Parents say effect of SRELC is seen in little things

The early learning center at Anna K. Davie Elementary School is now accepting applications for next year.

Parents say the effectiveness of the South Rome Early Learning Center can be summed up in one way — their children actually want to go to school.

The center, which is housed at Anna K. Davie Elementary School, offers something more for 3-year-olds than the average day care, agreed Tamica Neals, Jasmine Askew, Ayonna Garrett, Rianna Burge, Janelle Hines and Jennifer Pineda.

Each woman has a daughter or son at the SRELC. They said it’s in the little things — like having their children point out and name objects they see on the drive home or spelling a word they didn’t know they could spell — where they see the difference.

With five adults — teachers, assistants or Berry College students — for every child, Hines said there’s assurance that the kids are being closely watched to develop a specialized education unique to them.

Hines said the structured schedule, modeling what a normal school day would be with hours from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., has helped orient her son Zachary Wright with waking up and getting around for school.

“Now he wants to get up,” she said.

With day care, Askew said, her daughter Yasmine Jones was more resilient, as attendance didn’t seem obligatory. But now that Jones knows she is going to school, her mother said, it’s like she has to go. Cayce Jacobson, a lead teacher at the South Rome Early Learning Center, reads to the children in her class. Ayonna Garrett, Rianna Burge, Tamica Neals, Janelle Hines and Jasmine Askew all have kids at the South Rome Early Learning Center for this school year, and agree that the program has helped their children. Allyson Chambers (left) leads her students in a dance as Amari Barrett (right) rattles his egg shaker to the music.

Photos by Spencer Lahr,

Neals believes getting involved in the routine of school — from standing

Rome News-Tribune in line to behaving in class — at an earlier age will help her daughter Nozomi Perry adjust to pre-K and beyond, and cut down on the separation factor of having to leave her mom.

But in more ways than one, they said, it’s what they see back home that gives them confidence in the center.

Burge said her daughter Zachari Jackson has been more accepting of parental control, at times even repeating her teacher Allyson Chambers’ saying, “You get what you get and you don’t pitch a fit.”

If a parent receives financial assistance through the Division of Family and Children Services CAPS program, said SRELC Berry College Director Teri Oberg, they must attend eight circle of security classes. In essence the classes, which are led by Berry Professor Casey Dexter, resemble a support group for parents to talk about both the “challenge and joy of raising a 3-year-old.”

Hines said the classes have helped teach her to organize her feelings and not just hastily react to a child’s fits or tantrums. The class encourages parents to step back and try to view the moment through the child’s eyes, she said.

“The same time your kid is learning, you are learning,” Burge said.

Applications for next year are currently being accepted, and Oberg is asking for parents to get them in by May 26.

The parents all came together in saying that others with 3-year-olds shouldn’t hesitate to enroll their kids.

“Don’t second guess it, just do it,” Hines said.