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Full of Potential
For decades, the Haddonfield United Methodist Early Childhood Center has been helping young children develop important skills in a nurturing environment, and now it is reaching even more kids with its full-day kindergarten program.

by Matt Cosentino

Parents seeking a childcare center for their kids during those crucial early developmental years are fortunate to have plenty of options these days, but sifting through the choices and finding the right fit can be difficult. Caregivers are looking for a place that not only encourages their youngsters to grow socially and build strong learning habits, but also where they’ll be surrounded by loving staff members who go out of their way to provide the warmth and support that children need at that age.

For families in South Jersey, perhaps no other school fits that description better than the Haddonfield United Methodist Early Childhood Center (HUMECC).

With a history going back decades, HUMECC offers programs for infants and toddlers, preschool and even full-day kindergarten, now in its second year. Its mission is to help all children reach their potential in a nurturing environment.

Jennifer Douglas has known HUMECC to be a special place as both a teacher and a parent who sent her own kids there, but now that she’s in her third year as its director, she truly gets to witness the contributions of the staff on a daily basis.

“Kids are a bundle of energy, and when you’re in a room with 20 different personalities, it’s both challenging and rewarding,” she says. “It’s so much fun for me to walk in and out of our classrooms because of what our staff are doing with the kids. I feel like these kids are so lucky: They are having so much fun learning, and a lot of the time they don’t even realize they’re learning. They think they’re having fun, but they’re gaining life skills that they’ll take with them as they develop into elementary school students, middle school students and high school students.”

Whether in the infant/toddler program for children between 15 months and 2, the preschool classes for 3-6-year-olds, or the full-day kindergarten, HUMECC’s teacher-to-student ratios both meet and often exceed state requirements. There is very little turnover among the staff and many teachers have been with the school for more than 10 years, including one who just celebrated her 35th year.

Like Douglas, assistant director Michelle Finegan sent her own children to HUMECC and was later hired as a teacher. That was 25 years ago, and despite more lucrative opportunities elsewhere, she has never considered leaving.

“I stayed because of the program itself, the parents and the children. I just couldn’t picture working anywhere else,” she says. “It’s a family—I know that’s cliché to say, but it really is. You get close to the parents and close to the kids, and I’ve been able to follow kids who I taught in preschool and they’re now in college. It’s just a wonderful community.”

Although affiliated with the church, HUMECC is open to any religion and teaches values like caring, sharing and tolerance. Its educational philosophy is based on using play, creative activities and encouragement to help children develop a lifelong love for learning.

“We provide socialization for kids in a safe, nurturing and loving environment,” Douglas says. “As they get older, they work on fine motor skills and gross motor skills, and we do it through play and specific activities that are geared toward those skills. They’re working on not only caring, sharing and playing nicely with others, but they’re also learning how to hold a pencil, how to trace their name, how to recognize letters, how to recognize numbers and how to do letter sounds. They’re working on pre-reading and pre-math, and then our kindergarteners actually work on writing and reading.”

The kindergarten program began last year as an alternative to Haddonfield Public Schools’ half-day kindergarten and follows the same curriculum.

“The students from our first year are all doing really well in first grade,” Douglas says. “Our philosophy is that we will meet you where you are in your educational journey: Every kid will get what they need.”

The kindergarten program has had eight students in each of its first two years and there is optimism that it will grow to double digits in the near future, but the plan is to keep the class size small and maxed out at 14.

“That allows for every student to get individual attention throughout the day,” Douglas says. “Our full-day kindergarten students also eat lunch and have recess with our half-day kindergarten enrichment classes, which means they get the benefit of being in a small class for instruction but also have the chance to socialize with their kindergarten peers.”

HUMECC also offers a summer camp, led by Finegan, for kids between 1 and 6 years old, and it has grown from two classes when she started in 2008 to nine last year.

“It’s a fun, activity-based camp,” she says. “We have a theme that we follow and this year it’s going to be traveling through Disney, so we’ll be spending two weeks at each park. We have books that go along with the theme and we do a craft that goes along with the theme. Some of our regular students stay for the summer, but we also get a lot of students from other preschools that don’t offer a summer camp. They’re loyal to us and they come every summer.”

HUMECC’s air-conditioned facility is a cheery setting that was updated in recent years, and it has two outdoor playgrounds in addition to an indoor play area. Douglas is happy to give interested parents a tour any weekday morning, and she is confident they will see the potential for their children just like so many families before them.

“We laugh every day here,” she says. “I just think it’s a happy place to be. That’s what comes to mind when I think about this place.”

Haddonfield United Methodist Early Childhood Center
Haddonfield
(856) 429-0403

HaddonfieldUMC.org/HUMECC


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Published and copyrighted in South Jersey Magazine, Volume 21, Issue 10 (January 2025)

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