Lion's Eye Favorite: Igloo Brings Smiles at the Children's Center

An igloo made of milk jugs is a favorite play place at the Harris Family Children's Center

Creativity is the name of the game at the Harris Family Children's Center, Exeter's childcare facility for Academy faculty, staff and the local community. When preschool teachers planned a lesson on igloos this winter, intending to build one with the children, Mother Nature failed to produce the requisite snow. Undeterred, the center put out a call for empty plastic milk jugs–175 of them. 

Armed with glue guns and a few yardsticks, teachers constructed a toddler-sized "igloo" which the children now love to play in. "It's big enough for them to stand up in," says Amy Farnham, the center's enrollment manager. "They think no one can see them when they're inside it!"  Farnham says pretending to be Inuit has become a favorite game, and the igloo a favorite spot. One conscientious kindergartener has even made it her job to check every day that all the jugs have caps so the igloo doesn't collapse. And what do the children say about the igloo? "Cool!"

The fun will continue through the summer this year, as the Harris Family Children's Center begins offering summer camp programs to Academy families and the surrounding community from June to mid-August. Summer camp will offer experiences in music, art, drama, animal science, earth science and world cultures. Local field trips and visits to the Academy's Phelps Science Center, Lamont Art Gallery and Thompson Gymnasium will round out the summer experience.

Throughout the year, the Harris Family Children's Center offers programs for infants, toddlers, preschoolers and kindergarteners, as well as an after-school program. The child-centered curricula educate children through individual and group exploration, hands-on experimentation and discovery through observation. The center's new state-of-the-art facility includes multi-sensorial classrooms, a computer lab, living room, full kitchen, screened-in porch and extensive outdoor space designed to give children the opportunity to take part in the natural world.

Learn more about the Harris Family Children's Center…

Read about the center's opening...