About Play2Learn Academy
Family-owned childcare serving Davis County families since March 2007
At Play2Learn Academy, childcare has always been about more than having a safe place for children to spend their day. It is about relationships, trust, learning, and creating an environment where children and families feel that they belong.
Play2Learn Academy was founded by the Shukhman family in March 2007 with a simple goal: to provide high-quality childcare for families in the local community. What began with their own family’s experience has grown into three Play2Learn Academy centers serving families in Bountiful, Clearfield, and Layton, Utah.
Through that growth, the philosophy behind Play2Learn has remained consistent. We want parents to feel confident about the people caring for their children. We want children to feel welcomed, supported, and genuinely cared for. And we want our centers to be places where learning, play, development, and relationships are part of everyday life.
A Childcare Center Planned Around The Services We Wanted For Our Own Family
The idea for Play2Learn Academy grew from the Shukhman family’s own experience as parents and grandparents. Their family experience—including their daughter and their granddaughter Anastasia, who was just two years old at the time—helped shape the kind of childcare environment they wanted to create.
Like many parents, they understood how significant the decision to choose childcare could be. Parents are not simply looking for a building where their child can stay while they are at work. They are trusting other people with someone who matters more to them than almost anything else.
The Shukhman family wanted to create a place where parents could leave each day feeling comfortable that their children were safe, well cared for, and surrounded by people who truly cared about them. That became the beginning of Play2Learn Academy in March 2007.
From the start, the goal was not to create childcare built around supervision alone. The vision was for something warmer and more personal,,, a place where children, parents, teachers, and staff could build relationships and where families could feel connected to the people helping care for their children.
More Than a Place for Childcare
Children spend a significant part of their early lives in childcare, and those hours matter. They are opportunities to form friendships, develop language, learn how to express feelings, become more independent, explore new ideas, solve problems, and gain confidence.
That is why Play2Learn Academy approaches childcare as part of a child’s larger development rather than simply a solution for the hours parents are working.
Our mission is to create a safe, nurturing, and enriching environment where children are valued, families are respected, and learning happens through love, play, and discovery. We support children socially, emotionally, intellectually, and physically as they build a foundation for lifelong learning.
That philosophy extends across the different stages of care we provide, from infant and toddler care through preschool and Pre-K, along with after-school care and summer programs for school-age children.
A Family-Centered Approach That Includes Parents
One of the ideas the Shukhman family believed in from the beginning was that good childcare depends on relationships with parents as well as relationships with children.
Parents know their children better than anyone. Teachers and caregivers get to know children in a different setting—watching them learn, interact with other children, work through frustrations, discover new interests, and gain independence. When families and teachers communicate openly, those perspectives can work together.
We encourage parents to begin with their child’s caregiver when questions or concerns arise. Center directors and assistant directors are available when additional help is needed, and ownership can become involved when a concern requires further attention.
That reflects what the Shukhman family envisioned when Play2Learn began. Childcare should not feel disconnected from the family. It should feel like a partnership.
Growing While Keeping the Same Foundation
Play2Learn Academy has changed considerably since 2007. What began as one family’s vision has grown into three childcare centers serving different parts of Davis County.
Bountiful
Our Bountiful childcare center serves families in Bountiful and surrounding southern Davis County communities including Centerville, and North Salt Lake.
Clearfield
Layton
Our Layton childcare center serves families throughout Layton and surrounding communities including Kaysville and Fruit Heights.
Each center has its own children, families, teachers, and local community. At the same time, all three are part of Play2Learn Academy and share the principles on which the organization was originally built.
Growth has never changed the central idea. Families should know the people caring for their children, and children should be cared for as individuals rather than numbers.
The Values Behind Play2Learn Academy
As Play2Learn has grown, eight core values have helped define what we want our centers to represent:
Family. Quality. Integrity. Compassion. Patience. Creativity. Inclusion. Growth.
These values influence how we build relationships with families, respond when a child needs help, encourage exploration and learning, continue developing our staff, and work to make children and families feel welcome.
