Welcome to Growing Tree Childcare!
My name is Jess Gardner and I wanted to take a moment and tell you a bit about myself, what led up to Growing Tree becoming what it is today, as well as what I hope it will someday become for many! I've been caring for kids for as long as I can remember. Having some really not so great experiences in daycares myself as a child I was inspired to offer kids in my care better. As many do I started out babysitting around the age of 10 or so for my younger sisters. I graduated to babysitting for lots of other families and then nannying in my teens for a wonderful family with three children. I participated in an elementary aide program my senior year in high school where I got to assist a 1st grade classroom and loved every morning of the 99'-00' school year I spent there. I became a mother in 2003 and then again in 2004. My daughter Callie age 8 and son Mitchel age 7 have been my life and I feel infinitely lucky to have been blessed with them. I attended The College of St. Scholastica for Organizational Behavior in the hopes of someday running my own in business. I became licensed by the state to do foster care in 2006 and have since been foster mom to 14 beautiful and sweet children that will each hold a permanent place in my heart always and forever. To help little people as well as their families through such turbulent times in their lives has been humbling as well as rewarding. I feel having had the opportunity to care for them has helped me to grow as an a mother and child care provider in ways I cannot begin to measure.
My name is Jess Gardner and I wanted to take a moment and tell you a bit about myself, what led up to Growing Tree becoming what it is today, as well as what I hope it will someday become for many! I've been caring for kids for as long as I can remember. Having some really not so great experiences in daycares myself as a child I was inspired to offer kids in my care better. As many do I started out babysitting around the age of 10 or so for my younger sisters. I graduated to babysitting for lots of other families and then nannying in my teens for a wonderful family with three children. I participated in an elementary aide program my senior year in high school where I got to assist a 1st grade classroom and loved every morning of the 99'-00' school year I spent there. I became a mother in 2003 and then again in 2004. My daughter Callie age 8 and son Mitchel age 7 have been my life and I feel infinitely lucky to have been blessed with them. I attended The College of St. Scholastica for Organizational Behavior in the hopes of someday running my own in business. I became licensed by the state to do foster care in 2006 and have since been foster mom to 14 beautiful and sweet children that will each hold a permanent place in my heart always and forever. To help little people as well as their families through such turbulent times in their lives has been humbling as well as rewarding. I feel having had the opportunity to care for them has helped me to grow as an a mother and child care provider in ways I cannot begin to measure.
My dream of having a licensed home daycare finally came to fruition in June of 2009 when Bugaboo's officially opened it's doors in Rice, MN. I've adored every exhilarating minute since! In May of 2010 Ryan came into our lives. As a life long Parkers Prairie resident he showed us what a wonderful city this truly was. Small, close knit community, everyone was so friendly and it seemed to be the perfect place to live and raise a family. In April of 2011 we moved up here to be together as a family. I miss my original daycare families dearly but also look forward to getting started with a new group of kids! Due to Bugaboo Bay being just a hop skip away in Alexandria Bugaboo's Daycare became Growing Tree Childcare. Our property is filled with more little trees than I could count and I look forward to watching them grow throughout the years, I thought the metaphor was fitting :)
Being a daycare provider has been the most fulfilling experience next to the raising of my own children day to day. There is just nothing else that brings me more joy than caring for kids and watching them learn, change and grow! I am truly pleased to see what Bugaboo's and now Growing Tree has become in such a short time and couldn't imagine doing anything else with my career. Looking forward I hope the kiddos I have had and have now will have a brighter future as they grow because I was able to offer them a safe, stable, nurturing and enriched environment during their time in my care. I look forward to future Growing Tree kiddos joining our daycare family and to forging similar bonds with their families, hopefully keeping in touch with everyone possible to see how the little ones I grew to love so dearly grew up themselves. I realize that future is far off but it is my dream. I look forward to meeting any parent that shares a similar vision for their child's younger years and thinks Growing Tree might be just the place for them!!!