Welcome to Tender Love for Children (TLC) Childcare and School, where each and every child is appreciated, and encouraged to do their best while continuing their path to educational success.

Under the direction of Mrs. Barbara Crago, TLC provides a unique opportunity for children to grow, to learn, to be happy and to be well cared for when they’re not with their families.

Childcare

At TLC, we encourage education and social skills in every area. Our curriculum follows the PA Department of Human Services (DHS), the PA Department of Education guidelines, the Keystone Stars guidelines with Early Childhood Education and Infant and Toddler curriculum, and the PA Early Learning Standards guidelines.

School

Our school programs are designed using the Creative Curriculum Program, the PA Learning Standards and the Self Develop Program of Enrichment activities. The Creative Curriculum provides teachers with a clear and concrete way everyday to apply child development and learning theories in their work with children. The PA Learning Standards provide guidance for the development of programs’ continuum of learning; practitioners assess children’s learning and create classroom and individualized planning strategies that build from infancy and move through the early grades. The Self Develop Program is a blend of the best personal creative ideas from the director and the staff.

Pre-School

Three-year olds on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday
9:00am – 12:30pm

Pre-Kindergarten

Four-year olds on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday
9:00am – 12:30pm

 Kindergarten

Five-year olds on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday Thursday and Friday
9:00am – 3:00pm

Our school director believes “TLC must know and care for their students and must encourage the best within each child. Children must be first in our hearts, thoughts, words and deeds.” A loving, happy, kind-hearted environment is the TLC foundation upon which children are able to develop their intellectual, emotional, social and physical growth.

Every child deserves a secure, stimulating and stable environment. Toward that end, the TLC staff has made a personal commitment to support the TLC philosophy.

TLC’s programs incorporate the best educational standards and guidelines.

• To provide a kind-hearted, safe, loving, nurturing and stimulating environment in which children can grow and acquire social skills
• To help each child’s family maintain their child’s good health and promote physical development
• To help each child function effectively with peers and adults
• To help each child develop to the fullest of his or her cognitive abilities

Mrs. Barbara Crago, TLC Director and kindergarten teacher, has been a children’s advocate and educator for nearly 50 years. In September 1988, she founded the TLC Childcare and School. She graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a degree in Elementary Education and has taught in the Altoona Area School District. She also taught preschool for nine years with the Altoona Recreation Commission and owned her own baton school for twenty years.

The TLC staff is a talented, balanced mix of certified teachers and qualified assistants and caregivers who are committed to children and proud of their special efforts to enhance learning through play, appropriate fun, and educational activities. Our high staff-to-child ratio is a significant benefit to TLC children.

As TLC Childcare and School is an outreach mission of and owned by First Evangelical Lutheran Church, children who have parental permission attend a weekly children’s chapel service. The church pastor shares with the children the wisdom found in Bible stories and life lessons (which are so often overlooked in our busy lives) on such topics as kindness, cooperation, honesty and other such concepts.