Patience and compassion can be seen in our approach to Positive Guidance. Teachers use modeling, redirection, positive reinforcement, and developmentally appropriate conversations to help children express feelings and work through behavior.
Inclusion can be seen in the ways we support children and families who are learning English, including bilingual classroom materials, books, and language assistance in Spanish and Russian when available.
Creativity and growth are part of a learning environment that includes reading, hands-on math and science, art, dramatic play, music, outdoor activity, and opportunities for children to explore.
Learning Through Play, Discovery, and Everyday Experiences
Play2Learn Academy believes young children learn by doing. A classroom should provide structure, but it should also leave room for curiosity, imagination, movement, conversation, experimentation, and play.
We use a developmentally appropriate curriculum from Learning Beyond Paper. Teachers support that curriculum through everyday experiences that include reading, hands-on math and science, art, music, dramatic play, social interaction, and outdoor activity.
The approach changes as children grow. An infant needs something very different from a four-year-old preparing for kindergarten, and a toddler discovering independence has different needs from a school-age child arriving after a full day in elementary school.
Quality Starts With the People Caring for Children
A childcare program is ultimately only as strong as the people interacting with children every day. Play2Learn staff complete a minimum of 40 hours of training each year. Training includes child development, Positive Guidance, age-appropriate activities, sanitation, nutrition, illness recognition, medication procedures, and injury prevention. Staff also maintain current CPR/First Aid and Food Handler certifications.
Each Play2Learn center is supported by local leadership responsible for helping maintain the consistency, communication, and daily organization families depend on.
Our center directors bring their own experience and personalities to their locations while working within the larger Play2Learn philosophy.
Creating a Place Where Children Can Feel Secure
Trust also depends on the everyday systems behind the classroom.
Our centers use established procedures for child check-in and release, visitors, emergencies, illness, medication, transportation, and other parts of daily childcare operations.
Play2Learn centers are locked facilities. Visitors are escorted into the center, sign in and out, and wear a visitor badge while inside. We also conduct regular fire and disaster drills to help prepare staff and children for emergency situations.
Supporting Children as They Grow
One of our core values is Growth, and it applies to more than academics.
Young children are learning how to communicate what they need, interact with others, manage emotions, try unfamiliar activities, develop coordination, solve problems, become more independent, and understand the world around them.
Some of that happens through planned learning activities. Much of it happens during ordinary moments throughout the day—playing with another child, listening to a story, trying something difficult, resolving a disagreement, asking a question, or proudly doing something independently for the first time.
Our goal is to create an environment where those moments can happen with caring adults nearby to encourage, guide, and support children as they develop.
Serving Davis County Families Today
Today, our Bountiful, Clearfield, and Layton childcare centers provide care and early-learning programs for children at multiple stages of development.
Families may first come to Play2Learn looking for infant care. Later, the same child may move through toddler care, preschool, and Pre-K. As children enter elementary school, families may continue relying on Play2Learn through after-school care and summer programs.
Being able to support families through multiple stages is part of what makes long-term relationships possible. Children grow. Families’ schedules change. Teachers and classrooms change. But the responsibility parents place in a childcare provider remains significant.
We never want to lose sight of that.
Still Guided by the Idea That Started It All
Nearly two decades after the Shukhman family opened Play2Learn Academy, the original idea remains simple.
We create the kind of place where families can feel good about leaving their children.
- A place where children are known.
- A place where parents are heard.
- A place where teachers understand that patience and compassion matter.
- A place where learning can be structured without taking away curiosity and creativity.
- And a place where families can feel that the people caring for their children genuinely want to see them grow and succeed.
That family-centered philosophy was the foundation of Play2Learn Academy in March 2007. It continues to guide us today.
Come Get to Know Play2Learn Academy
Reading about a childcare center can answer many questions, but there is no substitute for seeing the environment and meeting the people who will be part of your child’s day. We invite you to visit the Play2Learn Academy location nearest you, meet our team, learn more about our programs, and ask the questions that matter to your family.
