Children’s Learning Center creating a community

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Winterfest is in full swing and one of the many awesome things that individuals can take advantage of is renting the ice rink for parties, reunions and more during the week. However, Monday night the rink was used to give back to the families whose children attend the Children’s Learning Center (CLC) for a winter themed family fun night.

The children got to take pictures with some of the cast from Frozen, ice skate, write letters to Santa and enjoy some cookies and cocoa with other students and their family members.

The CLC is a community preschool, they offer care and education to many children in the area. Parents can enroll their children from infancy, and they can attend until they reach school age. The center has degreed teachers and education students from the university staffed to ensure these children are in a positive and safe learning environment.

Director of Campus Partnerships and the Center for Lifelong Learning, Amanda Hedrick believes that one of the advantages in hosting an event like this, is that staff can get to know parents and guardians of the children they are with, in some cases daily.

“When schools and parents work together, everyone benefits. Shawnee State University students enrolled in an introductory education class studying family and community strategies planned and hosted the CLC Family Night at Winterfest.”

This isn’t the first event that the school has held like this, but usually the education students are not the ones in charge of the details. However, Hedrick said that they managed to come up with a lot of great ideas to incorporate to make the event run smoothly. “The Frozen Nutcracker cast from Cirque D’ Art was on hand for photos and ice skating fun and families enjoyed hot chocolate and cookies.”

Those students who hosted gained valuable experience in planning, organizing and deciding what all is needed to go into an event like the CLC’s family night. Hedrick said that it was a successful night and hopes that this was a fun way for the center’s students to celebrate the upcoming holiday “with the holiday season approaching, this was the perfect gift to share with our school and community.”

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