Today we’d like to introduce you to Iwona Adamczyk and Dariusz Gebala.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Iwona and Dariusz. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Our humble beginnings are dating back to 2003 when I started working for Derek in his new day care center in Chicago. I was hired as a teacher but after short time he promoted me to a director position. Shortly, we find out that we shared lots of ideas and visions to open another day care together. When we both found out that we all share the same names with our spouses, Darek, Iwona, we looked at it as a good sign and decided to go into a business together. The rest now is a history with hard work, shared vision, many challenges and sacrifices. As business and day care center owners, we want to offer more than our competitors, we want to be more innovative, and offer the parents and children the best care and early education as possible,
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The beginning like for most of the small business was challenging. We waited for license and clearance from village for a long time. Buildings where child care center may operate needs to be inspected by many agencies like Village Dept., Health Department, Fire Department and of course DCFS. Each state has a strict licensure requirement for day care centers especially Illinois. Since we opened during the mid-year, enrollment was low for several months. We were not known by community because we were new business in this area.
Also, DCFS constantly adds new requirements for employees so it is difficult to find a qualified staff to work at the child care.
Please tell us about Academy 4 Kids.
Academy 4 Kids serves children from 6 weeks to 12 years.
Our days are filled with fun activities, healthy food and home like environment. Our classrooms are divided by age. We follow weekly thematic units, and we use a creative approach to learning encouraging students to explore their environment through art and music. We offer lots of interesting programs. One of them is our summer program, filled with lots of fun. We tried to keep children occupied all day by offering lots of actives, field trips around Il play and Fun. Field trips include Shedd Aquarium, Arboretum and Brookfield Zoo, Santa’s Village, Lego Land and many more interesting places. Our weekly program includes music class where children can play, sing, and dance with the piano. We also offer gymnastics classes, qualified, caring teachers.
Our center provides bus transportation for students to/from local elementary schools during the school year.
Our yearly schedule is field with holidays celebrations, concerts, special guests visits (magician, Santa, community helpers). We are proud of ability to provide quality care and excellent age appropriate curriculum.
We always wanted to be a place that offer a little more for children that just the care.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I don’t think we will not do anything differently but we would be prepared better for challenges that we face in the beginning.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1050 W. Stearns Rd.,
Bartlett, Il 60103 - Website: academy4kidsbartlett.com
- Phone: 6302897878
- Email: academy4orkids@gmail.com
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