Moving can be a stressful experience for anyone, but it is especially stressful if you have to worry about your favorite toys or your butterflies.
This is the main concern of the children in the Child Development Center as construction wraps up on a new facility.
The new Child Development Center broke ground in May and is ready for the faculty and children to move in this month.
Debra Ward, director of the center, said that the staff has talked about the move with the children who have mixed emotions.
“I think they’re excited, but I know they are a little anxious about the move because many of the children talk about the concern they have that if their toys are going to go over there.”
“So they’re concerned that the bike that they use everyday over here. “Is that going to be over there?”
“They want to physically ride the bike over to the new site. So they asked if they could do that,” she added.
The kids are helping to pack their toys in boxes and will help when they arrive in the new center.
“(The children will) actually help with unpacking to help give them ownership of their new space,” said the center’s lead teacher Amy Blandford.
Blandford has been working at the current Child Development Center for three years and is looking forward to the new building.
“Things have gotten kind of old here,” said Blandford.
“(I’m looking forward to) a beautiful new environment and a beautiful outdoor program. The outdoor facilities are just amazing, so we’re excited for that.”
The new outdoor facilities will have been designed with a playground that was inspired by the California landscape.
“It’s designed for children and we’re excited that it has components of the outdoor classroom. The outdoor classroom has regions of California,” said Ward
Different areas will display regions of California such as the beach or the mountains.
It will also have areas to hold live animals to teach the children how to take care of them and personal responsibility.
One of the areas will hold butterflies and caterpillars, which will be moved over from the current center.
There are over a hundred caterpillars, according to Ward.
“The children are really anxious about them, ‘are we going to get to have our butterflies and caterpillars at the new place?’ ”
The new enclosure has been filled with plants that the critters live off of, such as milkweed.
The last day for the old center will be on Dec. 17 and the move will be taking place on the 18th and 19th. The first official day at the new center will be on Jan. 2, 2015.
One of the things that helped reduce anxiety of the move has been the volunteers who have donated their time.
The volunteers include parents, teachers and members of the Child Development Club.
“It’s gone really, really well as far as all the cooperation we’ve gotten from the families and teachers, said Brisa Ocean, “Everyone has a good attitude looking forward to the move. So I think that outweighs the stress you anticipate from moving.”
