At Work With Gan Yeladeem Learning Center, The David H. Meyer Children’s Center
Nov. 9, 2007

Name: Gan Yeladeem Learning Center, The David H. Meyer Children’s Center

Type of business: A childcare center

Address: 222 Livingston Ave., New Brunswick within Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple

Telephone: (732) 545-6555

Number of employees: 14

Founded: November, 1989

Top officers: Director Karen Goldstein works with Rabbi Bennett Miller and executive director Gail Kroop.

"Our mission is to provide quality care and education for Jewish children in an nurturing, Jewish environment," said director Karen Goldstein.

In some other schools the early childhood program is a program at the synagogue, and we are a program of the synagogue. We are part of the educational environment of our synagogue. We are not just housed there. We don’t pay rent or custodial fees because we are part of the synagogue.

We accommodate working parents seeking Jewish childcare and are open year round. We offer flexible scheduling of half-, full-day or extended-day options for children from 6 weeks to 5 years old. Our hours are from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday and on Friday 7 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. At this time we have five active classrooms and average about 55 children a day.

As well as being child-centered and child-directed, the program offers a fully integrated Jewish curriculum. We have an infant room for babies from 6 weeks to 16 months. We have our "waddlers" group from 16 months to 2½ and the toddlers group of twos. At 3 the preschool program begins, and 3 year olds join older children in two multi-age classrooms.

The preschool program incorporates conversational Hebrew and prayers where the children do the weather and the calendar in Hebrew and are introduced to more Hebrew vocabulary in general discussions on the holidays or other topics. The hours for the preschool program are from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The extended day begins from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

We also offer four after school options for our students who stay after 4 p.m. Hebrew immersion where we speak only in Hebrew, [offering] cooking, movement and art appreciation and experience. These after school classes are open programs also available to the public. If someone goes to another school and wants to come to us for Hebrew or for cooking, they can enroll their children in just that program. These are semester programs. We are accepting enrollments now for our January classes.

"Our small classes and our highly trained teachers - two teachers with Masters in Early Childhood Education, a teacher and every caretaker with CDA certification - make us special. Our class size for our preschool program is 10 in each of our two classes. We have 11 in our toddler class.

What makes us different from other schools is that we look at the child in their total development before deciding to more them to another class. We don’t just look at the age and say ‘because they are 2 or 3e they automatically move on to another class.’ We like our children to stay with their teacher for a full year before we move them so they make a connection with their caregivers and teachers. The continuity of care is very important for young children.

We have been in the community providing infant/toddler childcare for 18 years in a Jewish setting. We will be celebrating our Chai year incorporating it with our Hanukah theater production on Monday Dec.10 at 4:45 pm. It will be open to parents and any child who has attended the Gan to join us."

"I would love to see it grow and start a kindergarten program. We had a kindergarten program one year and it was very successful. We would like to continue what we have now – just enlarge it to the capacity that we can maintain. We are licensed to hold programs fro 87 children and we have 55 now. The families that we serve are a broad range of families from reform, conservative and orthodox backgrounds. We would like to continue that."

How has your business changed?

"The most dramatic change is in the number of children that are here. I became director here 7 years ago and there were 14 children. We have grown to 55 or 50 plus each day.

We have seen a change in the curriculum, too. We have gone from concentrating mainly on the Jewish holidays to one that teaches from a perspective of Jewish values every day. Our curriculum is driven by teaching our children to be menschen - to be kind, thoughtful and considerate of others.

The biggest change we have made is to emphasize what is best for the children – not what is best for the teachers or what is best for the temple. If you base you decisions on what is best for the children it is best for the teachers and best for the temple."

"I think the most important deal was the decision to start this school when there was no infant-toddler childcare being done in this area. Over 18 years later, it is still the only Jewish-based program going."

"We are hoping to establish a kindergarten with at the most 10 kids. We are also looking into the possibility of doing a kindergarten enrichment program for the children who have a half-day program in the public schools. We have a stumbling block because we don’t have bussing and we are looking into solving that problem. Parents who are working need a full-day program, and those who have had children in a full childcare program now need their children to be in a program because there’s not enough school"

"To include the children in their own experiences. For example I think a lot of what happens in early childhood classrooms today is about the kids and for the kids, but kids don’t really experience it, they watch it. For example in our school on Friday for Shabbat every child makes his own challah. We give them a bowl and they make their own dough. They watch the dough rise. They form the dough into any shape they want it to be that week. It’s their challah. They experience it. It’s not done for them and sent home. This is including them in their own experiences – instead of having experiences they aren’t a part of.

What advice would you give to someone considering your line of work?

"You have to know what your market is. You are providing a service to a community and there are many opportunities for childcare in this area. You have to be willing to listen to what families say and work together as a community because you are sharing children. And also be prepared to know your market – to compete with other corporate childcare centers. To pursue what makes you different from other centers. For us it’s the education we provide and the educational level of our staff members. It’s a high educational level in childcare providers."

"No, and nowhere else would I be doing it. I love the fact that I do this in a community that I grew up in."