Post Sunshine Ranch's Program
Overview, Calendars & Tuition
Overview of Care
Post Sunshine Ranch, an early learning center, is dedicated to the needs of the children we serve. We strive to provide a safe, loving environment that allows children to thrive. We believe that children learn through play and exploration, and as such, we provide a safe environment for the children to grow. Throughout the day, your child will engage in activities to develop their social, emotional, cognitive, language, and physical skills. These activities include playing with toys, art, pretending, enjoying stories or books, discovering with sand and water, music, movement, and exploring the great outdoors. We use the Creative Curriculum to create a classroom environment where we can teach effectively, and the children thrive. Our childcare is open Monday through Friday from 6:45 am to 6:15 pm.
Infants
Post Sunshine Ranch accepts children into the program at six weeks of age. We believe in meeting your child's basic needs, fostering their social-emotional development, developing trusting relationships with caregivers, and supporting cognition and brain development.
You and your child will determine the schedule you want us to keep. We will ask you for specific information detailing your child's needs, and we will continue your schedule while providing a safe, loving environment for your child. Your child will be allowed to explore, play, and develop.
Toddlers thrive in their environment when they are safe, loved, and cared for. When these needs are met, children are ready to venture out to explore everything around them. Our goal is to meet these needs. We greet each day with enthusiasm and excitement. We encourage the children to explore and share the children's excitement about their discoveries. We allow children to become little learners.
Our two-year-olds will learn about their world through scheduled play. The children are guided to allow for pleasure, excitement, and a sense of accomplishment. These positive experiences motivate the children to continue learning. The play offers children opportunities to make choices and decisions, solve problems, interact with one another and the teacher, build language skills, discover mathematical relationships, and become little scientists.
We provide children with play materials that support and challenge their abilities. We want to promote problem-solving and appropriate risk-taking. We provide responsibilities and jobs in the classroom and encourage children to see a task through completion and offer support when needed. We encourage children to express their feelings and resolve conflicts in constructive ways. We offer opportunities for children to work together and learn social skills. We use positive strategies to guide children's behavior and help them learn how to cooperate with others. We teach sharing and taking turns. These are valuable skills that children need as they prepare for their journey to becoming successful young individuals.
The state of Florida offers a program designed for four-year-old children called Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten. This program is funded by the state and allows all children to understand print knowledge, phonological awareness, mathematics, oral language/vocabulary, science, and social studies. Our program is a three-hour enrichment program designed to teach children just that. The children are allowed to interact with others, become great outdoor explorers, become budding mathematicians, master the pre-reading and early reading skills, and expand their vocabulary and writing abilities while having fun and making lasting friendships. We also offer an extension program to allow your child to remain at Post Sunshine Ranch for the entire day for a fee. This program enhances the learning done during the free VPK program hours and gives the children additional opportunities to practice what they have learned.
These children are given an opportunity to expand their horizons by participating in many enriching activities. We offer guided homework help for each child. The children are provided with a nutritious snack. We have an outdoor oasis to explore and play in. We have farm animals that are used to teach about farming and responsibility. We offer a garden plot with seasonal crops that allow the children to learn about gardening, food sources, and working together. The children have the opportunity to play games, make crafts, interact with one another, and build friendships that can last a lifetime.
Our summer camp program is for children that have completed kindergarten through 5th grade. We accept children ages 5 to 11. We offer an action-packed summer with many field trips, waterslides, games, contests, and arts & craft projects. This year, we have a maximum of 50 children in our program. The summer program begins on Monday, May 28, 2024 and runs through August 9, 2024.
All field trips and activities are included in your $250.00 weekly tuition. Your tuition also covers transportation for the field trips. Each child will receive a yellow Sunshine Kids Club t-shirt at the beginning of the summer. Please make sure your child wears this shirt on all scheduled field trip days. This allows us to quickly identify the group and ensure the safety of your children. Additional shirts are available for $15.00 each. You may be asked to supply a brown bag lunch for several of the field trips. If your child does not bring a lunch on his/her scheduled field trip day, Post Sunshine Ranch will provide your child with a lunch to take on the field trip and you will be charged $7.00 for the lunch. Please pay close attention to the calendar for the days your child needs to bring a lunch from home. The summer calendars will clearly show what days your child needs a lunch.
Your child will also receive a black backpack. Please bring only items that fit into the bag. If it does not fit, we do not have room for it here. Please make sure all items are clearly labeled with your child's name.
Please be aware that field trips are a privilege, not a guarantee. If your child can not behave and meet our expectations, we will not allow your child to go on field trips with the group. You will be notified if your child is missing a field trip. There are no exceptions to behavior expectations. Please do not ask for a second chance for your child if they are missing a field trip. They were given several chances to correct the behavior before the field trip was taken away.
Tuition
Important notice about your childcare costs
As you are aware, the residents of the state of Florida voted to increase minimum wage to $15.00 per hour by September 2026. This will cause us to have annual price increases. The fourth annual increase goes into effect in September of this year. Minimum wage will increase from $12.00 hour to $13.00 per hour. This directly affects our operating/payroll costs. We are trying to keep costs as low as we can without sacrificing the quality of our program. We are still experiencing skyrocketing prices for insurance, food and supplies. As such, we are increasing our tuition rates to cover the increases in our operating costs.
The new rates are as follows and will be effective August 12, 2024
Annual registration will remain unchanged. It will remain as follows: $75.00 for one child, $50.00 for second child and $25 for third or more children. A family with two children will pay $125.00 per year and a family with 3 children will pay $150.00 per year. All discounts will be applied to oldest child. Vacation policy will remain the same (you are allowed one week per anniversary year; your child must be absent for 5 consecutive days and it must be pre arranged).
A sibling discount is available for families with three or more children of $20.00 per week applied to the oldest child in care.
As in the past, if you do not attend you are still responsible for your weekly tuition. If you do not attend on a week off of school (public school age or VPK) your regular rate applies. Additional fees are due only if your child attends PSR on a non-school day (school age and VPK)
* Rates apply regardless of hours per day or days per week in attendance. We do not offer daily rates