The Learning Experience, a chain of education and daycare centers for children ranging from infancy to kindergarten, is expanding its Connecticut presence with a new location in Wilton this spring, in Enfield and Avon by the end of the year and in Danbury and Vernon during 2023.
The company traces its roots back to May 1980 when Michael Weissman opened his first childcare center in Boca Raton, Florida. Today, The Learning Experience has 337 locations across the country ”“ including Fairfield County sites in Fairfield, Newtown, Stamford and Trumbull ”“ and further expansion and franchising opportunities are being explored.
“We believe that we will gain market share because offer something that is unique and differentiated and nothing like what parents have access to right now, ” said Brad Wahl, The Learning Experience ‘s chief brand officer, of the company ‘s expansion in Connecticut. “But additionally, we see lots of growth in those areas of families with young children. There ‘s an underserved population right now that needs our services. ”
According to Wahl, the company ‘s proprietary curriculum is built around an expanding list of cheerful animal mascots who serve as guides alongside teachers for each topic.
“It ‘s all about creating that joyful environment, and the word happiness is really big for us, ” Wahl explained. “Always has been, always will be. We ‘re creating an environment where the children run into our schools because they know that during the day they ‘re going on a journey with Bubbles and meeting more and more of Bubbles Friends. ”
Among the 90 animal mascots are Bubbles, a blue elephant, is the flagship mascot for the franchise. Wahl said that while other franchises have proprietary curriculums, only The Learning Experience has characters tied to each individual topic. They include Flexi the flamingo and Miss Chievous the monkey for physical fitness classes, Leonstein the lion for science topics, Gibby the gibbon for sign language instruction, and a pair of dogs named Grace and Charity who emphasize the importance of a philanthropic outlook and giving back to the community.
The characters also feature prominently in The Learning Experience ‘s digital content, which includes an app that parents can use to track progress and additional content to extend the learning opportunities into the home.
In addition to extensive offerings for children ‘s education and enrichment, Wahl emphasized the impact each location will have in the communities they are part of.
“Having a positive impact on the communities that we serve comes through the providing of jobs in our schools, ” Wahl said, noting that each location will employ roughly 30 local staff members and certified teachers, “But there also be an inherent need for services to support our school that come from the local community. Additionally, we teach and develop the children not just to be smarter but to be better members of the community. To have a positive influence on it over time by teaching life lessons that will also have a positive impact on communities. “
