Carla Goodwin officially opened Small Hands Academy on October 1. Ms. Goodwin is no stranger to running a daycare. She had started out in Colorado with a home daycare taking care of military children. Although she originally only planned to take care of one to two children just to keep busy after leaving the air force, inspectors discovered that she does well with the children who are prone to misbehave. After various other daycare centers would call her and send her the children who were undergoing major life changes, she eventually opened her own facility in Colorado.
Eventually, she closed her facility and moved to Clarke County with her children, doing odds and ends jobs until she eventually started working at Small World about four years ago. She decided to continue the daycare since Mrs. Faye LaBoone has retired, having to close Small World.
“I love kids,” said Ms. Carla.
The name of the new daycare is now Small Hands Academy.
“I went with Small Hands Academy because most academies are associated with studying a special area. Overall, an academy focuses on the literature, math, and humanities,” explained Ms. Carla. “That’s what we do here every day. Kids get art. They get their literature. They get their math and their science. People don’t realize that’s what goes on in the facility, so that’s why we went with academy. This is who we are and what we’ll be doing.”
Although she doesn’t plan to change everything about the facility, there will be some changes that she intends to use to benefit the children even more.
The students have always learned basic art lessons, but Ms. Carla intends to teach them even more about art. She plans to study an artist, such as Picasso or Monet, once a month. She also plans to have age appropriate art things to do with each group of kids.
Not only does she intend to extend the art program, but she plans on doing more STEM (science and technology) projects with all of the students.
“I love science,” said Ms. Carla.
She intends to do multiple science experiments with the children so that they can both have fun and learn how and why different things react the way they do at the same time. She also wants to teach the children robotics. The facility currently has two robots that she uses with the oldest group already. She does intend to also introduce robotics to the younger classes in a way that is age appropriate for them, as well.
The last change Ms. Carla has in mind for the facility involves language. She intends to teach the children a little sign language. She has already been teaching the oldest group some sign language and has witnessed some of the students using the sign language to communicate in class. The oldest group will not be the only ones learning it, though, because she intends to begin showing one of the younger groups how to use some signs very soon.
With her experience and love for the children, the transition from Small World to Small Hands Academy should be an easy one.
