break our children up on chronological age, not on aptitude or skill,” Ridgeway said.

Teaching kids by aptitude creates more opportunities for child learning and development, Ridgeway said. In the past, many students have been able to learn from older students; overhearing lessons taught in adjacent classrooms in their open-room setting.

“[Studies] are finding that we can teach a two-year-old things that they didn’t think they could learn until they were three or four,” Ridgeway said.

In Rawlins, the preschool has an infant program, a transition programs (teaching two and three year olds how to incorporate into a regular classroom), a preschool program and an after school program for older kids.

In every program they offer, they speak to the students in both English and Spanish. Many of the children in their programs, even those who are not from Spanish speaking households, are able to understand both languages. Additionally, they start teaching sign-language to kids as early as early as possible. Ridgeway said she has seen some of her students beginning to sign as early six months old.

“You can help a child’s vocabulary exponentially [with sign language],” she said.

Ridgeway, and Tomorrow’s Promise, is looking for input from Platte Valley community members. If interested, please contact Ridgeway at work at 307-324-3564, or on her cell at 321-0228.