Child Development Centers

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Our Mission Statement

The mission of the Child Development Center is to cooperate with parents to nurture the development of enthusiasm, confidence and early life skills that are necessary for each child's success in school and later life. By working together, we can give your child the affection, encouragement and training that is essential for achievement and fulfillment in coming years.

Our Company

The Child Development Centers were established in 1979 as a non-profit enterprise operating in the public interest. We are a division of the Foundation for Behavioral Resources of Augusta Michigan (located between Kalamazoo and Battle Creek). The specific and primary purpose of this Foundation is the advancement of education. The CDCs are located in Kalamazoo and Calhoun counties and operated for the benefit of the children and families of these counties. We are a local operation. The staff and management all live in the area. We understand local needs and structure our programs accordingly. It is our goal to work together with parents entering into a long-term relationship which places our experience and effective teaching methods at their disposal. We believe that such a relationship is vital for effective education.

Partnership between CDC and Charter Schools

The CDC's have a partnership with two tuition-free public charter schools, Arbor and Oakland Academies. Your child can extend the benefits of his or her pre-school achievements at one of our affiliated tuition-free, public charter schools.

Oakland Academy is located on the same campus as the CDC on Oakland Drive in Portage. This co-location allows for convenient drop-off and pick-up of all your children from infants through sixth graders. Before and after school care is available at the CDC for school age children. The other Kalamazoo area CDC's will provide transportation to and from Oakland Academy.

Arbor Academy is located on the same campus as Lakeview CDC on Arbor Street in Battle Creek and also offers before and after school care for Academy students.

Our Program Description

We are dedicated to helping your children develop their skills, abilities, and interests to their maximum potential. By working together, we can give your child the early encouragement, training, and affection that is necessary for future success and happiness in school and later life. Our program is designed to foster accelerated learning and to provide individual support to each child. Our staff expects to work closely with you in this effort and we encourage you to maintain close contact with your child's teacher and the Center Director.

We offer full-time and part-time educational child care programs for children from two weeks to 12 years of age throughout the school year. Our infants and toddlers learn and play in a safe, nurturing, and educational environment where we provide you with a written record of all developmental milestones. Our school-age program includes before and/or after school care with transportation available to some locations.

Our preschool children attend “CDC Academy” where they learn kindergarten readiness skills with an Early Childhood Educator in a loving and nurturing environment. Children who attend pre-school extend their “fast start” into the elementary grades. Their confidence in their learning abilities, comfort with peers, and exposure to new ideas and experiences translates measurably into their academic performance and social maturity. Despite these advantages, parents are naturally concerned that their child be free to enjoy childhood, learn without the stress to “perform”, and feel safe and nurtured in an away from home environment. Experts agree that play belongs in the early childhood classroom as a natural way to learn about the world, stimulating brain development through hands on experience. We at CDC provide the perfect balance of play and education in a loving, nurturing environment designed for social, emotional, cognitive, and physical growth.

Our Program Goals

Our preschool/childcare program supports the early preparation and enhancement of emotional, social, physical, and intellectual development. It is our philosophy that each child will learn because our staff makes learning a fun and exciting process, with a chance for awareness, accomplishment, success, and confidence. Our goal is for every child to develop a joy for learning and have a positive first experience with school.

• Emotional - We provide a safe, nurturing environment, that meets the individual needs of every child. Creative expression and exploration through hands on experiences are encouraged. We strive to provide a well-rounded program which encourages self-confidence.
• Social - With our learning-center based program, children learn cooperation and creativity. Centers include art, music, science, and dramatic play. The teachers support, encourage, and extend activities.
• Physical - Large and small motor skills are developed through indoor and outdoor activities. These activities are geared toward appropriate age levels. Emphasis is placed on basic movement, motor skills, and a wide variety of games and sports.
• Intellectual - Our academic program incorporates an individually paced, tutoring program with emphasis on language, math, and reading. Since our centers serve as training facilities for several area colleges, adult staff supplement the teaching program. The children participate in both individual instruction and small group instruction, and are encouraged in learning. It should be emphasized that every child learns at his or her own pace. No pressure is placed on a child in this growth process.
• Educational - The Child Development Center's educational goals and practices have been designed with the recognition that a child's future success in life is influenced to a very large degree by early childhood experiences.

CDC utilizes the Zoophonics program. The following is taken from Zoophonics website:

1. Children are so ready for learning, however, it is difficult at best to teach them through abstract methods and materials – they do not understand abstractions. Make it concrete, however, and there is no limit to what they can learn.

2. The Zoo-phonics methodology fully involves your child’s eyes, ears, mouth and body as they learn phonemic awareness, the alphabet and how to decode (read) and encode (spell/write).

3. Zoo-phonics is so playful. Watch baby animals as they play. They are in constant motion as they wrestle, jump, roll, snarl, yip and growl. This is important preparation for adulthood. The same goes for your child. They’re in constant motion and they love to make noise. So let’s use what is natural for them and channel it for learning! If they are moving, they have fun and they are processing information through this important movement and sound production!

4. Zoo-phonics: (a) Uses 26 animals to teach letter shapes and sounds. (b) Teaches the lowercase letters before introducing capitals. (c) Teaches letter sounds before letter names. (d) Teaches a body movement, or "signal," in association with each Animal/letter of the alphabet. These "Signals" aid memory and bring fun into the classroom. (e) Treats the alphabet as a whole and goes from "a-z." (f) Teaches short vowels before long vowels. (g) Uses "word family" patterns to teach reading and spelling, because children are "naturals" at finding and remembering patterns.

   In Zoo-phonics, we take something that is very abstract (reading) and through music, stories and games, turn it into something that is concrete and understandable to young children.

   Special Programs

   We offer a before and after school program that includes transportation to and from area schools.

   We offer nutritious meals, breakfast, lunch, morning and afternoon snacks all prepared by our dieticians operating in our licensed and inspected commissary.

   At C.D.C., parents are always welcome to drop in and observe our programs!!