Magic Garden to add infants’ room, second toddler room

Early next year, the Magic Garden Children’s Center will start accepting infants, add another toddler room, and expand into a second location—the “stone church” parish house rooms vacated by the Birches School.

There is a perennial waiting list for Magic Garden’s Rainbow Room, which offers the only full-day, full-year toddler program in Lincoln for children are ages 15 months to 2 years, nine months. The satellite facility on Bedford Road will add a second room for nine children in that age range as well as a room for seven infants up to 15 months old. The Rainbow Room will eventually shift to a more narrow age range and the new room will have the younger toddlers, with the exact distribution depending on the student census from year to year.

Two longtime teachers from the Hartwell facility—Michele Landurand, a pre-K teacher in the Starburst Room for 27 years, and Karen Puglielli, a teacher in the Moonbeam for 25 years—will move to the new facility, and each will be joined by a newly hired teacher aide. Both teachers are already certified to care for infants and toddlers.

“Magic Garden has a culture and an ambience, and we want to make sure that stays consistent across locations,” said Andrew Pang, president of the board of directors.

The space will undergo renovations this fall, including replacing an existing exterior window with a new door to meet the code requirement for three exits (one of which is wide enough to roll out cribs during an emergency). There will also new appliances and cabinetry as well as sinks for hand-washing and snack-making. The renovations will be paid from grants and some of Magic Garden’s accumulated reserve funds. “The school is in strong financial shape,” Pang said.

“The First Parish classrooms are ideal for this purpose, filled with natural light from the large, south-facing windows and offering direct access to a new, age-appropriate outdoor play space,” said Lori Leo, Magic Garden’s director.

Magic Garden was established in 1982 by a group of Lincoln parents to fulfill a need for full-time early education and care in town. It’s licensed by the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) and enrolls children from Lincoln, Wayland, Sudbury, Weston, Concord, Waltham, and other area towns.

“The board of directors and faculty are thrilled to extend the range of Magic Garden’s services to fill these longstanding gaps for local families,” Pang said. “This builds on our 36-year mission of providing high quality early education and care to support area parents.”