So I got a space...Now what?

Your child received a space in our program for the 2018-2019 school year and you’re wondering what happens next? This blog is for you! Let me start by saying welcome to our family! We are so excited to get to know you and your child and are looking forward to lots of fun times together at school events and watching your child grow in the classroom! It’s going to be awesome! Thank you for choosing our school to partner with you in your child’s education. We are honored by the opportunity!

First things first, did you secure your child’s spot by turning in your registration packet and new student fee? If not, that’s the first thing you need to do. All the options for turning it in is outlined in your confirmation email. Of course if you have any questions, give us a call! We are here to help make this process an easy one :) 

Next...we wait. This is the worst part. We now have a few months until we really start prepping for the new school year. You will receive a welcome packet mid June with all the information you will need for the upcoming school year. This packet will include any forms we need completed and turned in, a school calendar, a supply list, and invitations to our events that kick-off the school year. If you don’t receive this packet by June 20, 2018, please notify us so we can get one to you. If any personal information (email address, phone number, or mailing address) changes from now until then, please call us so we can update your file.

 Again, thank you for joining our sweet family here at CDS! We are so excited for the upcoming school year! Please let us know if you have any questions!!

**We do have two spaces remaining in our half-day kindergarten program, one space in our Little Learners Program, and a couples spaces in our two year old program for the 2018-2019 school year. Please contact us if you are interested in these spaces. Thanks!**

After School Fun at CDS

I'm sure you're aware of the wonderful preschool program we offer here at Coastal Day School, but you might not know that we also provide an amazing after school program (and summer camp) for children ages 5-12 years with pick up from local schools! Our program is super fun and I am so happy that we can provide this much needed service to Leland families! We know that balancing work and home can sometimes be difficult so we love that we get to provide a fun place where our kiddos have fun, receive homework support, and build sweet friendships!! 

I have been either working at or running an after school program for the last 10 years now and I love doing so as I see just how important an after school program is! We love our kiddos and treat them like family here at CDS! We pick up children from Roger Bacon, Belville, and Town Creek as they are dismissed from school and we bring them back to our school where we provide snack for them. We try to offer a healthy snack every day with treats mixed in here and there and our kiddos get to have pizza every Friday (which they are always excited for)! Next our kiddos split up either into the homework room or their designated classroom which is set up with age appropriate activities! If a child has homework they come into the homework room where we provide them with help if they need it and we also provide any homework supplies they may need to complete their work! As soon as a child is done in the homework room they head back to play with their friends in their rooms! There is always a teacher lead activity whether it be a craft, board game, or a physical activity and there are stations set up around the room where the kiddos can rotate to! We try to keep up with the cool toys and games that the kids want to play with to make sure they are having the most fun possible. When we aren’t having activities in the classroom, we are outside playing! Our kiddos have been in school all day so it's nice for them to have the opportunity to work off some of their energy that has built up throughout the day!

One of my favorite parts of the day is when a parent comes to pick up their child and the child is upset to leave. We often have kids so involved in whatever it is their group is doing that they don’t want to leave to go home. For me, that is a sign that we are doing our jobs well! What was our small little after school program has grown exponentially over the years and has now become a thriving, fun, happy environment where our kiddos get to have a blast and unwind at after a long day of school.  

In addition to our after school program, we also provide all day care for school breaks and teacher work days where we are open from 7:30am until 6pm. We enjoy field trips every day and provide tons of fun activities! We have had some amazing field trips such as the pool, movies, Incredible Pizza to make our own pizzas, bowling, the beach, Bounce, Planet Fun, and Power of Play just to name a few! Our staff is trained to obsessively count and not take their eyes off of our kiddos so you can feel confident that your child will be safe while having a great time!!

We truly love spending time with all of our kiddos and consider them part of our family!! We can’t wait to see how much more our program grows and to welcome many more families in the up coming years! 

-Veronnica (After School and Summer Camp Director)

Enrollment Day!!!!!

Good Morning!
Today is the day!! Here is the ￫ link ￩ to our enrollment request form! Submissions are time stamped and spaces will be filled in the order received. 
Best of luck!!!
-CDS Admin Team 😊

Open Enrollment Starts Soon!

On Thursday evening we hosted our annual Open House for new families to come tour our facility and meet our staff! As always, it was wonderful meeting so many amazing families and it gets us so excited for our open enrollment period! There's nothing we'd love more than to welcome every single family that attended our open house into our little CDS family, but unfortunately, with limited space, it just isn't possible. If you've read previous blog posts, you know that I desperately long for a school that can provide more classrooms and space for our sweet students. One day we will get there, but until then, we are grateful to be holding another enrollment period in our little school and are thrilled to meet those families who will be joining us for the 2018-2019 school year!

Open Enrollment will begin on Thursday, February 1, 2018. We will post a link here and the post will be shared on our Facebook page as well at 8am. If you wish to enroll your child, you will click on the link, fill out the simple form and submit. By completing this form, you are not guaranteed a space. This is simply a request to enroll. All forms will be time stamped and processed in the order they are received. 

Starting on Monday, February 5, 2018, we will begin sending out emails to notify you of your enrollment status. Instructions will be included in the email for how to proceed with the process and confirm your child's space. Deadlines for paperwork and the new student fee will be outlined in the email as well. If you miss a deadline, your space will be given to the next child on the list. No exceptions will be made.  

