By Barbara McMurray, Special to the Independent
Maria Hekma had long toyed with the idea of opening her own daycare center. When her longtime babysitting customer and friend Ashly Frasso, a professional Realtor, showed her a building on Laguna Canyon Road late last year, her excitement grew.
Frasso helped launch the new business concept as a co-founder. Canyon Kinder Haus was born just in time for the pandemic to delay its opening. In April, Hekma and Frasso received their state daycare license but had more work to do on its buildout.
“By the time we were finished around mid-May, the situation with COVID-19 was pretty grim,” Hekma said. “We were able to wait for a couple months, but then had to make the decision to either open or let all our work go! We were not sure if we would get any children at that point, but we decided to try. Slowly, we started to get some kids.”
Their first customer was two-year-old Zander, whose mom is a surgeon who had to return to her job. Most but not all clients are working parents. There are hair stylists and business executives working from home, where having a child underfoot can make for a difficult workday.
The workday at Canyon Kinder Haus is mostly about play and follows a faithful routine. Upon arrival, in the gated front drop-off area, parents take their own child’s temperature to ensure COVID-19 safety before saying goodbye. Parents must wear masks when coming and going. Frequent hand-washing throughout the day is imperative. Surfaces are fastidiously cleaned and sanitized.
A national study published recently by the American Academy of Pediatrics provided evidence that childcare centers are not transmission hubs in spreading the novel coronavirus. Researchers have found no relationship between working in childcare settings and contracting the virus, which is reassuring both to childcare providers and the families who rely on them.
Despite their status as adorable, albeit snot-sharing germ carriers, a growing body of evidence suggests that preschoolers are uniquely resilient to the novel coronavirus. This disease, researchers agree, is a completely different model.
Hekma’s original idea was not a focus on infants and toddlers but—as she points out with a laugh—these desirably young clients will be with her longer. For 12 years, the Austrian-born mother of two teen boys was “Frau Maria” for at Annaliese Preschool’s Aliso campus. Her current clientele includes three infants, a one-year-old, a pair of two-year-olds, and three-year-old Lemmy, Frasso’s son, who was eager to show a visitor his climbing and reading skills.
Parents don’t need to pack lunches or snacks. Hekma cooks everyone breakfast and lunch in the building’s full kitchen adjacent to the playroom. Each day includes circle time for conversation and singing, ample snacks, afternoon naptime, and indoor and outdoor play. Climbing stations, a sandbox, a playhouse, art supplies, and toys fuel young imaginations. Hekma maintains a stress-free, cheerful atmosphere, a natural outgrowth of her lifelong passion for working with babies and children. With her calm demeanor, Hekma makes opening a business in a pandemic look like child’s play.
Barbara is a writing, communications, and marketing professional in Laguna Beach. Find her at mcmurraymarketing.com.
