Environment

At Smart Start Childcare and Learning Center, we take pride in our home-like environment and work continuously to keep our center feeling safe, secure, clean, neat, organized, happy and comfortable.

We are happy to offer larger classrooms with smaller class sizes and lower child to teacher ratios.  Children are under qualified supervision at all times in a safe, secure, healthy and happy learning environment.  Parents are welcome to visit anytime during operating hours and parents are also welcome to review our childcare program plan which is created, reviewed and updated annually by our qualified staff and is available anytime upon request.

A small child playing room with some posters

Outdoor Classroom

  • Smart Start is one of the very few centers in the state that has an outdoor classroom. Our outdoor classroom provides children with the ability to initiate their own activities and encourages their need to explore, imagine, try new things, and learn alone or with friends. It offers a variety of areas for both physical and less active play; messy play with water and sand; space to build and design with loose parts, natural objects to balance on and fundamental opportunities to create in nature while optimizing health and well-being.
  • The learning that occurs in our outdoor classroom blends seamlessly between subject areas and leads to a very natural way of learning that children are drawn to. It is an extension of our indoor classroom and it creates a physical and social environment where children feel welcomed, trusted and respected.
  • The Outdoor Classroom provides an area of natural learning through the growing and care of many different types of flowers and vegetables that the children have helped to plant and harvest.
  • We're proud to provide one of the few infant-only outdoor classrooms in the area. The separate infant classroom allows our youngest learners the ability to experience a more natural environment and encourages them to explore and try new things, all while safely secluded from the older, more mobile children, and in closer proximity to teachers.
  • For all of the reasons previously listed, and to take advantage of the weather during the nicer times of year, we spend as much time as we can outdoors and in nature.

6 Time Recipient in the St. Croix River Valley for

Best Childcare

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Best Preschool