Just this fall, Eastern Nazarene College’s Campus Kinder Haus (CKH) added five more classrooms to the daycare creating an opportunity for more children and their families to be a part of the beautiful ministry.
CKH is located at ENC’s Old Colony Campus which is three minutes from the main campus. The organization accepts children ages two through six years old. Many ENC students are employed at the Kinder Haus since playing with children and watching them sleep is not overwhelming; it also serves as good field experience for Education majors, especially those focused on Early Education.
According to Nicki Caldwell, Director of CKH, the renovations took place because many families around the South Shore area showed “interest in their children enrolling in the Kinder Haus.” In addition, she reports having over 50 families on the waiting list.
Caldwell has completed research which reveals that by 2020, many parents will be working full time. Because of this, they will be highly interested in preschools that will allow them to pick their children up when they get out of work, even if that happens to be late. Parents are looking for preschools which open as early as 7:00am and are open until around 5:30pm.
Before the renovations, CKH could hold a little over 100 children. This year, their capacity has
One of the new rooms at CKH. Photo Credit: Campus Kinder Haus Staff
been almost doubled, allowing 200 children to be enrolled. Kinder Haus became certified by the state in April. It had to be recertified and acquire a new license because of the expansion. Furthermore, CKH got the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) certificate, which is the highest possible accreditation it could have received.
Caldwell cites financial concerns as the main reason renovations were not completed sooner. This expansion has not been an easy process; it took a little more than a year and a half to bring this project to fruition.
Caldwell believes another reason that the new renovations are beneficial to the college are because more ENC students can be employed at CKH for the school year and the summer. She has also hired a few graduate assistants to work there while getting their master’s degrees.