Daycare in Cincinnati

Our Laboratory School is an integral Part of the School of Education and our mission is to prepare teachers, as well as advance the practices of our veteran teachers. The Charlotte Schmidlapp Laboratory School has an outstanding teaching and administrative staff that attracts families who are interested in quality education for their children. We operate within the School of Education’s design and its unique commitment to a teacher-preparation model exemplified by:

• Depth and integration of a comprehensive research-based early learning curriculum is with a focus on language development, content knowledge, and early literacy skills.
• A mutually engaged learning community of children, families, teachers, administrators, student teachers, and department faculty
• Head Teachers
  • The Lab School has a permanent staff of highly-qualified teachers, all of whom have graduate degrees or commensurate years in the classroom. These head teachers work collaboratively with the college faculty to provide model early childhood learning environments. 

• Mount St. Joseph University Support & Resources
  • We interact with members of the School of Education for advice, resources, support, and encouragement. Mount St. Joseph University provides our buildings and grounds, upkeep, technology support, public safety, and access to an array of resources, and expertise in many varied areas.
  • University faculty members consult with the staff on curriculum development, issues of public and educational policy, and engage in research in the school. 

• Children enrolled range from 2 to 18 months old.
• 6 students with a 1:3 teacher:child ratio that exceeds childcare licensing requirements
• Highly-qualified head teachers and dedicated student workers
• Beautiful, developmentally-appropriate classroom and outdoor play space
• Implementation of a primary caregiving model, where each teacher focuses their care and attention on two to three children. These primary caregivers support the parent-child transition to and from school, track the child’s needs throughout the day, help the child with most of their diapering, sleeping, and eating needs, and serve as a secure base from which to explore.

The daily schedule is based on reading children’s cues and meeting their individual needs. The essential caregiving curriculum of napping, eating, diapering, and playing happen as needed for different children at different times throughout the day. The rest of the learning curriculum evolves as teachers carefully observe the development and needs of the children and implement new activities, themes, and materials to help them explore their curiosity further, adding new challenges to their ways of thinking and processing the world. We value the diversity of our school and work in partnership with families to support their children’s positive identity, academic success, and social and emotional development. 

• Children enrolled range from 18 to 36 months old.
• 10 students with a 1:5 teacher:child ratio that exceeds childcare licensing requirements
• Highly-qualified head teachers and dedicated student workers
• Beautiful, developmentally-appropriate classroom and outdoor play space
• Implementation of a primary caregiving model, where each teacher focuses their care and attention on two to three children. These primary caregivers support the parent-child transition to and from school, track the child’s needs throughout the day, help the child with most of their diapering, sleeping, and eating needs, and serve as a secure base from which to explore.

The daily schedule is based on reading children’s cues and meeting their individual needs. The essential caregiving curriculum of napping, eating, diapering, and playing happen as needed for different children at different times throughout the day. The rest of the learning curriculum evolves as teachers carefully observe the development and needs of the children and implement new activities, themes, and materials to help them explore their curiosity further, adding new challenges to their ways of thinking and processing the world. Our research based pre-literacy strategies help young children grow and learn to their highest potential. We value the diversity of our school and work in partnership with families to support their children’s positive identity, academic success, and social and emotional development. 

• Children range from 3 to 5 years of age
• Target size of 18 students with a 1:9 teacher:child ratio that exceeds childcare licensing requirements
• Highly-qualified head teachers and dedicated student teachers
• Social Emotional practices supporting a sense of belonging and emotional safety for all children.
• Beautiful, developmentally-appropriate classroom and outdoor play space

Project Ready! is a comprehensive preschool early learning curriculum. The project consists of 4 parts: A core preschool curriculum, (Joyful Discoveries), Playful Interventions, Family Education, and Teacher Professional Learning. The main curriculum, Joyful Discoveries, consists of 12 Units plus the Alphabetics Small Group. 

The curriculum infuses early academic content throughout the day and includes experiences with language and literacy, math, science, and the arts. We are committed to improving early childhood teaching practices in order to meet the needs of all learners and utilize highly impactful strategies that support young children’s growth and development. Our comprehensive, creative preschool early learning curriculum is research-based with a focus on language development, content knowledge, and early literacy skills. It was designed to follow the science of early learning and literacy instruction and serves as a model for those in our community who want to learn more about improving young children’s pre-literacy skills.

We believe that learning to work and play together is an essential skill for young children, so we emphasize community building within and beyond our classroom. By collaborating with other classrooms throughout the school, our children get to be leaders and collaborators with younger children at The Lab School and even with university students. As children learn more about themselves, their communities, and their social interactions with others, they develop a stronger sense of their own self identity and sense of agency in the context of the large group.

As the laboratory school for the School of Education at Mount St.Joseph University, we strive to create balanced classroom populations that represent the greater community. We value diversity and ask, in our applications, for you to provide information that reflects the unique nature of your child and family. The Lab School does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, creed, color, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin or physical challenge.

In our admissions process, we give priority consideration to the children of Mount St. Joseph University students, and then to faculty and staff of the university. We appreciate the opportunity to give you information about our philosophy, curriculum, and mission. We recognize that the decisions you make for your child’s education can have important consequences for your entire family and we hope you will find this process both informative and helpful.

Admission Process:

• The best way to learn about our Early Childhood programs is to join us for an information session.  Please contact us to set up an appointment!
• Complete an application.
• Our non-refundable application fee is $50.
• Priority Application Deadline: April 15, 2022. Decision letters will be emailed on Friday, April 22, 2022. Signed acceptance of the offer of enrollment must be received with a non-refundable $200 deposit by Monday, May 2, 2022.
• Following our priority admissions season, we continue with rolling admissions, accepting applications all year round. 
• Questions? Please contact the MCCS Admissions Team: Melina Braun, Head of School at labschool@msj.edu