Kids Academy Learning Center Celebrates Diversity With Week Of Nations
by James Coulter
What do Angel Falls in Venezuela, Castillo San Cristóbal in Puerto Rico, and the Eiffel Tower in France all have in common? They’re all exotic sights you can see when traveling abroad. You can also check out these sights at Kids Academy Learning Center Inc/USA in Haines City.
To celebrate the last week of school, as well as to honor the diverse cultural backgrounds of their student body, Kids Academy Learning Center is hosting Week of Nations to teach its students about different countries around the world.
Each of the 17 classrooms within the facility are decorated after different countries such as Brazil, Mexico, Japan, Equador, Venezuela, Columbia, and France, as well as different U.S. states and territories like Hawaii and Puerto Rico.
Each teacher within that classroom is also teaching their students about the different aspect of those countries. For example, the classroom decorated like Venezuela has a model of Angel Falls outside, and is teaching about the four seasons experienced in that country.
Both Iris Padilla and Marisa Cieri, the two owners of the school and daycare facility, are both from Venezuela themselves, so they take special pride in that particular classroom, Padilla explained.
At the end of the week on Friday, the children will be treated to a special international lunch where their teachers will prepare a meal with food from the different countries their classrooms are decorated as. For example, the Japanese classroom will be treated to Japanese noodles.
Kids Academy Learning Center Inc./USA teaches and facilitates more than 300 students from infancy to kindergarten with programs and services ranging from daycare, after school programs, and pre-K. Many of these students come from families from different countries in South and Central America, Asia, and Europe.
As someone from another country herself, Padilla felt that teaching children to learn about other cultures, as well as appreciate their own native cultures, are very important, which is why she organized this special week.
In a time when immigration and foreign relations remain controversial topics, such a celebration of the American Melting Pot of different cultures are needed now more than ever to teach children that diversity is our strength, as Padilla explained.
“The first thing we want them to know is that we all come from different countries, but we all are the same,” she said. “We have so many children from different countries, from everywhere…that is why we decided to do that, to make sure everyone knows about the different countries that we are around all the time.”
Kids Academy Learning Center Inc. will be hosting its graduation ceremony on Wed., May 29 at 6 p.m. The facility will also be offering Free Summer VPK from June 10 through August 5. To learn more, call 863-353-6823, or visit their Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/Kids-Academy-Learning-Center-Inc-209606449630566/
