Starmaker Learning Center provides a connected educational journey for several ages and stages. Our Infant/Toddler Program welcomes babies from 6 weeks through 24 months, while the Pre-Primary Program supports toddlers from 24 through 42 months. The Primary Program serves preschoolers ages 3 through 5 years. We also offer Summer Camp for kids ages 5 through 13 years. A Program is not chosen by age alone. During your tour, our team will talk with you about your child’s age, previous group experience, communication skills, interests, confidence, and current development. This conversation helps your family decide where your child will feel comfortable, appropriately challenged, and ready to begin. We will also explain whether your young learner is eligible for a specific Program based on age and current availability. Eligibility can vary, so parents will receive clear information about when their child is eligible to begin.

The best place to start is a personal tour of Starmaker Learning Center at 23443 Cottonwood Parkway in California, Maryland. You will have the opportunity to see the classroom environment, meet members of our team, walk through the woodland campus, and ask questions about the Program that matches your child’s age. Once you are ready to move forward, our team will explain the registration documents, current openings, and any age-specific information you need to provide. Many families contact us early because spaces can change throughout the school year. Call (301) 863-7740 or email [email protected] to discuss enrollment and schedule your visit.

Yes. Starmaker’s Infant/Toddler Program, Pre-Primary Program, and Homework Center are licensed through the Maryland State Department of Education Office of Child Care. The Primary Program is approved by the Maryland State Department of Education. These accreditations give you, as parents, a clear, verifiable foundation for the trust they place in our school. They also reflect our responsibility to follow applicable Maryland requirements for Program operations, staffing, learning spaces, health, and safety. Maryland’s early learning frameworks also recognize the importance of active exploration, play-based experiences, and developmentally appropriate education. Our team will happily talk you through the credentials connected to the Program you are considering.

Starmaker combines a warm, family-oriented community with a play-based learning environment where your child can learn through movement, conversation, creativity, and hands-on exploration. Our school has served local families since 1994, and our peaceful Campus in Wildewood Technology Park gives students access to nature trails and a large outdoor play area.

What many families value most is the way teachers take time to know each child. Your little one is not treated as one child in a group who must follow an identical path. Our educators observe your child’s interests, communication, confidence, and development, then create experiences that help them take a meaningful next step.

School Leader, Haley Mitchell, who brings more than 10 years of early childhood experience, explains: “What makes us different is that we really focus on letting children learn through play instead of trying to rush them into formal academics. We take our time with each child and meet them where they are because we know every child develops differently.”

Potty training expectations depend on the Program, your child’s age, and their stage of development. Our enrollment team will explain the current requirements and talk with you about what your toddler can already communicate and manage independently. When toileting support forms part of a child’s day, consistent communication between teachers and parents matters. We want expectations to feel clear and manageable rather than stressful. Your family can share the words, routines, and strategies used at home so your child’s care remains as consistent as possible.

Play-based learning is child-initiated and teacher-supported. Your child may choose a building activity, create a story in the dramatic-play area, investigate natural objects, draw a picture, sort materials, or join a game with peers. Our teachers observe the play, listen to the language being used, and decide when a question, new word, added material, or small challenge could deepen the learning.

This approach includes both free play and guided play. Free play is voluntary and child-directed, giving your child time to decide how and when to play. Guided play gives teachers a more active role while preserving meaningful choice and enjoyment.

According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children, playful learning includes free play, guided play, and games. Research has also found that guided play can support vocabulary, spatial learning, attention, working memory, and cognitive flexibility.

Kindergarten readiness grows through far more than memorizing letters and numbers. Your child also needs communication skills, confidence, attention, emotional development, physical coordination, curiosity, and the ability to learn alongside peers. Starmaker’s play-based learning environment gives your preschooler daily opportunities to build these skills through meaningful experiences.

A pretend store can introduce counting, writing, new words, and role-playing. A building challenge can strengthen critical thinking, collaboration, and early science concepts. Group games help kids listen, follow directions, wait, and communicate.

The Learning Policy Institute reports that students who attend high-quality preschool Programs are generally better prepared for kindergarten and can make meaningful gains in early literacy and math.

Language development grows through real conversation. Teachers read stories, sing, ask open-ended questions, describe what your child is doing, and introduce new words within activities that already hold their attention. Your toddler may name objects during sensory play, while your preschooler may use longer sentences to explain a plan or negotiate roles during pretend play.

Songs, rhymes, sound games, and repeated stories also help your child notice how words sound. These playful experiences build early phonological awareness, which will later support reading and writing.

The classroom gives your child many reasons to talk, listen, and communicate with teachers and peers. Research notes that reading aloud, storytelling, regular conversation, open-ended questions, and following a preschooler’s conversational lead can support vocabulary and communication skills that prepare students for reading instruction.

