Nearly two years ago, Ashley Leis was a stay-at-home mom also caring for other people’s children when she recognized a need that was not being met in Northwest Arkansas.
That need was for convenient, drop-in childcare for moms who need a break, parents with part-time jobs – even moms and dads in desperate need of a date night.
After identifying the problem, Ashley sought out advice from experts in the field, wrote a business plan and created the solution: Play-Care on Walton Boulevard in Bentonville.
Play-Care is fully licensed, but its flexibility for families makes it one-of-a-kind. It’s the only drop-in facility in Northwest Arkansas, Ashley says. Not only is Play-Care open during the day, the center is also open on Friday and Saturday nights so parents can take time to nurture their relationship on a date night! There’s even game-day childcare available.
The rates are great, too, said dad of two, Greg Swango, who was one of Ashley’s first customers. Ashley felt it was important to set the rates below what someone would normally pay for a babysitter by the hour and that’s something that Greg appreciates. He also likes that he can go online and update his account with Pay-pal.
Reasonable rates are certainly not the only thing he likes about Play-Care, though. Greg and his wife have work schedules that have them passing like ships in the night. He teaches business courses at Northwest Arkansas Community College and his wife runs a restaurant. When their meet-up hours don’t sync, they can drop their two girls off at Play-Care for a few hours, no worries.
“We feel secure,” he said. “We took our kids there the first day they opened. It’s like a family.”
Ashley, who has a banking degree and has lived in NWA her whole life, is so personable and outgoing that we decided to ask her some questions you might have if you stopped by Play-Care:
What’s your favorite thing about running Play-Care? The fun. What other job can you face paint, finger paint, quack like a duck, bark like a dog, act like a goofball, and get a round of applause for it?
What are some examples of activities the kids do during the day? Well, today we learned about Native Americans, built a tee-pee, and gave all the kids Indian names. Golden Tree and Little Acorn gave it two thumbs up!
We mentioned that Play-Care is perfect for moms who need a break, parents with part-time jobs and date nights. Who else is your ideal customer? We’re also helpful to moms who want their kids to have social interaction, or to supplement their childrens’ education. Also, we’re just right for parents who attend school or work from home. We have over 350 families enrolled — there is truly a service for every family type at our center.
Tell us a little about your Play-Care director. Megan Donley is an expert in the field of early childhood development. She helps develop all of our curriculum activities as well as make sure all of our staff has a minimum of 10 hours child development training each year and is CPR and First aid certified. I am just a small part of a team of dedicated moms that all come together to make this work.
It sounds like a fun place! What about educational initiatives? We’re an educational center as well as a play center. We put a lot of time and effort into developing each day’s activities to ensure that children are learning without feeling pressured to conform to a certain learning style. The kids leave our center feeling like they spent the day at Fun Land but little do they know they were introduced to some of the basic key concepts they will use in their future education. It’s the equivalent of pureeing spinach and adding it to brownies. Kids eat it up and ask for more!
