The Meadow is a new kind of infant-and-toddler program — five small rooms with names instead of numbers, teachers who stay, and a full 6:00-to-6:00 day. Ages 6 weeks to about three years.
These are the design renderings guiding our renovation of the former First Academy building — the lobby where mornings start, the meadow mural along the hallway, and rooms like Clover taking shape.
The lobby
The meadow mural
Clover, taking shapeNo “Toddler 2B” here. Your child moves from Clover to Willow to Fern as they grow — same building, same familiar faces at the door. Every room belongs to one lead teacher, and the groups stay small on purpose.
Eight babies and two teachers in a room renovated for exactly this — soft light, a proper changing counter, and your feeding and nap schedule, not ours.
Our second infant room, built new before opening day. Same 1-to-4 care, same safe-sleep standard — because one infant room was never going to be enough.
Two small groups in our biggest, brightest space — room to toddle, climb, tumble, and then nap like they mean it.
Big feelings, bigger words. A patient room where independence gets practiced a hundred times a day — and celebrated every time.
Our smallest room — five children — for kids who do their best growing with a little more quiet around them.
Most centers in town close before first shift ends. Our doors open at six and close at six, five days a week — no early-pickup pressure, no add-on hourly fees. Here's the shape of a day.
Quiet lights, soft starts. Early babies get their morning bottle here, not in the car.
Warm, from our own commercial kitchen. Not a lunchbox packed at 5:30 AM.
The full gymnasium or the fenced yard on our two green acres — every day, whatever Indiana's weather says.
Family-style in each room, then wind-down with the teacher who knows exactly who needs a lap.
Real rest in a calm room. Safe-sleep certified for the babies, cots and quiet for the rest.
Pickup with a daily note and a person who can tell you something true about your child's day.
Most centers treat infant care as a side room. We made it the whole point — and sized everything else to match.
infant seats — the most in Hobart, in two purpose-renovated rooms.
one teacher for every four babies. The tightest care ratio there is.
children at most, ever. Small enough that everyone is known by name.
day, six to six — built for first shift, hospitals, and the commute.
One weekly rate covers the whole 6:00-to-6:00 day, meals and snacks from our kitchen, supplies, and daily notes home. No registration surprises. No hourly add-ons.
The Meadow opens in the former First Academy space at 939 S. Wisconsin Street — a campus that cared for this town's children for years, now renewed room by room: fresh infant rooms, a full gymnasium for the long Indiana winter, a commercial kitchen, and a fenced play yard on two green acres beside the Oak Savannah Trail.
We operate as a child care ministry program, and our doors are open to every family.
Infant rooms fill first. Families on the list hear from us before anyone else, in the order they joined — and it costs nothing to be on it.
Joining the list holds your place in line, nothing more.
A real email within a day or two — not an automated maybe.
Tell us in the notes and we'll bring the answers to the first call.
Director, lead teachers, assistants, and part-time floaters. Real covered breaks, no nights or weekends, and rooms you can do right by. Opening December.