Preschool organizes week of fun in honor of the little ones Preschool organizes week of fun in honor of the little ones April 18, 2003
With so many young children in Oakley it is nice to have the opportunity to celebrate something for them. That is why Mercrey and Rick Lafayette of Delta Kids Center decided to participate in the national "Week of the Young Child" program.
"The purpose behind the program is to promote community and center of awareness facing young children's needs and diversity," Mercrey Lafayette said. "It's really a great program."
The Lafayettes decided to put together a week of activities that centered around the children, like a "week-long party," Lafayette said. "Children are something to celebrate."
The center started April 7 by acquainting the families of more than 40 children who attend the center with the idea behind the program. Then it was on to fun on Tuesday with an ice cream social. "The social was a lot of fun because the kids all had the opportunity to make their own ice cream sundaes," Lafayette said.
With kids from ages three weeks to third grade the ice cream social wasn't only fun, but probably also a little messy.
Wednesday morning Lafayette and her crew were up at 3 a.m. making pancakes and eggs for the parents of the kids from the center so that they could have breakfast with their children before they had to go off to work. "It was a lot of work, but it was great fun," Lafayette said.
The kids had a great time on Thursday, Lafayette said, when she invited Clifford the Big Red Dog to come in and tell stories to the children throughout the day. Lafayette said that she had a lot of help that day from Oakley's Little Party Animals. Little Party Animals provides themed birthday parties to local kids, usually at their location to keep the mess away from the participants' homes.
Clifford the Big Red Dog is a great role model for kids, Lafayette said, because he teaches children lessons on doing what is right in a loving environment.
On Friday, Delta Kids brought in an air jump for the kids to enjoy for the day, provided by Got A Party in Brentwood.
All of the parents were invited to come and spend some time with their children during the activities whenever they could and to have fun with them.
Mercrey opened Delta Kids Center three years ago. At the time, she and her husband fenced in the large yard that surrounds the center's buildings and grassed in the whole area, as well as put in a new swing set for the kids.
Mercrey has been in the child care business for 12 years. She began as a way to spend time with her own four children, three girls and the oldest a boy, all now ranging in age from 16 to 27.
Delta Kids is one of the few places in the area that take children as young as three weeks old. Usually child care places only take care of kids who are potty trained, but Lafayette decided that the younger children needed a loving and caring environment as well when their parents had to work. That is the bottom line for Lafayette. She says that the most important thing for a child care facility to provide is a loving environment for all of the children.
During the past few years, Oakley's child care facilities have found that the market has been divided a bit too thin. Lafayette feels that with the layoffs and the fact that more parents are trying to stay home with their children that even with all of the children in Oakley it is sometimes a hard field to be in. That hasn't stopped her from keeping involved in a field that she loves and she hopes to be in for a long time to come.
Roni Gehlke's column on life in Oakley appears each week in the Brentwood News.
Distributed by the Contra Costa Times