OHANA INHOME DAYCARE

At Ohana we believe that our work can make a significant difference in the lives of children and their families, and so we believe we make a profound and lasting contribution to society.

A child’s brain develops most rapidly between birth and age 5. That’s why we are committed to early quality learning through the Virginia Quality Birth to 5 (VQB5) program of the Virginia Department of Education. 

Ohana Inhome Daycare has been named by the Virginia Department of Education to the VQB5 Honor Roll for Infant and Toddler Quality (Ohana is an inhome daycare, so we are measured with Toddler scores, but it also includes Infant and PreK children).

“This distinction is awarded to programs that demonstrate exemplary interactions performance with infants and toddlers, as measured through CLASS® observations. Your site’s Infant and/or Toddler CLASS scores during the 2024-2025 year were within the top 10% statewide —an achievement that reflects a deep commitment to fostering high-quality, developmentally supportive environments for Virginia’s youngest learners.”

OHANA MEANS FAMILY!

Ohana Family Outside

OUR PHILOSPHY

  • We integrate developmentally appropriate practices with an emphasis on individualization, as well as guiding our students through their developmental years.
  • We firmly believe that children have the capacity to learn multiple languages in the early stages of their development. As an example, our children were fluent in English, German, and Spanish at a very early age.
  • We pledge to create a safe, fun, and happy place that gives children confidence, a sense of belonging, and a lifelong love of learning, friendship, and community
  • We are fully equipped to provide a safe and stimulating environment for your child through comprehensive training, all necessary permits and full insurance coverage.

OUR PROGRAM

INFANT GROUP

Young children are born learners. Although individual differences are present at birth, most set out to explore their world with unbridled eagerness and curiosity. Babies are born curious about the world, and their brains grow exponentially between birth and the age of 3. In this time, they develop language, motor skills, and early literacy. The foundation for lifelong learning is built during these critical years. 

That is why teachers in Ohana provide a loving and nurturing environment as they lay the foundation for learning.

What we do:

  • We form a strong emotional bond with our infants and get to know each of our baby’s unique personality.
  • We respect infants’ individual abilities and respond positively as each baby develops new abilities.
  • We frequently talk with, sing to, and read to our infants.
  • We believe that the place for our infants is on the floor where they can move freely and safety, we move then periodically throughout the day, so they are able to look and explore different things.
  • We support infants’ engagement and development by joining them in experiences and providing sensory materials.
  • We use language-stimulation and language-facilitation techniques to encourage infants’ early language development in everyday routines.

TODDLER GROUP 

From ages one to three, your child has many developmental milestones. These milestones are expressed as skills such as showing a greater independence and self-recognition when seeing themselves in pictures or a mirror. It’s also things like putting words together, talking in sentences, and exploring new objects and people around them. At Ohana, we designed the environment and experiences based on children’s developmental needs and individual interest. Learning experiences with teachers, peers, language, movement, blocks, music, books, nature, water, sand, process art, and dramatic play materials enhance children’s growth and development.

What we do

  • Young children are busy learning how to move their bodies to achieve their goals.  We support the development of gross and fine motor skills, as well as a child’s ability to care for themselves. 
  • We support a child’s ability to connect with adults, engage with peers, and foster their growing sense of self. This includes building and maintaining relationships, managing conflicts, and developing empathy and confidence. 
  • We foster a child’s ability to manage their emotions, attention, and behavior. This includes understanding and coping with emotions, controlling behaviors, and developing the ability to pay attention, remember, and think flexibly. 
  • We foster a child’s ability to think deeply about and make sense of the world around them.  We promote observation, investigation, and encourage children to think critically about what they encounter and experience.  
  • We support the development of communication skills by intentionally encouraging children to use language.
PRE-K GROUP

From ages three to five, your child enters the pre-school years. These years are recognized as a vitally important period of learning and development in their own right. They are not merely a time for growth in anticipation of the “real learning” that will begin in school. It is well established that important development and learning occur during these early years in all areas of human functioning: physical, social emotional, cognitive, and language.

What we do

  • Physical: we support the physical development skills by providing a positive, safe environment for our kids to observe and try new movements, foods, self-care routines, and by promoting children’s independence
  • Social emotional: we support social emotional development by providing our kids a warm and responsive classroom and providing activities and routines to help them connect with adults, peers, and their sense of self. This includes building and maintaining relationships, managing conflict, and developing empathy and confidence.

We also develop this skill by helping children recognize and manage their emotions and by intentionally providing the structure and support that children need to manage their behavior and attention.

  • Cognitive: we support the cognitive development skills by providing lots of opportunities for our children to freely explore, by intentionally modeling and narrating, and by providing appropriate challenge and “just enough” support to help each child be successful at his/her own level.

We encourage them to observe, investigate, imitate, and think critically about what they encounter and experience, skills that are important building blocks for later development and school success.

  • Language: we support the development of language skills by creating an engaging and social classroom that intentionally encourages and incorporates opportunities to frequently use language.

We help our children to develop the ability to communicate with others productively. This includes the development of vocabulary, and the skills needed to both understand and express language, for older children we incorporate concepts of early literacy, including print knowledge, writing, and sound awareness.

PARENT FEEDBACK

Ohana outside

Ohana’s is a nurturing place for little kids. Mrs Sandra and her team took excellent care of my little one since she was 3 months old, and now she is ready for her next big milestone (pre-K). Children in Ohana’s thrive because of the loving and caring environment, and professionalism of all staff.

Ana C.

Ohana Daycare is fantastic! My son started at 9 months old (he is now 3 years old) and now my daughter attends there as well (started at 5 months old). I cannot express how wonderful Sandra, her husband and her staff members are and have been over the years. They provide exceptional care, enrichment activities and preschool/pre-K preparation. The space is very clean, colorful and engaging for the children and the backyard space is huge with a great playground. During the warm months, they do tons of outdoor activities, going for walks in the neighborhood and water play; Outdoor time is prioritized all year around. Sandra and her staff truly care about the children as if they were apart of their own family and safety is always a priority. My son has learned so much Spanish as well as it’s a dual language program.  

Sarah O. 

They use an App to share pictures and status updates and also a tracking sheet for the babies (feeding, sleeping, toileting schedule). Sandra also provides organic home cooked meals, which has been a life saver for my very picky eaters, as they will eat her food but not mine!

Sandra has been very supportive and engaged when my son was having developmentally appropriate behavioral problems and worked with us to address this. The other families have been an added bonus with being so friendly and awesome (they are now apart of my “parents friends” community!).

Ohana Daycare has been an extension of our family and we are truly grateful for our experience here. I highly recommend this daycare!

Sarah O.