Sharon Jackson, Director

to contact children's corner, call 580 355 5355 or send email to cc@lawtonfumc.org

Children’s Corner is a Two Star facility.

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What is Children's Corner?

Children's Corner is a community ministry of Lawton First United Methodist Church. All Children’s Corner staff members are considered employees of the church. There is a day advisory board that meets quarterly. The board consists of all church members, some of whom are parents of Children’s Corner children.  

Children’s Corner is a Christian Preschool/Mom’s Day Out program. It is and has always been a part day program. The facility opened its doors the fall of 1993. At that time, Children’s Corner was open three days a week. As the program grew in size, days were added to accommodate demand.  Before the age limit was changed to 2 yrs, the wait list had as many as 70 families waiting. The program is licensed for 60 children daily. For several years there have been between 100  to 118 children on the weekly rolls.  

The facility is financially self-sufficient. Children’s Corner has made many contributions to the church over the years including the previous washer and  dryer, half of the cost of the fire and security system, half the cost of the fax machine, cost of the use of the black and white copier,  all the cost of monthly extermination of the playground, one third  of the cost of security cameras and much of the playground equipment and its maintenance.  

Children’s Corner is a Two Star facility. This means that higher standards of quality were met as approved by the Oklahoma DHS Childcare Division. Children’s Corner must have at least three Master Teachers, create and follow classroom lesson plans, offer five to seven interest areas in each classroom, survey staff and parents every two years, create career goals for the teachers and director, submit to a quality standards review, and meet several other strict guidelines in order to achieve this rating.  

The program accepts children 2 years of age and older. Business hours are Monday through Friday 9:15 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. The Children’s Corner calendar follows Lawton Public Schools calendar for holidays and other closings.  All classes are preschool structured. 

Smaller class sizes are offered for all ages.  Classes are developmentally appropriate and Christian teachings are emphasized. The children attend a daily children’s worship time in the Chapel. Each class must spend a minimum of fifteen minutes reading daily. Children’s Corner follows Handwriting Without Tears Curriculum as well as a thematic curriculum that is written by the staff and posted monthly.  

A Pre-K class for 4’s and older is offered in addition to the Preschool format. The Pre-K class operates five days a week. Tuesday and Thursday all day classes or Monday, Wednesday and Friday all day classes are offered. For additional information, give the office a call at 580-355-5355 or drop by the facility during business hours.

Business Hours

Children’s Corner official business hours are 9:15 to 3:15. The automatic door locks are set to open at 9:15. We would ask that parents respect our hours and not attempt to enter the building prior to 9:15 a.m.   Some teachers have children to drop off at LPS and need time to prepare the room for the day. We also would like to remind parents that children habitually picked up after 3:15 pm will be charged a $25.00 late fee.

 

Meet the Children’s Corner Staff

       Most team members are certified in CPR and first aid with the goal of 100% certification. In addition to their certifications and degrees, each Children’s Corner staff member is required to obtain 24 hours of approved training annually. This is 4 hours more than the state of Oklahoma requires. (And, Oklahoma was named the #1 state in the nation for childcare requirements.) Many times the entire staff will attend a training together such as the Becky Bailey Conscious Discipline Conference, or the CPR and First Aid training.

      

Children’s Corner has at least three Master Teacher’s on the premises. A Master Teacher is someone who meets the state requirements in the  Early Childhood Education field.

 

Our master Teachers are :

 

Mrs. Tammy Richard, who hold hers Child Development Associate as well as several additional College hours in ECE,

Mrs. Dana Imel ,who holds a Bachelors Degree in ECE and has several years experience in the public school system,

Mrs. Tonyelle Long, who holds her Associates Degree in ECE.

We also have two substitute/floats who hold their CDA and qualify as Master Teachers. They are Mrs. Diane Johns and Mrs. Kathy Radtke

 

Tammy Richard is one of our Master Teachers as well as the Children’s Corner Assistant Director. Tammy is very skilled in creating the appropriate three yr old classroom. She has a gift for managing her center time and making it a wonderful learning time that is reflective of the themes and the other areas of curriculum. Tammy is also skilled at implementing our Conscious Discipline policies. She has been with Children’s Corner since fall of 2003.

