Tumwater’s Cradle to Crayons closes down

The City of Tumwater is planning to work with the Sequoia’s Treehouse Children’s Center to provide childcare services at the Old Town Center following Cradle To Crayons’ announcement of its closure.

After 10 years of childcare services, Cradles to Crayons announced that they need to close down as a result of staffing issues. With this, Sequoia Treehouse Children’s Center shared their interest to take over the space during the Tumwater General Government Committee meeting on Wed., Oct. 13.

The child care center plans to offer six developmentally-aged classrooms and before- and after-school programs for school-age kids. Currently, Sequoia also operates an Outdoor Farm School for kids aged four to seven years old at South Bay, Olympia.

According to its business owner, Sequoia Hartman, their outdoor model is based on a town in Italy called Regio Emilia. This particular educational model recognizes that children are naturally curious individuals. With this, the approach believes that exposing a child to a wide variety of educational opportunities helps to stimulate their learning. “It’s a different curriculum, a different way to teach,” she said. “It’s very focused on being outdoors, rain or shine doesn’t matter,” Sequoia explained. In addition, the childcare services also offer snacks and focus more on organic and healthier food options.

Its school director, Joe Beatty noted that currently, they are teaching around 120 children from their childcare center and outdoor farm school. “We offer really unique child-centered services,” Beatty said.

Tumwater Recreation Manager Todd Anderson also recommended the approval of the lease agreement. Anderson shared, “I could say I am very impressed with how they operate...the cleanliness of their site, how they incorporate nature, very on top of everything that I’ve seen in child care.” He added that the facility goes “above and beyond” in providing the best childcare services.

In the meeting, Hartman shared that her experiences growing up in the foster care system encouraged her to choose this career path,  “I have a passion for what I do because I want children to have the best possible experience that they can in life. To become anything that they wanted to be.”

The Tumwater General Government committee agreed to move forward with the lease. “I think this is something that will be very unique and I think it will be something...to showcase for Tumwater,” Councilmember Debbie Sullivan concluded.