New type of daycare center opening

A day care center will open in Waterloo this fall which promises to be a model for a new type of early childhood education. Betsy Zan, a professor at the nearby University of Northern Iowa, says the facility will offer kids, ages three through five, a different sort of day care experience with a lot of group games.Zan, a professor of curriculum and instruction at U-N-I, says the Freeburg Early Childhood Program will offer added activities for youngsters which will be more challenging and richer for their academic experience. For example, she says kids will learn about physics through playing with things like levers, pulleys, gears and inclines.Zan says U-N-I trains more early childhood teachers than all of the other schools in Iowa combined. She says future teachers who are students at U-N-I will get the chance to learn their craft at this new day care center.There will be observation booths for every classroom so large numbers of visitors can watch without disturbing the activities. The center will be run by the Regents’ Center for Early Developmental Education at U-N-I. It will be a full-day facility for 66 children.