BY DANROCHELLE YUMUL
Melanie Martin has been a teacher for a private school in Los Angeles for 16 years. Over the years, she’s taught many grade levels. She currently teaches the third grade and below. Her daughter, Miranda, who also exhibited a passion for teaching, pursued a bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood education.
Little Acorns Grow is a Waldorf inspired learning center for ages 1 to 6 years.
Since mother and daughter shared a passion and dedication for teaching, they decided to create and foster an environment for children to learn, grow, and explore their surroundings.
“We wanted to create a program with the warmth and intimacy of a small setting but with the quality of a big facility…we wanted to marry the concept of a daycare with the pre-school program,” said Martin.
Thus, Little Acorns Grow Early Learning Environment was born. Melanie and Miranda spent a great deal of time researching and visiting numerous pre-schools to find out what would work with their program. In January 2011, they received their business license.
Little Acorns is located at Lake Balboa in Van Nuys. The facility is a community type center with a Waldorf inspired philosophy that’s surrounded by trees and plenty of open grassy spaces for children to play in. Their program offers classes in art, yoga, sign language, karate, cooking, and other classes beneficial to a child’s social and educational development. Each class is kept small with six to eight children per class with age groups between a year old to six years old. They also offer individual classes and the choice of a part-time or full-time program.
“Little Acorns Grow is a great spot to introduce young children to learning in a fun, green, organic setting. Our playground is full of trees and grass and is a great option for meet-up groups, home schoolers looking for social interaction and active people who want to encourage their children to be active as well. An early introduction to learning opens both sides of the brain and sets children up for success from a young age. Plus, it’s a really fun place!,” shares Martin.
The eight-week summer program begins on July 6th and ends on August 30th. Little Acorns’ open house will be held on August 27th.
They will also be having several promotional programs. On June 25th, a sign and sing class, incorporated into a puppet show will be held at Pottery Barn in Pasadena. Also, two events will be held at the Buttercelli Organic bakery—a cooking class on July 23rd at 3pm and a tea party on July 24th at 3pm.
For more information, visit their website at www.littleacornsgrow.net.
Danrochelle Yumul is a freelance journalist always on the look out for stories that inspire people to pursue their passions and follow their dreams. Currently, she writes for the Examiner.com as their Burbank Restaurant examiner. She also contributes to the Studio City Patch and writes reviews for Yelp.com on a regular basis.
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