Stars of Tomorrow Early Learning Rooted in All Around Development

Michelle Kayyal started the Stars of Tomorrow Early Learning Center last month, but her experience in early education started much earlier than that.

She said she first started in the field of mental health in her home country of the Netherlands.

“After three years into my career in mental health that I thought I started to see a pattern,” she said. “Many of the clients I worked with were academically very successful, but there was always something that went back into early childhood where the link was missing. I think it dawned on me what I was doing in the mental health field was really reactively educating people.”

She realized that a lot of the problems she saw in the mental health field went back to early childhood, so she decided to change her profession.

“I came over to the U.S. 11 years ago,” she said. “I came to Wrentham when I was in the process of finishing my masters in childhood development. I was kind of looking around, preparing to purchase a place that I would turn into a learning center.”

She said she made the change to child education about 12 years ago. She worked in Boston and Dedham before coming to Wrentham. She saw The Children’s Place, the former name of the center for more than 20 years, was up for sale from former owner Susan Arsenault.

“She’s given me some big shoes to fill,” Kayyal said. “Everybody in town raves about her. Susan had such a fantastic foundation and I know that’s what I should be doing.”

She moved in about a month ago and is going strong in educating her current students.

“Every child is very different that’s what we concentrate on,” she said.  “Every child’s skill, abilities and personality; everything we do is tailored to each individual child, and yet they’re still working in a cohesive group.”

Kayyal said, while she believes a good early development is extremely important later in life, the biggest variable is always the human being. Basically, you can help, but you never really know.

“I don’t think it’s necessarily a preventative thing, because there’s no evidence that says I can prevent any mental health issues,” she said. “I think a large part of being a successful adult, and I know successful is measured in a lot of different ways, is to have the soft skills. Being confident, knowing your abilities and being able to solve problems help you later on in life.”

The Stars of Tomorrow Early Leaning Center is located at 23 Randall Road in Wrentham and is open weekdays 7 a.m.-6 p.m.