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My name is Jennifer Hartman. I have many years of experience working with children, beginning from my own childhood. My mother owned and operated a daycare when I was born until I was 19 years old. I always was hands on with my mom’s daycare business while I was growing up.
I owned and operated a registered daycare in Dallas, Oregon for 3 years from 2010-2013. During that time, I served children aged 6 weeks old through 12 years old. I decided to further my education, so I closed my daycare to return to school. In 2016, I earned my bachelor’s degree in early childhood development from Southern Oregon University. I graduated with honors earning Summa Cum Laude with a 3.98 GPA.
From 2016-2019, I worked as a Head Start teacher serving children ages 3 to 5 years old in a classroom size of 20 children each school year. In June of 2019, I opened my certified family childcare. I was serving children ages 11 months- 11 years old. I have many years of experience working with both special needs children, WESD staff, and ABA Therapy. In 2020, I got the opportunity to adapt my childcare program into a Preschool Promise program which also has included self-paying families. I have been providing an in-home preschool program at Little Smiles Preschool since 2020.
I am currently a Step 10 in the Oregon Registry Online with over 1180.50 training hours. My program was accepted into Spark with a five-star program rating. Little Smiles Preschool is on the Nutrition First Food Program. Teacher Jennifer will be entering into her 9th year of teaching Preschool for the 2025-2026 school year, her 10th years as a business owner, and I have over 27 years working in the Early Childhood Development field.
I do work with a teacher’s assistant.
Philosophy
Little Smiles Preschool by Jennifer Hartman proudly adheres to the highest standards of education and care giving. Jennifer’s mission is providing a safe, stimulating, and developmentally appropriate learning environment in conjunction with a quality educational curriculum that assists the social, emotional, physical, and intellectual growth of all children. Jennifer’s vision is to provide an environment where all preschoolers can thrive, learn, and grow through their play. I believe that Early Childhood Education is extremely important to support school readiness. Family engagement, date-driven decisions, multi-sector partnerships, community participation, sustainable resources, professional development, and support, coordinated continuum, and equitable access are important for my preschool program to be successful for my students. My program will follow the NAEYC professional code of conduct. There is great need in our community to support families and children that may otherwise not have the opportunities to have their children be able to attend preschool because they do not have the financial means to do so without the aid of Preschool Promise. The State of Oregon’s Preschool Promise grant will have great potential and positively impact the Early Childhood Development students in preschool to get the jump start that they desperately need to be successful for their schooling career. I believe that preschool children learn best through their play interactions and socialization with their peers. I try to provide as many opportunities as possible for my students to learn through classroom materials while they are playing. One of my favorite things to hear is children’s questions about what they are learning as they play through their own experiences while watching the sense of wonder on a child’s face. As a teacher, I have been able to see children progress over time using a productive preschool curriculum to achieve positive outcomes.
Location
In west Salem off of Glenn Creek and Doaks Ferry. We are in-home preschool program.
About our program
We are accepting applications for Little Smiles Preschool located in West Salem. Preschool Promise is free to families that qualify for the program. Our program is a 5 star Spark rated program. I am the main teacher with a BA in Early Child Development. I graduated with honors from Southern Oregon University. I have over 1200 training hours in the Oregon Registry Online (ORO). My teaching assistant is a Step 7 in ORO with over 425 hours of training. We are a part of Nutrition First so our students get free meals at our preschool. We also assist with potty training. I use Creative Curriculum and Second Step Curriculum.