Tiffany has volunteered at St. Francis Hospital Child Development Center for 3 years and has worked in daycare for almost 3 years.  She believes in learning the ways the different children behave and modifying her discipline to each child. 

Tiffany is looking forward to finishing college and opening her own daycare facility.

Courtney has worked in her church day care for a year, and has been a dance teacher for younger children.  She has also taken parenting and child development classes.  She believes that children need to have discipline in their lives, but at the same time they need to know why.  Her goals involve reducing the amount of video games in the classroom - opening up children to more creative thinking.  She has a personal goal of trying to stay calm when things get stressed.

Courtney enjoys the water and all water sports.

Tori came to Open Arms in July of 2007, after having worked in the one and two year old rooms at Tree House Learning Center.  She has also been babysitting for over 6 years.

Tori believes in re-direction if there is every a problem in the infant room.  If there is ever a situation where she needs to provide re-direction, she tells the child that we are nice to our friends and moves the child to another location and gives them a toy to play with.

Tori's goals are to help the babies advance from infancy to 1 year, working on the basics, sitting up, crawling, walking and talking.  She looks forward to watching the infants grow up and obtain their skills.

Tory enjoys volleyball, going to the lake, going to the movies, cooking and spending time with family and her friends at her sorority Delta Delta Delta.

Laura previously worked for Open Arms when she was in high school, but left when she went to college. She has taken child development classes, and worked at Educare, the daycare on the college campus.  She is back working for Open Arms and really enjoys being involved in the Pre-Kindergarten class.

Laura believes that early childhood development is very important.  Children should be able to come into a classroom and feel safe and taken care of.  Also, their classroom should be a place of learning other key things of development.  She applies her philosophy by having centers that are not only fun but allow the child to learn to interact with others and give them a choice.  Encouragement is a key component in the classroom, because the kids love and need to be encouraged.  This boosts their self-esteem.

Laura's goals are to be a good role model for the children.  Also, making the classrooms in the afternoons more hands on and enjoyable.

Laura enjoys watching movies, playing sports and spending time with her family and friends.

Lynsi has worked in a kindergarten class as a HISTEP student and has been babysitting for 6 years.  She believes in making learning fun.  She tries to show good manners, to get good manners everyday.  She wants to become a better teacher and is working toward being a lead teacher.  She looks forward to watching the kids grow and develop into better people and being a part of that. 

Lynsi wants to be an elementary teacher because she enjoys working with each child on an individual basis.  She enjoys running and participating in races in Wichita.  She also enjoys spending time with her family and friends.

Devinee has experience babysitting, tutoring and volunteering in her church nursery.  She has been taught that you should always give children a choice and promote decision making skills.  She looks forward to helping her pre-kindergarten children develop and grow into prepared kindergarteners.

Devinee is on the yearbook staff at Goddard High School and is planning on going to college at KU, majoring in journalism.

Megan has been babysitting for over 5 years and loves being with the babies because they are so loving and innocent.  She believes in re-direction as a form of discipline; if she see's something wrong or a child intends to cause harm to another child, she will move them to another area and provide positive things to do.  She looks forward to watching the children develop, helping them advance through the early stages of life, things like rolling over, crawling, walking and talking. 

Megan enjoys being outside and doing fun activities with her family & friends.

Mary has been babysitting for over 8 years and enjoys being around the kids at Open Arms.  She feels as if she has grown and learned so much about early childhood education, even thought she has only been with Open Arms for a short amount of time.  She enjoys reading books to the kids and helping them with their flash cards. 

Mary enjoys being outside going to parks, on walks, bike rides and playing volleyball on Sunday's with the people from her chruch.

Bonnie believes that all her experience comes from her on-the-job training she has received from her 4 year old and 3 year old.  Being a mother has given her a personal confidence in what she does and how she cares for all the children.  She believes in treating them all with the same love and respect she gives her own children.

She believes in supporting a childs growth and development in the classroom, encouraging family involvement which includes a partnership for all caregivers - to prepare respectful, responsible, caring, skilled and life long learners through a cirriculum that nurtures individual strengths and talents in a safe environment.

Bonnie may be new to Open Arms but she has high personal expectations for herself.  She desires to learn as much as she can from the professionals at Open Arms; to help them nurture, love and care for, teach and lead the children to know the love of God.  Bonnie is the new Webmaster for Open Arms and has created this new site for us.  She loves to take pictures and considers herself a pretty good amature photographer.  She also volunteers as a graphics artist for Wichita Komen Race for the Cure and as a website coordinator for the local chapter of Mothers & More.

As a parent of children in a Child Development Center, you always wonder "Will they love my baby, will they care for my child the way I do?"  That answer at Open Arms is MOST DEFINATELY.  The staff and teachers here are dedicated to the well being of every child.  Providing a safe, loving home-away-from-home is what they do best.

Emily has experience babysitting and taking care of her younger sister.  She believes in rewarding good behavior, and redirecting the bad behavior away from the situation.  She strives to be kind to others and to have good listening skills.  Emily wants to go to Cosmetology school after high school and she enjoys playing soccer and going to sporting events.

Vi is the receptionist for Open Arms in the mornings.  She displays such a love for all the children and parents that come into the buildings in the morning.  She supports the teachers and children here by helping create classroom projects and providing assistance with daily center activities. Vi enjoys reading and watching movies and is an avid walker.

Shirley is the best cook in the world!  We are so fortunate to have her at the center.  She is so loved by the children when they see her coming with their breakfast or lunch.  Her experience includes having her own daycare in her home for 8 years, as well as being a youth director for 6 years.  Shirley believes it is very important to introduce good nutritional food at an early age.  She is very against fast food.  She strives to provide the best nutrition she can for the children of the center.   In her spare time, Shirley loves sewing and cooking for her family and friends.