Inside The Learning Experience on Oak Street, a line of toddlers waits patiently to go out to the playground. There are several chatting visitors, including Deepash Patel, the Learning Experience’s co-owner, at the other end of the brightly colored hallway, blocking the exit. They move out of the kids’ way and the children stream out, single-file.
As they walk past they slap Deepash’s raised hand in greeting or fist-bump him, many of them calling out a greeting to him as well.
These are a group of preschoolers, Deepash explains. They’ve just had their afternoon nap and will now play outside, under the watchful eye of their teacher, until it’s time to come in and do their afternoon learning activity.
When they do, he says, they won’t even realize they’re taking part in instructional time. That’s because the curriculum at The Learning Experience, even for babies, is cleverly disguised as playtime.
“We really believe in the mission of learning through play,” says Shital Patel, Deepash’s wife and co-owner of The Learning Experience. “Every month we have a theme, and through those themes, we coordinate our learning experiences. The kids are learning all day long but they don’t realize it.”
The Learning Experience franchises child care centers across the country and stresses a “learn through doing” approach in its programs, geared for children from six weeks to six years old.
The Patels own four Learning Experience facilities in Connecticut. Besides the one on Oak Street they also currently operate centers in New Haven, Cromwell, South Windsor and Fairfield.
One of the hallmarks of The Learning Experience, besides their bright and colorful interiors, is the emphasis they put on developing curriculum specifically for each age group because children have “much different learning needs” at all different ages, Shital says.
“Other centers will have kids ages 1, 2 and 3 all in one group. But a 1-year-old is very different developmentally from a 2-year-old and a 3-year-old.”
The Learning Experience separates children into six distinct learning groups and it offers full time, half day or part time child care and preschool programs.
The curriculum, Deepash says, also includes a philanthropic component and the centers participate in community giving and fund drives so that children can learn the importance of helping others.
That was one of the things that drew the couple to partnering with The Learning Experience.
“As parents, we wanted more for our own children,” Deepash says. “We were really looking for that philanthropic component tied into a well rounded curriculum”
The Learning Experience
86 Oak St., Glastonbury
860-781-8363
thelearningexperience.com