If your child does not receive a space, they will automatically be placed on our waiting list. Don't give up hope if you are added to the waiting list! We have seen it move dramatically in the past due to changing family situations, moves, etc. It's still possible to receive a space before school starts or even after our school year has begun.  

We will be working hard to process all the enrollment requests we receive but it is a time consuming task and will take us a few days to complete. Our office staff answering calls will not be able to confirm if you received a space or not, you will need to wait for the confirmation email. Every person that submits our enrollment form will receive an email notifying them of their enrollment status by  Friday, February 9, 2018. If you have not received an email from us by then, please contact us. Emails have ended up in spam folders in the past so make sure to check there also.

Again, we are very excited to get to know all our new families! We are honored that you have chosen our school and look forward to partnering with you to help your sweet kiddos learn and grow. If you have any questions about the enrollment process, please contact Caroline at 910-383-3919 between 10am and noon or by email at caroline@coastaldayschool.com.

Thanks :)
Ashley Danko 

Past, Present, and Future

As I was planning my blog post for our upcoming enrollment, I realized that it's been MONTHS since our last post so I thought I would just fill you all in on the last few months, what's going on now, and what's coming in the near future!

Summer 2017 was a blast! We expanded or summer camp program which meant lots of new faces and more fun than ever!! Miss Veronnica planned a summer full of fun activities and amazing field trips! Some of our favorite field trips were to Myrtle Waves, Wonderworks, museums, the movies, the beach, and the pool every week! Lots of wonderful friendships were formed and it was so wonderful watching campers conquer fears and grow in many ways. I'm so grateful for a summer camp staff that is so committed to making sure our campers are safe and having the best possible time! I've attached a few pictures below of our summer!

While our campers were super busy having fun this summer, we we were busy doing some improvements around our school! Our two year old classroom got new flooring and cabinets for the school year which was super exciting and looks beautiful!! Here are pictures of the completed project in the two year old classroom.

We also put beautiful new cabinets in our Little Learners/Three Year Old Classroom along with a new table for easier group lessons, and lots of new toys and equipment! We love how it turned out and our sweet, little students are enjoying it! Here are pictures of the classroom!

Lastly, our biggest project of the summer was expanding Miss Autumn's four year old classroom which was a huge undertaking but it turned out amazing and we LOVE IT! Miss Autumn is also loving having Miss Maggie in her classroom this year :) Here's a few pictures of the process and the completed classroom!!

 Here's a before picture :)

Our new school year kicked off on September 5th and it has been such an amazing year so far! We have such a sweet group of students and as always, an extremely supportive and generous group of parents that we are so thankful for!! Our staff continues to amaze me with their fun ideas and the loving environments they create for our students. We are only a few months in and we have already seen so much growth and learning! We welcomed one new teacher this year. We love having Miss Anna as the assistant in our two year old class! She fits right in with our family!! We are also so thankful to have welcomed Miss Shelley back this year as an assistant in our four year old class!

Last week we had our annual Christmas Program! Our students were so cute and did such an amazing job on stage!! Miss Michelle worked very hard to make sure it was wonderful and she did a great job! I've included a pictures below of our kiddos on stage. 

I'm always amazed how quickly the first half of our year goes by and how fast new enrollment sneaks up on us! Preparations for next school year have begun and we will be staying in our current location for at least another year, possibly longer. I am quickly realizing that everything I want, we can't afford, and what we can afford, I don't want. Why is everything so expensive?! We will continue to keep our eyes open for an amazing space/property with a price tag we can afford but for the time being, we are happy to be in a building that we can continue to learn, grown, and have fun in!! While we will continue to battle the space and parking issues, we are learning how to make the space work for our needs and are loving the new improvements this year and are excited for our projects we will be doing this summer! 

We will be opening enrollment soon for our 2018-2019 school year! If your family previously attended Coastal Day School for an entire academic year and would like to return (yay!), we will have a special enrollment time for your family January 16-19, 2018. Just stop by any day that week (except Monday-we are closed) between 10am and noon to drop off paperwork and the $150 new student fee. Here is a link to our handbook which includes all the paperwork we need turned in. 

If you are a new family wishing to enroll here at CDS for the 2018-2019 school year, we will open enrollment on Thursday, February 1, 2018. We will post a link here on our blog at 8am and will share the post on our Facebook page as well. All submissions will be time stamped and you will be notified within 48 hours of submitting the form if you have received a space or have been put on our waiting list. Filling out the form online does not guarantee a space in our program. All spaces are first come, first serve and we will go in the order the submissions came in.

If you are new to our program and would like to meet our staff and see our facility, we will be holding an Open House on Thursday, January 18, 2018 from 6:30pm until 7:30pm. Children are welcome to attend :) We are looking forward to meeting all of you and answering any questions you may have!

I'm so thankful and honored to be planning another school year! I can't even express how amazing it is being part of this supportive and kind community. Every day I am blown away by how generous and encouraging our parents are, how unbelievably sweet our students are, and how amazing our staff is!!! I am so lucky to get to say that I'm living my dream and LOVE that I get to live this dream with all of you as a big part of it! I realize that none of this would be possible without all of you!!!

Ashley :)