Playing through summer — Kids enjoy hands-on learning activities at Newcastle’s children’s center

During the heat of the summer, parents often struggle to keep their school-aged children occupied, and Weston County Children’s Center/ Region III Developmental Services provides families with child care services as an alternative.

Executive Director Francie Gregory said the center runs a 10-week summer preschool program, from the first week of June through the second week of August, which features a structured morning, like the one the center offers during the school year, though there are typically fewer participants. 

The summer kids tend to include more school-aged children, who are often from dual-wage-earning families and at the center full-time. About 20 school-aged children enjoy a variety of activities at the center on weekdays.

Gregory said that the center seeks to keep the children engaged with hands-on learning activities, and every week, the Weston County School District No. 1’s bookmobile visits the children. Children play on the center’s playground or take field trips to the park or the Weston County Library. On Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, school-aged children walk to the Kozisek Aquatic Center. In the morning, the children follow a lesson plan with activities such as cooking, making crafts, conducting science experiments and reading. Board games and card games are also commonly played.

“We’re not a sit-down, worksheet kind of place at all here,” she said. “We are hands-on learning, across the board, for all ages.”

Teachers also get the kids involved in choosing activities by asking what they think might be fun, according to Gregory.

“If you let kids sort of lead the learning, you’ll find you go a lot farther in your learning during the day,” she said.

Gregory said the center started as a day care in 1969. By 1995, the year she began working at the center, it was providing the summer services for school-aged children. Some years, as many as 30 children may attend the center on a given day. Tuition costs $33.25 per day and a 25% discount is given for any additional child from a family, which can be challenging for families to afford, she said.

“We try really hard to give them their money’s worth here, for sure,” she said. “We want the kids to come here and have a positive experience for the day, have a lot of fun, do some learning, interact with their peers.”

She noted that children may also make friendships through the center’s programs that might not otherwise happen. Because it’s a one-room classroom of children ages kindergarten through fifth grade, older children are sometimes spotted helping kindergarteners read, and sometimes the whole class teams up to build structures that fill the room.