Dual language child care center finds home in northwest Rochester

Nov. 9—A new Spanish immersion child care center with hopes to move to a Med City location has lined up land in northwest Rochester.

Casa de Corazón, led by founder and owner Natalie Standridge, announced earlier this fall that she hoped to build a child center in Rochester. She has five centers in the Twin Cities and one in Shorewood, Wis.

In October, Standridge acquired the land to house the project.

She plans to build a 10,000-square-foot facility on an empty double lot along 34th Avenue Northwest. That places it next to the ONB building at 975 34th Ave NW.

Standridge said it will be built using "sustainable and eco-friendly materials."

If the project goes as planned, the franchised facility will open in the spring of 2022. It is being spearheaded by franchisee and Casa de Corazón curriculum director Wendy Letran, who Standridge describes as "an amazing example of everything that Casa stands for."

Casa de Corazón offers a birth to pre-K, Spanish immersion, early childhood education program. Each center has seven classrooms for infants and three levels of pre-school.

"Kids stay with us up until they enter kindergarten. Our main focus is the accredited Spanish Immersion curriculum combined with a healthy and holistic impact on our communities and our children's lives," said Standridge.

She describes her team as "pioneers of this Spanish Immersion and eco-friendly model," though she acknowledges that the dual language child care concept is growing in popularity.

The new Casa de Corazón center won't be far from a new Tierra Encantada facility, which is under construction off of West Circle Drive and near 19th Street Northwest. Like Casa de Corazón, Tierra Encantada is based in the Twin Cities.

"We call ourselves the pioneers because the owner of Tierra Encantada used to have her two children enrolled at one of our locations... when she launched her own copy of the model," said Standridge. "That said, we are happy to see her multiply what we have created so that together, and along with Listos (Preschool and Childcare), we can meet the demand that our extensive demographic research shows in Rochester."

Valley House Daycare also offers dual language early childcare in Rochester.

Tweets by WheresKiger

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