Gross motor skills develop when your child has regular opportunities to run, balance, climb, dance, carry, stretch, and move through space. At Starmaker, outdoor play and movement are part of the learning day rather than a reward after academic work. Our woodland Campus, nature trails, and large outdoor area give kids room to explore with their whole bodies.

Movement also supports confidence and cognitive skills. A game may ask students to remember a sequence, adjust their speed, cooperate with peers, or solve a physical problem.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains that regular physical activity supports children’s brain health, memory, academic performance, bones, muscles, and overall development.

Starmaker’s Primary Program serves preschoolers ages 3 through 5 years and provides the foundation many parents associate with a Pre-K Program. This Pre-K Program keeps learning active, purposeful, and fun. The curriculum connects early literacy, language, math, science, art, movement, sensory exploration, and social and emotional development through play-based experiences.

Your preschooler may practice writing for a real purpose, such as adding a name to artwork or creating a sign for pretend play. They may explore numbers while setting a table, compare sizes during block play, or investigate the natural world outside. These experiences help children learn academic concepts while also building social skills, critical thinking, communication skills, and confidence before kindergarten.

Families comparing Pre-K options can ask how a school balances teacher guidance with meaningful choice. At Starmaker, our educators plan with clear goals, then help your child engage through experiences that respect their own interests and current stage of child development.

Child-directed learning gives your young learner a voice in the classroom. When your child chooses a material, follows a question, returns to an unfinished idea, or creates a new way to use an open-ended resource, they are practicing ownership, persistence, and decision-making.

Self-directed does not mean unsupported. Teachers remain present, attentive, and ready to help your child communicate, solve a problem, or develop an idea further. Child-initiated activities are balanced with stories, small groups, games, outdoor experiences, and teacher-supported learning. This gives your child freedom without leaving their education to chance.

Free play begins with your child’s choice. It is child-directed, voluntary, and open-ended, with no single outcome that every student must reach. A child may build, draw, engage in role-playing, invent rules for a game, or explore materials according to their own interests.

Guided play keeps the joy and agency of play while adding a thoughtful teaching goal. For example, a teacher may add menus and order pads to pretend play so students can practice new words, counting, and early writing. The teacher may ask questions or introduce concepts, but the child still helps decide how the experience unfolds.

Both forms have value in a strong play-based learning environment. Free play often supports creativity, relationships, and social outcomes, while guided play can introduce a broader range of academic concepts.

Pretend play gives your child a safe way to explore the world. When kids act out a family routine, run a pretend restaurant, care for a doll, or become characters in an invented story, they practice language, empathy, cooperation, memory, and self-regulation.

Role-playing also helps students see a situation from another person’s point of view. They learn to negotiate roles, explain ideas, manage disappointment, and work through a concern with peers.

The Child Mind Institute explains that imaginative play can build language, empathy, perspective-taking, problem-solving, emotional resilience, and healthier peer relationships.

Children learn critical thinking when they predict, test, compare, change direction, and try again. A tower that keeps falling creates a real problem to solve. A puzzle asks your child to notice patterns, while a nature activity can encourage students to sort, describe, and ask why two objects are different.

Our teachers strengthen cognitive skills by resisting the urge to provide every answer immediately. They may ask, “What else could you try?” or “What do you notice?” These questions encourage your child to explain their thinking, consider more than one solution, and become a confident learner.

Open-ended play also develops attention and memory because your child must hold an idea in mind and decide what comes next. Over time, these experiences build the critical thinking and problem-solving skills your young learner will use in kindergarten and each grade that follows. The same foundation can continue supporting confidence as academic expectations grow from one grade to the next.

Early childhood is a period of rapid physical, cognitive, language, social, and emotional development. At Starmaker, education during these years supports the whole child rather than separating academic learning from movement, relationships, creativity, and emotional well-being.

Our educators act as facilitators. They prepare the classroom, observe how children learn, and offer support that matches each child’s age, strengths, needs, and interests.

Research explains that whole-child education connects social-emotional learning, physical development, and cognitive growth because each area supports the others.

The exact routine changes by Program, but each preschool classroom follows a familiar rhythm that helps your child feel safe and confident. A day may include arrival and interest areas, teacher-supported group experiences, stories, music, creative work, outdoor play, meals or snacks, rest, and additional time to explore with peers. Predictability helps your child know what comes next, while flexible choice allows learning to follow the group’s energy and the children’s own interests. Teachers may extend a conversation, revisit a game, or create a new classroom activity when students show strong curiosity about an idea. This balance helps the day feel organized without becoming rigid.

Social and emotional development grows through relationships and repeated practice. Our teachers help your child identify feelings, use words to communicate, wait, share space, join play, and recover after a difficult moment. Your little learner is not expected to manage every emotional experience alone.

