Bright Horizons students | Contributed photo
Child care provider and preschool Bright Horizons Family Solutions® has announced plans to open a new location on Mercer Island in late 2015. The center will be located at 9555 SE 36th St, on the north end of the Island just west of City Hall and Mercer Island Pediatric Associates.
The opening of Bright Horizons will give Mercer Island parents another option for full-time care, which is especially in demand for working parents and caretakers. Currently, Country Village Day School and the SJCC Early Childhood School are the island’s two options for full-time care for infants. Little Acorn Day School offers full-time care starting at one year of age. Other programs offer full-time programs for children ages two-and-a-half and older.
Bright Horizons at Mercer Island will serve 200 children and will offer Infant, Toddler, Twos, Preschool, and Kindergarten Prep programs. The center features a Movement Matters Zone, which includes a rock climbing wall and ballet bar, an enrichment zone with STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics) Lab, large outdoor playgrounds, 21st century technology with a SMART Board and touch screen computers, high-quality curriculum, and more. The center will offer full and part-time child care as well as drop-in and back-up care on a space available basis.
Bright Horizons uses The World at Their Fingertips® curriculum with programs including Language Works, Math Counts, and Science Rocks, to teach children basic language, math, and science skills to prepare for future academic endeavor. The center’s Growing Readers program also emphasizes the importance of early literacy and focuses on children’s language development.
“All of our programs are geared to teach language, literacy, math, science, and social skills children need for elementary school,” said Analia Galloway, Center Director. “We know graduates from our centers have greater success in kindergarten and beyond. We are also able to help parents incorporate learning experiences in their children’s home life.”
Bright Horizons also collaborates with The Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA), a nonpartisan organization that supports efforts to solve and prevent childhood obesity. Through this partnership, the school is committed to serve as a model for promoting healthy habits and teaching children the importance of good nutrition and physical activity.
“Our Movement Matters Zone, which is complete with a ballet bar and rock climbing wall, truly helps our children create healthy habits which will last a lifetime,” said Galloway. “It is an honor to stand with PHA as advocates for children and their health.”
For more information on Bright Horizons at Mercer Island, call 206-232-2035 or visit www.brighthorizons.com/mercerisland.