 

Dorothy Werkheiser has been with Children’s Corner since 1998. She has been the fun loving teacher for the 4 yr old class. If there’s a science lesson to be learned, you can be sure, Dorothy taught it. She loved to dress up and wear costumes that related to our themes. Nowadays, Dorothy is working as a substitute for Children's Corner.  

 Dana Imel was the very first Children’s Corner Assistant Director. She now teaches  pre-k. She holds a BA in Early Education, therefore, meets all the qualifications of a Master teacher. Dana joined us in 1995, but she and her family moved to New York for three years. When she returned to Lawton, she couldn’t resist coming back to Children’s Corner. Dana taught in the public school system for several years prior to moving to Oklahoma. She is a valued member of our team.

Cyndi Martin  is the mother of three former Children’s Corner children. She also has many years experience working at Children’s Corner. Cyndi brings an enormous amount of patience and just the right amount of firmness to the Children’s Corner table. She is concerned with encouraging proper learning skill growth in her children. She is the lead teacher of the two and a half yr olds and threes. Cyndi is a wonderful addition to the team.

Kathy Radtke joined Children’s Corner in August of 2003. She was also a mother of a child in the program before she came to work.  This was the first childcare facility for Kathy.  She showed great determination when she earned her CDA in December of 2005, which is the shortest amount of time for any one at Children’s Corner.  She is currently working as a substitute.

Corrie Fry  first came Children’s Corner  as a mom of a Children’s Corner child. Later, she joined First Methodist as a member. Then  she came to Children’s Corner as a staff member. Corrie has a simple approach to guiding the children while she encourages appropriate self-help skills. Corrie works as an assistant in the  toddler room with Ms. Cyndi. She has been on the staff since November 2006. We are glad she is a team member!

Juliana Barker is mother to two boys. She has been working as a float for three years. You might have seen her busily cleaning the halls or happily greeting people as they come into the facility. She is also very good at  translating German to English and visa versa. She has been very helpful with several new children from Germany! Because of Juliana, we have helped these children integrate into American preschool. She is a wonderful addition to our staff! 

Tawanna Johnson

Tawanna has been teaching the four year old class as a lead teacher for a year now. She has several qualities that she brings to Children’s Corner. Some of those would include her patience and flexibility. Tawanna is good at allowing the children to develop their own self-help skills and she keeps the children on track with their handwriting skills.  She is the mother of two children. One of her children is in the public shools, while the other child is a Children’s Corner student. We are glad that Tawanna is a part of the Children’s Corner team.

Diane Johns has been with children's corner for many years. She began working as a assistant to the lead teacher, but quickly showed her talents to be those of caring for and and nurturing of the children. It wasn't long before she was the lead teacher, herself. She took all the necessary classes and quickly earned her CDA. She used her calm nature and even temperament to her advantage in the classroom. After a few years as the Master Teacher, Diane needed to cut back on her schedule. Right now, she works as a floater on Fridays. You can also find her doing the occasional substitute work in a classroom. Diane is a real asset to Children's Corner.

Tonyelle Long, or Mrs. Tonya as she likes to be called,  has her Associates Degree in Early Childhood  Education and Care from Cameron University. She has worked for Lawton Public Schools, Hope Christian Academy and the KCA . She is the mother of four children and she resides in Cache. Tonya is our newest Master Teacher and is the teacher of our youngest threes class.

Mrs. Sharon Jackson also first came to Children’s Corner as a parent. She began working as a staff member in January 1994. By July that same year, she had become Director. Sharon also can be found wearing some unusual outfits. She’s been spied dressed as the Easter Bunny, Barney, an elf and other characters.  She was once in the Lawton Constitution as the Cat In the Hat. All costumes aside, one of her favorite outfits is her Mickey and Minnie Mouse PJ’s.