New early learning center opens in the Summerport Villages

WINDERMERE On Monday, a new Learning Experience Academy of Early Education opened its doors in the Summerport Village.

The academy’s mascot, Bubbles the Elephant, greeted the 10 children who arrived that morning for their first day at the new early education center.

“So far, so good,” said Amy Alvarado, director of operations at the Learning Experience. “The children and parents are very happy.”

It was back in 2015 when franchise owner Cathy Xu decided to invest in creating an early-childhood education center for the Windermere region because of her passion for early-childhood education, she said. After weeks of searching for the best fit, she decided to partner with The Learning Experience to open up a new franchise in the Summerport Village.

The Learning Experience Academy of Early Education was created in 1980 with its first location in Boca Raton. Since then, dozens of locations have been added in 18 states across the country. The Windermere franchise was the 163rd center to open in the U.S, Alvarado said.

There are currently 30 locations in Florida.

Construction on the Windermere franchise began in the summer of 2016 and was completed by November. Since then, staff members have worked around the clock to prepare the center for its grand opening.

“Windermere seems to be an up-and-coming neighborhood,” Alvarado said. “They’re very excited to see another education center in the neighborhood.”

Right now, about 40 children are enrolled, but the early education center has a maximum capacity of nearly 200.

The Learning Experience is open from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., giving parents nine different scheduling options for their children. Enrollment is open to children between the ages of six weeks to five years old.

The early education center also features a full curriculum that includes sign language, manners and etiquette class and foreign language classes for Spanish and Mandarin. The curriculum is designed around the six early stages of child development that helps the children develop school-related skills, such as letter recognition, shapes, colors and numbers, as they become older.

Parents also have the option of placing their students in a variety of enrichment programs, including yoga, soccer, dancing, math and science.

Although it’s only been open a few days, Alvarado said the new franchise’s future looks promising.

“It’s been great so far,” She said.

Contact Brittany Gaines at [email protected].