What the Future Can Hold for Our Children

Without debt, we will be able to focus on improving our learning experiences, expand our hours of care, and invite the community to enjoy our facilities. The following are enrichment offerings we will access with a successful campaign.

Art Enrichment – Doorway to Learning could schedule a monthly local artist to come to our center and work directly with our children on projects using the medium of the artist’s choice (ie. watercolors, clay, etc.) The artist could also showcase his/her art and offer community classes in our Community Room.

Music Enrichment – Similar to visual art enrichment, we could schedule a different musician or musical group to come into our center to play for our children. Every month, this would allow children to experience various types of music and instruments. We could also work with visitors to ensure children would have the opportunity to test instruments. While all classrooms have musical instruments readily available they are limited. Enrichment could allow children to explore new instruments, be exposed to new types of music, and ignite a lifelong passion for music.

Additional Enrichment – Additional groups could be brought into our early education center to introduce things our children do not experience regularly. Examples include reptiles, therapy dogs, Zoomobile, Bookmobile, dancing, nature (Crossroads, The Ridges, etc.), and other meaningful experiences that develop the whole child.

External Field Trips – Legally, we can take 3- and 4-year-olds on field trips using a charter bus while ensuring proper supervision. We are lucky here in Door County to have so many wonderful, educational and exciting opportunities in our backyard, however we have not had opportunities to explore any of these with our children due to costs. We would love to partner with the Door County YMCA for our children to take part in swimming lessons, visit the Maritime Museum, enjoy feeding bottles to goats at The Farm, and so much more.

Additional Language Opportunities – Sign language is a great tool for teachers and children to use as children can often communicate via signs prior to speaking. While our teachers know some basics of sign language, we would love to educate our staff so that more signs are used, taught, and communication further supported. In addition to sign language, there have been several instances in which we needed interrupters to communicate with Spanish-speaking families. Not only would it be great to make these families feel more welcome, but it could also be beneficial to our English-speaking children to introduce Spanish in the classroom.

Expanded Care Hours – Our current hours are Monday through Friday from 5:30 a.m – 5:30 p.m. We would like to expand our services into the evening to account for parents that work later, or for families working second shift. Although Door County is known for its tourism and service industry, we do not offer group childcare on the weekends. We could offer care Friday, Saturday, and Sunday afternoon/evenings when the service industry is busiest. Not only does this help the industry in terms of labor force, but it would also give visiting families access to a licensed and reputable childcare option so they could attend (and enjoy) a show or have dinner without the kids.