All week, we've brought you stories focused on northern Kentucky, from arts to business to education.

Recently, we visited learning Grove, a child care organization with facilities throughout the region that serves kindergartners to college goers.

We go back on the road with a look at their center in downtown Covington, or even the youngest are starting their educational journey from the cradle.

Now we are a cradle to career organization, so we serve six weeks all the way to college and career.

About 5000 children.

Youth are served each year, and we do it in three different areas.

So child care, which we're most known for.

So full day, full year child care, really a support for working parents.

We're part of that larger child care ecosystem.

What distinguishes us, though, is that full day, full year.

And so we've got parents that might drop off at 7:00 and not pick up till 530.

We also have before and after school programs and also an important part for working parents of the ecosystems.

And then at the far end of our continuum is college and career readiness.

So we are helping middle and high school youth prepare for their future.

Every child, regardless of their zip code, is entitled to high quality learning experiences.

So when you come to learn and grow, we are developing, you know, critical thinkers for tomorrow.

We don't want them to just do simple like rote memorization.

We want them to actually wonder and be curious about the world and the environment around them.

We're familiar with Learning Grove and their centers and really liked the kind of full person approach that they take to education.

My wife and I were very thoughtful and intentional about where we wanted our kids to be because we we recognize and know and believe and understand that those first five, six years of life are so critical for brain development, for social and emotional development.

And so we wanted our kids to be at a learning Grove center.

Study after study has shown that play based learning is the most appropriate way for children to learn, and that's where their brain is and their brain development at that age.

So when you look at our classrooms, it's play based, but there's a lot of intentionality.

There's a lot of learning that's going on.

And you'll see teachers roaming around the classroom and wondering what children they're wondering when they're putting blocks and putting blocks on top of each other.

Which block is bigger and which one is smaller?

So they're learning those early math concept skills when they're in the writing center or they're learning actually how to hold a pen and learning the fine motor skills.

And then you're also noticing teachers taking some notes and observations.

We believe that we're part of the early intervention model.

So if we can get in and acknowledge any learning that the child is struggling with early on, we can provide speech and language supports for them, occupational therapy and physical therapy.

I think, you know, kids, young kids, infants, toddlers, preschoolers.

They want to play.

And so making those activities, making that useful and making those exciting engagements, ways that kids are also learning is is really valuable and really helpful.

And we have, I think, semiannual conferences with the teachers or they'll go through of what are development appropriate milestones, both from a physical standpoint to a social emotional standpoint to an academic standpoint.

And if we have any questions or kind of suggestions on what can we do things at home to help our daughter with that, they always have tips for us.

They tell us if there's any sort of areas that we need to focus on because she she's not progressing or right on target.

We know 90% of the child's brain is developed by the age of five.

We also know that ten year matter.

So as early as we can get children in our program, the more prepared they are for kindergarten.

So 85% of children are prepared for kindergarten if they start with us and infants and we know when they enter kindergarten.

Ready to learn, though, enter third grade, ready to learn, and they'll be on track for high school graduation.

Apart from early childhood education, Learning, Grove has its Navajo program, which exposes high school students to college and career opportunities as they plan for life after graduation.