Kiddie Academy

by Susan Shalhoub 

Kiddie Academy – with early-childhood learning centers in Longwood-Lake Mary and Sanford-Heathrow – has no problem racking up awards for the outstanding educational experience it provides our children. Among them are the Macaroni Kid Family Favorite Award for Best Child Care and Best Camp Award (for multiple years in a row).

But Kiddie Academy doesn’t intend to rest on its laurels. In fact, Ted Cockram, who owns both locations with his wife Hilda, is enhancing the way Kiddie Academy communicates with parents and the community about its results-oriented curriculum.

“What we provide here is more than just teaching in classrooms,” Ted says, “it’s the curating of lifelong skills that children will use throughout their lifetimes – important skills based on what we call Life Essentials. We’re focused on the outcomes of learning.” 

Building Blocks

Life Essentials are six core competencies: Character (including good citizenship, such as learning about the importance of voting, for example); Confidence; Curiosity; Connection (social skills); Critical Thinking (such as problem-solving); and Creative Expression (using one’s imagination to build ideas and come up with unique approaches).  

Ted says it’s the way children benefit from these essentials, the way they carry them out into the world and use them in their everyday lives, that makes Kiddie Academy truly outstanding. 

“We constantly see Kiddie Academy students utilizing a new concept, such as analysis, or telling their parents about something that has suddenly sparked their curiosity,” Ted says. “For example, one young child came home and said they wanted to go to the ocean after learning about it that day at Kiddie Academy.”

From the age of six weeks to 12 years, hundreds of children are growing up strong thanks to Kiddie Academy. It’s these end results – not just the learning, itself – that truly make the difference.