Kids learning through play
[attach]967[/attach]It started as a two-room operation taking care of 25 children.
More than three decades and 173 kids later, business is booming at Arpi Nursery School in the Bathurst Street and Lawrence Avenue area.
The school, celebrating its 35th anniversary this year, had its modest beginning in 1974 when it set up shop in the Asbury and West United Church.
Now the place has expanded and transformed into a kid-friendly haven. The brightly coloured walls are barely visible through the artwork that covers them. The resident pet birds chirp in the background, companion music to the ever-present din of chattering children.
“Demographically, I think we are considered an area with high need (for daycares),” said school owner Arpi Meras, adding there’s a large number of working and single parents who need somewhere to bring their children.
The school offers a variety of programs, including the Armenian Heritage Program. Catering to the school’s high volume of kids with an Armenian background, Meras keeps the students in touch with their roots by teaching them the language, folk dances and songs of their culture.
“Thirty-five years ago, there was no other Armenian language schools,” Meras said.
Meras decided to put her background in early childhood education to use after realizing the challenges immigrant families face in school, including first language retention.
Then came the idea to have a place that nurtured children’s heritage while teaching them English.
“I didn’t want kids to feel alienated,” Meras said.
Offering all-day and after-school programs for newborns to kids age 12, the school practises learning through play, and the children have freedom in choosing their activities, Meras said.
It’s not your conventional classroom setting, she noted.
In place of desks and chalkboards, children sit at small tables or find a place on the mats.
The school also looks after pet birds, a hedgehog, fish and a rabbit named Thumper by the children.
There are currently 159 kids registered at the school — Meras knows each one by name.
The idea to celebrate the anniversary came from a group of people that used to attend the nursery school when they were children, said Meras.
The event is set to include a gala dinner at the Old Mill Inn.
“It must be important to the community because for 35 years now we have been busy,” Meras said.