OUR STORY
Little Learners Childcare Center LLC?s story started about 20 years ago when the owners decided to work together in a corporate run child care center. Sandy was looking for a caring,compassionate teacher that believed in teaching and involving the whole family and knew Jacki was the one for the job. Sandy and Jacki are the first and second oldest sisters in a family of 7. They share the same family values and work habits that was instilled in them by their Mom. The sisters found out that the center they were at was lacking family. So when the 2 sisters got together and started building a family within the center and saw a community growing quickly in the center they knew they had something special
For about 5 years they worked together growing a family culture and believed in extending their dining room table to all families and teachers that entered their world. They hosted numerous family events encouraging and building friendships between not only the students but the parents too! They really never fully understood or fully realized how unique and priceless this was until it was taken away from them. With budget cuts and company values changing the sisters took other positions in the company and out of the company.
As time went on and the sisters were no longer working together and they once again felt the loss of family values at the current companies and locations that they were at. However by some random chance the Metamora center that Jacki was working at went up for sale and Jacki saw an opportunity to build on their beliefs and love for family closeness and asked Sandy to partner with her and in November of 2009 Little Learners Childcare Center was born.
They quickly went to work and all those brothers and sisters jumped in along with them and their 2 sets of parents. They all helped paint the entire building (which if you ask them was fun, entertaining, but will never happen again) they took apart a giant play structure moved it and rebuilt it again, they learned new skills like stripping and waxing floors, fixing toilets, they built more shelves and toys than they could ever count, but they did it all with their 6 kids in tow, 2 of them being brand new (literally brand new), born 7 months after opening and the oldest child being 10 and those kids helped with it all too!
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They worked hard and built a community very quickly in the small town of Metamora and when they filled that center they realized that there really was a need for this kind of center, especially in small towns where corporate child care center don't normally want to go. Sandy and Jacki felt that they could give both a structured educational program that would benefit the children when entering kindergarten but also provide that home away from home community where everyone is welcomed to their dining room table!
The sisters love to throw a party so they gladly hosted Dinner with Santa, Parent's Night Out, Thanksgiving Luncheon, Halloween Parties, just to name a few, anything they could do to bring families together, and food always helps! They joined in and won many community parades and loved helping out in any community event they could participate in. The girls knew they found their niche and wanted to expand this wonderful opportunity to others, so when Sandy discovered Romeo, that small town atmosphere lacking an educational childcare, Sandy and Jacki knew they needed to open their next center there, so after a lot of searching it happened one day all by chance that the building that was an old Montessori Center all set for child care, and the perfect location, went up for sale.
Sandy and Jacki went at it again painting and cleaning, toys and furniture building this time with 2- 2 years old in tow, as they others were all now in school and in January of 2014 Little Learners Romeo, opened its doors! A few years passed and our Little Learners family had grown we had a lot of happy families, children and teachers growing together into one large family when by chance again with their latest center, Little Learners Lapeer became an opportunity. The owner came to the sisters asking them if they wanted to purchase her location. She too had built a family and knew their reputation within the county and how much family means to them so it was an honor for them to be asked to purchase her baby.
Little Learners Lapeer opened in September of 2018, this time without all the other work, this center was fully operational, they just needed to add their touch to it and bring in their programing and Lapeer was good to go! The company has certainly grown over the last 10 years and the passion that Sandy and Jacki have for providing children, families, and staff that home away from home feel, is still their core belief. They believe in family and that won't ever change after all family is where it all begins.