PAGE 5: Library of Congress Gazette – Volume 32, No. 18 (May 7, 2021)
The Little Scholars Accepting Applications for Fall
The child development center has introduced enhanced health and safety protocols.
By Elaina Finkelstein
The Little Scholars Child Development Center temporarily closed its doors in March 2020, along with much of the rest of the world, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. But it reopened in July after adopting new health and safety measures and has been welcoming children on-site ever since.
Operated by the Library of Congress Child Care Association, Little Scholars opened its doors in 1993. It provides daycare to children of employees of the Library, other legislative branch and federal agencies and children in the community.
When Little Scholars closed on March 15, 2020, teachers and staff quickly took things online, creating a curriculum the children could do at home with their parents. Activities included online YouTube videos, Zoom calls, and FaceTime sessions in which children shared art projects, sang, read and generally kept connected to one another and the center.
In the meantime, teachers planned changes to everyday on-site activities to keep families and staff safe. With changes in place, the center reopened on July 6.
“We had to stop using certain things like sand and sand tables, but instead have individual bins for each child with their own individual Play-Doh, crayons, pencils and scissors,” Ilene Lewis, director of Little Scholars, said. “We make sure everyone has their own bin with certain items that are harder to clean.”
The teachers also created a new day-to-day agenda in which children spend more time outside than before. In addition, classes are smaller, and parents are not allowed inside the building but instead drop off and pick up children near the playground.
To keep communication flowing between teachers and parents, Little Scholars uses an online application called Tadpoles. Lewis explains, “Tadpoles … lets us put in all the information about each child’s day. We put in pictures, we let parents know what art activity we are doing that day and what we did during our morning meeting. That has been great, because throughout the day the parents can get that information and communicate back and forth with the teachers.”
Little Scholars is located at 601 E. Capitol St., SE, in Washington, D.C. To learn more about the center, contact Lewis at ilene.littlescholars@gmail.com.