About Us

Open 6:30am-6:00pm, Mon-Fri

At Making a Difference Step by Step, we offer more than child care. We offer a warm, loving environment with a family-oriented atmosphere. While we are not a faith-based program, children do pray before meals and are guided in morals and manners.

Benefits of our Child Care Center

Virginia Quality participant
State licensed
Flexible options, including part-time care
Accepting subsidy vouchers, including military
Excellent teachers
Military & sibling discounts
Affordable child care tuition
Infant care (hard to find!)
Serving up to age 12
School-age care, including before/after school, transportation and virtual learning.
Summer camp

Curriculum

When creating a curriculum around the children’s interests, they retain the information and they learn to find answers to their questions. We are able to see their growth and development through their own discoveries. Having a theme for two to three weeks helps the children understand the material better.

We believe children learn at their own pace. They also learn best through play. By having a variety of projects available and encouraging the children to learn by exploring, we are able to see their interests and build a curriculum around their individual needs. Allowing the children to create the curriculum gives them ownership and they will be motivated to work.

Our curriculum may include the following areas:

Language development and literacy
Math skills
Science & exploration
Social awareness of diverse world cultures

The Learning Process

As a developmentally appropriate program, we believe the process of learning is more important than the product. As educators, we are aware that a child’s learning process cannot take place without fully developing self-esteem.

Our primary goals are to foster a child’s self-worth, emotional happiness, enjoyment of learning, and age-appropriate social behavior within a community. By working in large groups, small groups, and individual situations we provide opportunities for children to interact with peers and adults to develop the foundation of his/her learning.

In developing the “SELF,” we devise activities for:

Imagination
Thinking process (acquiring strategies for learning)
Reasoning skills
Language
Creativity (non-product-oriented art, use of materials)
Music/songs
Literature/storytelling
Dramatization of roles (family, self, community)

Children will be practicing how to ask and answer questions, think critically/ independently and how to work cooperatively. In conjunction with the development of “SELF”, the physical well-being must also be developed.

In doing so, we address the physical development of children with:

Health and their body
Total coordination
Large/ Small motor skills
Eye-hand coordination
Spatial awareness
Music movement
Outdoors play (climbing, jumping, running, etc.)
Self-help skills
Toilet skills
Appropriate nutritional activities

“Whole Language” is an integral part the learning process which is touched upon in each of the preceding areas. Whole language is incorporated into every activity in which the child is involved.

To promote whole language development, support child participation in the following areas:

Development of a print rich classroom environment, including books, magazines, signs, and labels.
Engaging children in extensive conversations about their interest, their families, their friends, their daily activities, and their reflections on the world around them.
Development of listening skills, through teacher and parent modeling.
Developing of an emergent curriculum which includes child chosen ideas and activities
Encouraging children to experiment with ideas in classroom activities.
Receiving positive, specific feedback from teachers, peers and parents

Teachers

Our teachers provide a great quality of care! All are CPR and First Aid certified, and USDA trained. Our staff also includes MAT-trained staff and degreed teachers. In each classroom, a lead teacher builds the curriculum, and each classroom makes their own lesson plan based on the curriculum.

About the Director

Brenda Soto, Owner

"As a Child Day Center Director, I take pride in what I do. I love working with children, watching them grow and develop\ emotionally, intellectually, physically, and socially. Knowing that I have a part in children’s lives gives me a great pleasure to continue in this field. When you love what you do, you enjoy it more.

Family involvement is very important as well in a young child’s life. I believe it is important to maintain an open relationship with parents and to stay involved in the child’s life outside of my care as well as to involve the parents in what is going on in the classroom. I believe that being involved in the community and being an active child and family advocate helps me to provide them with support and a safe learning environment for children and their families.

By preparing myself with furthering my own education and attending many trainings in this field I will have the tools I require to prepare the children in my care for a better and more successful future. My role in a child’s learning experience is to have a positive, welcoming environment, where they can come and learn and grow. I am one of the most important people in the children’s life. They spend a good part of their young life with me. What I do plays a big part in their future. So, getting a child ready for the real world is my job!"

Origin of our name

When Brenda decided to leave her last job and find a new career path, her co-workers gave her a mug that read "Making a Difference." Brenda soon attended training on how to run a child care center, and the same words were written on the wall. She took it as a sign! Later, while setting up the business, Brenda's daughter advised her to take it step by step... and the rest of the name came into being!