The play-based learning environment creates natural opportunities to build social skills. During cooperative games, pretend play, and shared projects, kids practice listening, negotiating, showing empathy, and resolving conflict. Teachers stay close enough to guide the interaction while allowing students to develop confidence with peers.

School Leader, Haley Mitchell, believes people do their best when they feel supported. That belief shapes a classroom culture where educators respond with calm guidance and help each child feel secure enough to take learning and social risks.

Drawing and painting help your child develop fine motor control, creativity, decision-making, and confidence. Music and dancing support language, rhythm, memory, gross motor skills, social connection, and emotional expression. Sensory play invites your young learner to compare textures, notice change, communicate what they experience, and explore early science concepts.

These activities also give children different ways to communicate. One child may talk through an idea, while another may first express it through movement, art, or imaginative play.

The Cleveland Clinic notes that sensory play can support cognitive skills, fine motor development, language, creativity, and open-ended exploration in young children.

Our location in the woodland surroundings of Wildewood Technology Park gives your child opportunities to learn beyond the classroom. Nature trails and outdoor spaces invite students to notice birds, leaves, weather, sounds, movement, and seasonal changes.

A simple walk can become a lesson in language, cognitive skills, gross motor skills, and critical thinking. Teachers may introduce new words, invite kids to compare natural objects, or encourage a group to create a game inspired by something they see.

UNICEF explains that outdoor play can support physical development, coordination, creativity, curiosity, attention, social interaction, conflict resolution, and resilience.

Your child’s safety is the foundation for every other part of the school experience. Starmaker follows the requirements connected to its Maryland State Department approvals and child care licenses. Teachers complete required background checks and receive CPR and First Aid training so they are prepared to respond when your child needs support.

Safety also depends on attentive supervision, clear classroom routines, age-appropriate materials, and communication with families. During your tour and enrollment process, you are encouraged to discuss allergies, medical information, comfort needs, or any specific concerns. Our goal is to give each child the best care within a calm, welcoming learning environment.

Our Infant/Toddler Program maintains a 1:3 staff-to-student ratio. This allows our teachers to respond closely to babies’ and toddlers’ routines, signals, communication, and emotional needs during a stage when individualized relationships matter deeply. Ratios in other Programs follow applicable Maryland requirements and may vary by child’s age and classroom. Our team can explain the current ratio and group size for the Program you are considering during your tour. We want parents to understand who will be present with their child and how the classroom team supports students throughout the day.

Every child enters the classroom with a different personality, pace, background, and set of strengths. Our teachers observe what helps one child engage and where additional support may be useful. A young learner who finds group conversation difficult may communicate more confidently during pretend play, while another may understand a concept more easily through movement, sensory materials, or a hands-on example.

Our educators can adjust materials, repeat an experience in a new way, offer a smaller group, or give your child more time. If you do become concerned about development, open communication allows us to talk through your concerns, examine the observations, and decide on appropriate next steps. We are here to support you and your little learner.

Our teachers meet the training and qualification requirements for their programs and comply with Maryland licensing standards. Team members complete required health and safety training, background checks, and CPR and First Aid certification.

Ongoing professional development helps our teachers deepen their understanding of child development, guide child-led learning, communicate effectively with families, and create purposeful play-based experiences. School Leader, Haley Mitchell, believes that supporting teachers is essential because confident, well-supported educators can provide your little one with more consistent, thoughtful care.

For Haley, being part of your little one’s early education is deeply meaningful. She takes pride in knowing that the work she and her team do each day can make a positive and lasting difference in your child’s life.

Families receive information through daily conversations, the Procare app, regular school updates, and opportunities to speak with teachers about their child’s experience. Communication may include routines, classroom learning, new skills, social progress, and moments your little one especially enjoyed.

Parents are encouraged to communicate changes from home, questions, or concerns. When families and teachers share information, the school can respond more thoughtfully to your child’s emotional needs, language, relationships, and development.

Relationships begin with attention. Our teachers learn how your child communicates, what helps them feel comfortable, which interests draw them into play, and when they need encouragement or space. This knowledge helps our educators respond in a way that feels personal rather than generic.

Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child explains that responsive, back-and-forth exchanges with caring adults help shape brain architecture and build foundations for language, emotional well-being, social skills, and later cognitive development.

At Starmaker, these exchanges happen during stories, play, meals, routines, conversations, and comforting moments.

Our enrollment team will provide the Program specific information you need, including forms, supplies, and daily routine details. It also helps to talk with your child in simple, positive words about where they are going, who they will meet, and what they may do. Your little one may feel excited, cautious, or both. Our teachers understand that beginning school is a transition for the whole family. Consistent goodbyes, familiar routines, and open communication help your child develop trust and become more confident over time.