About Backyard bears
MEET THE TEACHERS
Alana Del Valle
Alana is an enthusiastic and passionate caretaker. She started her journey at a young age volunteering everyday in her mothers Special Education classroom throughout her schooling. Through this, she discovered her love for helping others and caring for those who need extra love and support.
Alana’s passion for teaching and guidance lead her to spend the first years of her adult life as a personal nanny. These experiences as a nanny continues to teach her many amazingly valuable and important life long skills. Some of these skills include being able to guide and teach emotional regulation, how to care and respect the needs of oneself and others around, and the ability to recognize each child’s individual learning needs. Alana understands that every child is different, and how developing/ curating different ways of learning is extremely vital for all children to thrive.
Valena Heathorn
Valena is a kind-hearted, patient, and respectful caregiver. Starting off her career working in a big childcare center, she always knew she wanted to make a difference. Centers can be very fast paced, understaffed, and crowded. Valena recognizes this is not ideal for many families. She has always had a desire to help people succeed and grow, and working with children has always been a dream.
After being an in-home nanny for years, she developed the skills and knowledge to really connect deeply with children, teaching them lifelong skills, basic needs, and academic topics. She understands that children need to feel safe and at home in the arms of their caregiver. This is what Valena strives for Backyard Bears to be!
Shaena Adamson
Shaena is a highly experienced teacher and obtained a diploma from South Puget Sound Community College with a Technical AA in Early Childhood Education. She is very patient, kind, soft-spoken, and loving individual. She truly has her whole heart dedicated to children and their families.
Her experience is without a doubt exceptional. She started in high school taking courses related to childcare and worked in the center at the high school campus. She has worked in all different aspects of education, starting with her own in-home childcare center. After deciding to close the center to work out in the community, she worked for a childcare center, before and after school programs, summer programs, Assistant Director, and Director. From there, due to the closing of the school, she accepted a position with a private school. She taught preschool, pre-kindergarten and kindergarten, and worked her way up to Principal.
Due to unforeseen medical disabilities, she unfortunately had to leave her 30+ year career in education. She will now be volunteering with Backyard Bears to stay connected to her passion, educating children, and sharing expertise with staff, children, and families of Backyard Bears.
schedule
Backyard Bears is a AM & PM preschool for children ages 2-5.
We offer 2, 3, and 5 day options!
- AM class is from 8:00am to 12:00pm. – Runs 5 days a week. (Monday & Tuesday class, Wednesday-Friday class, or all 5 days)
- PM class is from 12:30pm to 4:30pm (On Mondays & Tuesdays ONLY)
Our Mission
Our mission at Backyard Bears is to provide a kind, loving, and fun environment for your little bear. We care about each child individually, and recognize that they deserve undivided love and attention. That is why our ratios of child to teacher are always kept low.
With inspiration from Montessori teaching styles, we have a goal of nurturing each child’s natural desire for knowledge, understanding and respect. We like to integrate learning in ways that is fun for kids! We will be exploring many different topics such as math, science, reading/writing and art! But along with the academic topics, we will also be working on lifelong skills and basic needs!
Talk to us
Have any questions? Please feel free to send us an email, text, or give us a call!