Wonderland Daycare has a small Elementary Daycare Program consisting of around 20 children. Children in this program are Wonderland Charter School Kindergartners and State College School District First Graders and older. There are two basic components to this program, children that come before school and children that come after school.

The children that come to Wonderland Daycare before school can arrive as early as 7:00 a.m. or as late as 5 minutes before their scheduled transportation departure. These children will travel to school via either the public school bus transportation system or by our van. While the children are waiting to go to school, they can enjoy free play with their friends in our daycare room, participate in an art project, or read quietly.

Children arriving after school enjoy a nutritious snack and drink at the beginning of the session, usually from 3:00 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. After snack, if the weather is nice, the children go outside on the playground for free play under the supervision of our staff. Our playground is a grassy area that is fenced in for security and contains swings, a slide, two towers for pretend play and clubhouse activities, a buoy ball, parallel rings, a fire truck on springs, and a concrete bike path with 15 tricycles that come in 3 different sizes.

Once the playground activities are done (usually about an hour to an hour and a half), then the children come inside and either do homework, participate in an art activity, or participate in imaginative play with their friends.

If the weather is not conducive to going outside after snack, the children are broken down into several groups with each group going into a different room. Some of the children prefer our indoor Gross Motor Skills Room where they can let off steam. Other children prefer the art activities and the company of their friends in imaginative play. Of course, there is always time for the children to do their homework.

The State College Area School District (SCASD) may provide bus transportation from Wonderland Daycare to an elementary school and back if the bus is already scheduled to pass the Wonderland Daycare building. In other words, the bus cannot be diverted out of its scheduled route to pick or drop off children at Wonderland Daycare. The SCASD is divided into zones for each elementary school.

Wonderland Daycare happens to be in the Radio Park Elementary School zone and the Ferguson (Pine Grove Mills) Elementary School zone. What this translates to is that, if space is available, children from Radio Park Elementary School or Ferguson Elementary School can ride a school bus to and from Wonderland Daycare. If transportation is approved for your child, then we will have a staff member meet each bus that has children coming to our daycare and safely escort the children either to or from the bus.

Transportation arrangements where the school bus either drops off or picks up your child at Wonderland Daycare must be coordinated directly between you, the parents of the child, and Van E. Swauger, Director of Transportation, SCASD. His phone number is 231-1032 and his work address is 750 West Cherry Lane, State College, PA 16803-2988.

Other elementary schools that transportation arrangements have worked out in the past include Our Lady of Victory School and the Christian Academy. Again, each case requiring school district transportation must be approved in advance with Mr. Swauger before the child can be enrolled in the Wonderland Daycare Program.