Pine River has new child care facility for ages 6 months to 12 years – Pine and Lakes Echo Journal


0

PINE RIVER — Though the going wasn’t always easy, Pine River’s latest child care provider never quite gave up on her goal of owning a child care center.

Morgan Dabill, a Pine River-Backus High School graduate, opened Wild Roots Early Learning Center in October, finally achieving a goal she was nearly forced to give up on years ago.

“I kind of got to the point where I was like, ‘It’s never gonna work out. Like, I want it so bad, but I don’t know how to make it a reality,’” Dabill said.

And we’re not babysitting, we’re nurturing them or teaching them. We’re giving them tools to succeed and an environment that encourages them to learn and explore and to just grow. They’re not just sitting here. We have no TVs, nothing like that. So they’re in a learning environment.

Morgan Dabill

In spite of feeling disheartened, when the golden opportunity presented itself, she and husband Devon made it happen.

Wild Roots Early Learning Center.jpg

Morgan Dabill’s Wild Roots Learning Center is a large facility with space for nearly 70 students. She opened the facility in October 2022.

Travis Grimler / Echo Journal

“We sold our house during COVID,” Dabill said, “when the market was high. We thought, ‘Should we go buy a house or start a business?’ I thought it was our chance. It was a huge risk, but let’s do it.”

Though it was a big risk, her husband had her back.

“He always supported it and wanted to see me do it,” Dabill said. “He really pushed me. Once we had the money and we saw this land he pushed me in that direction.”

They set up right on the highway and created their schedule to suit their target customers: working families.

“Being right on the highway, we figure people are coming from different areas traveling for work on 371,” Dabill said. “Whether they’re going to Brainerd or Walker or Pine River, we have people come in from a wide radius, and it’s just convenient. We’re right in the middle of them. Anyone with kids between 6 weeks and 12 years old, we’re here for them.”

The option to have all children in a family under one roof was part of the main goal of the facility. Dabill was determined to have more than just a day care.

“Sometimes I don’t even like the word ‘day care’ because people think of day care, and they think of babysitting,” Dabill said. “And we’re not babysitting, we’re nurturing them or teaching them. We’re giving them tools to succeed and an environment that encourages them to learn and explore and to just grow. They’re not just sitting here. We have no TVs, nothing like that. So they’re in a learning environment.”

I kind of got to the point where I was like, ‘It’s never gonna work out. Like, I want it so bad, but I don’t know how to make it a reality,’

Morgan Dabill

They built a large early learning center — a 5,400-square-foot, 60- by 90-foot building with space for 67 children and an outdoor learning space.

There are nine employees at the center filling positions as lead teachers and teacher aides. Every classroom has two educators.

“We have classrooms for infants all the way to school-age children,” Dabill said. “We have summer camp for school-age children, which is different for the area. There’s nowhere for school-aged kids to go. We haven’t had a lot of people take advantage of that yet, but it’s there.”

Dabill said the rooms are all specifically designed and furnished for a specific age range.

“They’re toddler proof, preschool proof and designed for their age,” Dabill said. “Every room has its own bathroom, so potty training is easy, and we set up every teacher with an iPad to make their life easier.

“We use an app called Bright Wheel, so parents get updates throughout the day, so they know everything that’s happening throughout the day with their kid, which parents love and teachers like as well,” she said.

Wild Roots is largely nature based. Educational activities are primarily hands-on and outdoors as often as possible. The center actively limits worksheets and time sitting.

“They go on nature walks and look for animal prints and talk about those kinds of things that some kids don’t normally get to see in the woods,” Dabill said. “They think they are going on a field trip, but we do a lot of art and music every day.”

Preschool children have a curriculum designed to prepare them for kindergarten featuring circle time, learning letters and numbers with some reading.

Even babies have programming designed to help them reach milestones like crawling and walking.

How Dabill was raised virtually set her on the path to work in child care. She helped care for her younger siblings and had an aunt and grandmother who ran a day care.

“Being the oldest of four siblings, I was kind of always taking care of everybody and had that instinct, so I’ve always wanted to do something like this,” Dabill said.

Dabill said she’s always had a personality that not only enjoys nurturing children but also tends to make children like her. Even before opening the center, Dabill’s child care proclivities were put to use as a mother.

“I had my oldest right out of high school,” she said.

Dabill has worked as a full-time parent of three children while taking college classes. She received degrees from Central Lakes College in early childhood education, special education and business management.

“Right out of high school I went for early childhood,” Dabill said. “I didn’t know how I was going to apply it, but I knew some way I would, so I started to go to school for all those things.

Being the oldest of four siblings, I was kind of always taking care of everybody and had that instinct, so I’ve always wanted to do something like this.

Morgan Dabill

“Then probably three years ago I decided I wanted to open a center and that we needed it,” she said. “I’d love to meet that need in our community and do something I love at the same time.”

Wild Roots has a waitlist for infants and a full toddler section. It has openings in preschool and school age. It is located just south of Waste Partners on Highway 371 south of Pine River.

Travis Grimler is a staff writer for the Pineandlakes Echo Journal weekly newspaper in Pequot Lakes/Pine River. He may be reached at 218-855-5853 or [email protected].

window.fbAsyncInit = function() {
FB.init({

appId : ‘1297319664098666’,

xfbml : true,
version : ‘v2.9’
});
};

(function(d, s, id){
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;}
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = “https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js”;
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));


Like it? Share with your friends!

0

What's Your Reaction?

hate hate
0
hate
confused confused
0
confused
fail fail
0
fail
fun fun
0
fun
geeky geeky
0
geeky
love love
0
love
lol lol
0
lol
omg omg
0
omg
win win
0
win
adminadmin

0 Comments

Leave a Reply