Controllers wide awake in Farmington 6A Keeping prom affordable 32A Auto students accelerate to state 32A
LAURA ADELMANN
JESSICA HARPER JESSICA HARPER
dakotacountytribune.biz dakotacountytribune.biz
DATE ##, APRIL 28, 2009 2011
VOLUME 32, 30, NUMBER NUMBER 9 # VOLUME
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Children’s Country Day School celebrates 40 years
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Minnesota’s system of doling out state aid to cities is due for a good rethinking. 4A
School offers early childhood learning in the great outdoors by Stacey Ackerman SPECIAL TO THE DAKOTA COUNTY TRIBUNE
Phyllis Ettinger has always had a soft spot in her heart for young children, and her husband, Ron, has a love for animals. When their two children were young, Phyllis left her job as a first-grade teacher in Burnsville to pursue a dream – of integrating early childhood learning with animals and nature. The Ettingers started their first school in a church at Lexington Avenue and Highway 110 in Mendota Heights in 1971. At one point, they had six locations, but decided to keep their focus on their favorite spot – seven acres of nature in Mendota Heights, which they purchased from a sheep farmer during Photo submitted their third year in business. This Students tapped maple trees at Children’s Country Day School year marks the 40th anniversary in Mendota Heights, which is celebrating its 40th year. of the Lilydale couple’s Children’s Country Day School. “When children spend time in the outdoors, involved in meaningful nature activities, they develop key life skills including learning cooperation and teamwork, resolving personal conflicts, learning to negotiate, critical-thinking skills as well as the opportunity to engage in problem solving,� said Phyllis Ettinger. The school takes indoor learning outdoors. Classes such as art, music and dramatic play that are normally taught in a classroom are moved outdoors, where the children learn through nature and the animals around them. The private early childhood school offers programming for children ages 16 months through Photo submitted 5 (pre-kindergarten). Total en- A Children’s Country Day School student hugs a rollment is 155. burro. The facility is located in an old farmhouse, which has had 10 additions built on room sizes are kept small, with a 3-year-old it, and now boasts two pools, a music room and classroom having a one-to-seven ratio rather an indoor gym. While it’s a large facility, class- than the state’s one-to-10 requirement.
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See School, Page 32A
PHIL KRINKIE FORUM
Teachers seeking license renewal should be asked to demonstrate professional ECM EDITORIAL mastery. 4A
BUZZ
DAVID I. PAGE
Page, who teaches at Inver Hills Community College, has been named Educator of the Year. 3A
BUZZ
Books, who teaches at Inver Hills Community college, has been named an Outstanding Edcucator. JOSEPHINE 3A BOOKS
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General 952-894-1111 Distribution 952-846-2070 Advertising 952-846-2011
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“A child’s first experience away from home should feel like home,� said Ettinger, who strives to provide a home-like atmosphere at Children’s Country Day School. Besides its home-like interior, the school is a real hobby farm and has llamas, goats, horses, chickens and ducks, as well as a butterfly garden, vegetable garden and native plant garden. “The children take care of all of the plants and animals,� said Ettinger. “They spend 85 percent of their time here outdoors.� Children’s Country Day School hires only teacher-qualified educators. The average teacher has been an employee for 10 to 12 years, and a few have been with the program for more than 30 years. Some former students now have kids in the program, or have come back as teachers. Besides classroom teachers, the school has a naturalist, a music teacher and a swimming teacher. During a recent class project, 4- and 5-year-olds made maple syrup. They tapped the trees, collected the tap, boiled the tap into syrup, and then created invitations and invited the younger children to a pancake breakfast. Three years ago, Children’s Country Day School became the sec-
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