Early Childhood Learning Center

Preschool Program

The preschool program is open now and accepting students from the Parkland, East Tacoma, Puyallup, Summit-Waller and Midland areas! In association with Bates Technical College, We are accepting enrollments now for the GATEWAYS for Youth & Families Early Learning Center.

Located conveniently between two Franklin-Pierce school district elementary schools in the Summit-Waller area on 104th Street, the center is more than just a daycare facility.

At the Early Learning Center, creative play and arts activities are combined with basic education and social skills. Children have fun all day long in a specially prepared space. At the ELC, we engage the whole child.

They are having fun as they grow stronger, smarter and more skillful each day. Children learn how to listen, share, follow directions, sit quietly, run, jump, sing, dance, draw, paint, garden, play well with others and get ready for a lifetime of learning and success. The LC curriculum was developed jointly by a licensed teacher with experience in directing after-school programs for elementary age children, with an emphasis on school readiness, creative arts and healthy living choices and our Education Specialist, Rebekkah Bluhm, with a degree in Early Childhood Development and a background in directing childcare facilities in Pierce County.

At the Ranch, the children enrolled in the Learning Center preschool have a large fenced outdoor play yard reserved for their use, as well as an indoor recreation space and dance studio. Like all GATEWAYS Ranch programs, children will be introduced to the diversity of cultures that live in and around our community and have access to the benefits of our 30 acres of rural green space, with outdoor recreation areas, gardens and natural settings where they can play, learn and develop a relationship with the natural world and a respect for the people who live in it.

In addition to the full day ELC curriculum, we are accepting enrollment now for our infant and toddler programs. Please contact our offices at 253.383.4361 or email children@gatewaysforyouth.org

Our programs are affordable for moderate income families and we offer sliding scale fees and accept DSHS payments.