Today we’d like to introduce you to Laura Bianchi Eikenmeyer.
Laura, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
As parents, my husband and I found a real shortage of quality preschools in downtown Chicago. We love the city and we love living downtown. We did not like the idea of moving to the suburbs to find a quality preschool for our young son.
My doctorate is in educational psychology and my husband holds multiple graduate degrees as well. We value education highly and we understand the real learning and cognitive development that occurs (or should!) in the early childhood years.
In an effort to help, we searched for property and redeveloped two old row houses right in the heart of Streeterville and opened Urban Child Academy in 2010. It has been quite the family adventure ever since then.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Just finding a suitable location was a struggle in itself. The whole point of Urban Child Academy is that the shortage of quality preschools is right downtown where thousands of young families are moving for all of the exciting new housing options in River North and Streeterville. The real estate developers do not really consider preschool options when they are adding more units to the neighborhood.
After the property was found, developing it was another thing entirely. The regulatory and bureaucratic hurdles are numerous. I think the lesson here may be that the shortage of schools is directly related to how hard it is to open one.
Please tell us about Urban Child Academy.
Urban Child Academy is a learning organization and our mission is to grow and develop with each passing year.
We pride ourselves on our fabulous faculty and low student-teacher ratios as well as the hard work our faculty put into our curriculum. We develop our own student investigations with a focus on emerging cognitive milestones (the emergent curriculum model) and each investigation is fresh every month. We do not repeat lessons plans year to year so that our faculty keep things exciting and fun.
Our teachers are fabulous and we work hard to keep them, offering training, professional development and maybe some free snacks as well.
However, our families are also very much a part of Urban Child Academy. Our parents, grandparents and other family caregivers are welcome to come in and help in the fun.
Whether it is to play the guitar, join us at the park or to just read a book to the class, families are essential to a great preschool community. We are the Urban Child Family!
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Nothing. Preschool is not about a magic formula. It is about getting a thousand little things right each and every day. And about improving on each of those things whenever possible.
As parents, our goal for Urban Child has never been to take over the preschool world. It is about trying to create that gem of a preschool that is a big part of the community.
Contact Info:
- Address: 802 North Dearborn Street
162 West Superior Street - Website: urbanchild.org
- Phone: 3129327108
- Email: info@urbanchild.org (for families)
faculty@urbanchild.org (for teachers) - Facebook: www.facebook.com/urban.child.academy/
Image Credit:
Urban Child Academy
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