Lakes Early Learning Center

10/03/2026

Day ✌️of Iowa AEYC Fall Institute

“what if today was their only day?”
“why do you do what you do?”
Lisa Griffen Murphy

training days like this are also so refreshing and it’s great to bring our team together outside of our normal day to day.

10/02/2026

Handle Hard Better🧡

Like many others, I followed the Wiederin family’s story and was inspired by the way they chose to Handle Hard Better through Cory’s cancer battle. This summer, it became a little closer to home when Cory’s sister, Lacey, joined our Lakes family.

With Cory’s birthday this weekend, I wanted our team to rally around Lacey and her family, so shirts were ordered secretly and a plan was made to wear them all together today.

Then yesterday, the Handle Hard Better Foundation shared that they were kicking off their first giving campaign in Cory’s honor AND encouraged people to wear their HHB gear today. What are the chances we had already picked the same day?! All I can say is that was a total God thing.

We even played a little extra catch today to celebrate Cory! Some cute clips of our littles & teachers coming soon ⚾️

This is just a small way for us to show up for part of our Lakes fam, support her family, and love others well.

Handle hard better. Love people well. Keep showing up. 🧡

09/08/2026

tires. lots of tires. they’re one of our favorite loose parts and can be found on all of our playgrounds. from infants to school agers, our kids find all kinds of ways to use them.

this might look like a pretty “typical” way to play with a tire, but there is so much learning happening!

and then there are the not-so-typical uses. our school agers have been using tires as props in their magic shows, complete with making someone “disappear” in a tower of tires

the best thing about loose parts is that a tire is never just a tire. give kids simple, open-ended materials and the freedom to play, and they’ll come up with possibilities we never could have planned for.

08/21/2026

adventure club has had a blast this summer. now it’s time to slide into the new school year.

08/10/2026

the best kind of art happens when you give kids a few supplies and let them go to town. we trimmed some of the landscaping yesterday so I snagged some of the trimmings and kept a few boxes from recycling to set up an art station in the woods for our preschoolers.

08/02/2026

tonight we got to say THANK YOU with a pizza & pool party for our amazing teachers and their families 🍕🏊‍♀️

summer is busy around here! extra kids, field trips + fun activities, and a lot of schedule juggling… it takes all hands on deck and a whole lot of teamwork.

we appreciate everything they do to make summer so much fun for the kids! we have the best team and couldn’t do it without all of our teachers

07/25/2026

spent yesterday afternoon at the Polk County 4-H and FFA Fair Association livestock auction so that we could purchase our next steer and hog from a couple of neighbor kids. not only are we supporting local but we are also supporting kids that are learning & working hard at raising livestock. we’re proud to support local and serve locally raised beef & pork.

07/01/2026

If it’s messy + creative, our toddlers are 100% in.

Celebrating America’s 250th with one giant patriotic cake! 🇺🇸❤️🤍💙

06/28/2026

06/28/2026

Small town parade? You betcha!🎈

We handed out 3,500+ goodies and saw so many smiles from kids and adults along the route. Another successful year of parading in the books!

Shoutout to our teachers for helping make it all possible. We couldn’t do it without you!