Soho Child Care

Specialties

FOOD
Healthy and organic snacks and lunches are provided. (I do not serve eggs, peanut butter, nuts, pork, or shellfish.) I do not integrate meat into the diet. Although I provide organic milk for the children, parents of infants must provide breast milk or formula.

NAPPING
Children nap at different times throughout the day based on their individual routines and what works best for them.

PLAYING
We go to five different playgrounds in the area, a local community garden, or Scholastic's story time. We also do indoor activities such as coloring, playing with Playdoh, and working on puzzles. In the afternoons the older children play more physically oriented team-building games.

LANGUAGE
The daycare is bi-lingual, teaching children Spanish through direct immersion, books, songs, and flash cards.  I also teach and use baby sign language everyday to develop physical communication skills.

SKILLS
All 3 year olds graduating the daycare know their ABC's, numbers, colors, and have a wide vocabulary including: animals, fruits and vegetables, body parts, modes of transportation, biomes, and more.

DISCIPLINE
I praise desired behaviors, provide clear and consistent limits, offer choices whenever possible, use gentle redirection whenever possible, and I teach children to respect themselves and others.  Pushing, grabbing, hitting and all forms of non-verbal aggression will be dealt with individually through time-outs, problem solving and praise for more acceptable behaviors.

History

Established in 2001.

My business started as a result of 9/11.  I found myself in the position of having to become the breadwinner in the family, due to the uncertainty and eventual closure of the company my husband worked for. I chose between teaching middle school or starting a family based daycare modeled after my own children's daycare experience in Canada. The rest is history.  it has operated on word of mouth referrals and to this day I stay in contact with my  first alumni, who are now in Middle School & High School.  I am more dedicated than ever as I see, over and over, what a great beginning school experience does to a child's confidence level and ability to succeed.

Meet the Business Owner

Maryellen S.

Business Owner

"Maryellen has the sort of parenting smarts that make other parents take out their notebooks"
-NYTs

Maryellen Strautmanis is a native Canadian, born in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. She attended St. Francis Xavier University and obtained a BSc in Nutrition.  She taught High School in Huntington, NY and then went back to school for a degree in Interior Design at the New York School of Interior Design. After living and working in Toronto, Canada for ten years, She and her family moved back to New York City.  All of Maryellen's six children have attended schools in New York City and have graduated or are in the process of graduating from university.

She opened her family based daycare in 2001 in response to a need in the local area: SoHo, Greenwich Village, Lower East Side and TriBeCa. She believes that everything in our lives is an opportunity to learn and grow, and is committed to teaching children.