Children's Corner
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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 open five minutes early to give families time to get started washing hands prior to entering the classroom. We would ask that parents respect our hours and not attempt to enter the building prior to 9:10 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 members of the Children’s Corner Staff   

The majority of the staff is trained in Red Cross CPR and First Aid, with the goal of 100% certification.

Tammy Richard is one of our Master Teachers as well as a Three year old teacher. She has been with Children’s Corner since fall of 2003. Tammy has great organizational skills and is very compassionate. She has also been the Assistant Director since 2006.

 

Dorothy Werkheiser has been with Children’s Corner since 1998. She has been the fun loving co-teacher for the 4 yr old class. If there’s a science lesson to be learned, you can be sure, Dorothy is teaching it. She loves to wear costumes that relate to our themes.  

 Dana Imel was the very first Children’s Corner Assistant Director. She now teaches  pre-k. She 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.

Kerry Jones is joining the staff as a teacher with the two year old group. She comes to us from the Northwestern U.S. Kerry has a background in Healthcare and the Early Childhood Education field. Kerry will be working with us full time in the fall.

Cyndi Martin  is the mother of three former Children’s Corner children. She also has several years experience working at Children’s Corner. She is returning to work in the two year old room. Welcome Back Cyndi! 

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 the Master teacher in the toddlers room.

Emily Johnson also joined Children’s Corner  August of 2003. Emily had worked in other centers around town.  She has been the lead teacher of the youngest classroom as well as a master teacher advisor. Emily shows Christ’s love and gentleness to the children in her care.

Ruth Lopez was also the mother of children in the program before she started working with us.  She joined the team in June of 2005. She is currently working as a float. Ruth has been a reliable asset to the program.

Corrie Fry  first came to the church as a mom of a Children’s Corner child. Later, she joined as a staff member. Corrie works as an assistant in the  toddler room on Tues., Wed. and Thurs. She has been on the staff since November 2006.

Amy Red Elk is the mother of three children. She has  plenty of experience working  at other local facilities. Now Children’s Corner is blessed to have her as a three year old teacher. Welcome Amy! 
Juliana Barker is mother to two boys. She has been working as a float since last June. You might have seen her busily cleaning the halls or greeting people as they come into the facility. She is a wonderful addition to our staff! 

Constance has worked in the Head Start programs as a Parent Volunteer. She also volunteers in Children's Church and Sunday School in her church. We are told that she sings up a storm in church, too. Constance has many talents one of which is writing several children's stories. She is the loving grandmother of 13 children. She is looking forward to being the surrogate grandmother of all the children at Children's Corner.

Crystal Wiley is the loving mother of two children ages 13 and 6. She has worked in various centers locally and has completed all the CDA required coursework. She is a gifted singer, and also writes children's stories and poems. Crystal's love for children shines when she plays and talks with them. She has a national gift for interacting with God's little ones.

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.