Episode 87: Growing an Online Preschool with Lisa Hutchinson of Smart Steps Virtual Preschool

Lisa Hutchinson is a former preschool center director with over 30 years of experience in the early education field. She has also been a prekindergarten teacher, kindergarten teacher, preschool assistant director, education and training specialist, and program specialist. She directed a preschool center for over 20 years.

Over the past two years, Lisa has started a virtual preschool called Smart Steps Virtual School for children ages 2-5 to help parents prepare their children for kindergarten. She now works full time from home running Smart Steps and writing curriculum.

In this episode, we talk about how she came to start a virtual preschool, how she continues to expand her business by developing curriculum, and overcoming her imposter syndrome.

Download a free dinosaur discovery pack from Smart Steps To Learning Resources!

 
 
 
 
 

Read the transcript for this episode:

Welcome to Educator Forever, where we empower teachers to innovate education. Join us each week to hear stories of teachers expanding their impacts beyond the classroom and explore ways to reimagine teaching and learning.

Lisa Hutchinson has over 30 years of experience in the early education field. She has taught kindergarten pre kindergarten Brenda preschool assistant director was a preschool center director for over 20 years, and has also worked as an Education and Training Specialist and Program Specialist. Over the past two years, Lisa started a virtual preschool for children ages two to five to help parents prepare their children for kindergarten. She now runs small steps, virtual preschool and also is starting small steps learning resources. Welcome, Lisa. So glad to have you here.

Lisa Hutchinson

Thank you, Lily, I'm glad to be here.

Lily Jones

Well, it's been such a joy seeing you grow your business, you've been part of educator forever as business programs and our network community. And it's been so awesome seeing you get this thriving business off the ground. And so I would love for you to take us back in time and tell us about your journey as an educator.

Lily Jones

Sure. I have been in the education field for the early education field specifically for over 30 years. Started out after I graduated with my bachelor's degree in education, started out as a kindergarten teacher in public schools, and did that for a relatively short period of time, due to move my husband was was still in school, and was getting his master's and then went on for his PhD. And during that time, I was like I said, I was teaching kindergarten. And then during a move, we I ended up looking, I was in the middle of the of the school year and I was looking for something just kind of, you know, back in the what in the days of the newspapers and the classified ads, I was looking for something to kind of finish out the year and I found an ad for a private kindergarten teacher in a private preschool. And so I was like, Okay, well, let's check this out. So I started, got that job and finished out that year and taught the following year in a private preschool for a private preschool, childcare and preschool company. loved that job. And then was approached after, like I said, about a year and a half of teaching to become the to become the director of the program to go into administration. And I was like, yeah, no, I don't think I'm really interested in doing that. I really love just, I want to teach, that's my, that's my thing I want to teach and, and after several times of being asked to do that our director was leaving, it was on good terms and everything, but she was gonna stay home with her family. And so I was just like, you know, that's great. But I'm really not interested in doing this. I had kind of transitioned a little bit into helping out in the office as an as an assistant director but wasn't interested in in leaving the classroom completely. But needless to say, I did. And I, they convinced me, I said, Oh, we're a little very persistent. Yeah, you know, and I did. And so I became a director after, like I said, after about a year and a half of teaching with the company, became a director and I was then in management. For the next oh, gosh, almost 20 years. During that time. I I operated that particular center. We then moved from we were in Indiana at that time, we moved from there to California, I was able to transfer with the company went into a director's position out there. So we then moved from, as a director, I was I was director in Indiana, and then we moved from Indiana to California, because of again of my husband's schooling, he was going out there to do a postdoc research position for three years. So I was able to transfer as a center director out there, then we, from there, we moved to Florida. Because he became, he became an associate professor with the University of Florida. So I was able to transfer and I opened a Senator for the company in Florida. And my experience was great. I mean, I enjoyed the management end of things, I was a trainer, I was kind of, you know, in management, you kind of have a little bit of everything you still get to, you still get to spend time with the kiddos and, and I enjoyed training, I have a real passion for, you know, preparing early childhood educators for their, for teaching in the classroom. And so I kept my, you know, I kept my teaching, end of things going by doing that, by training teachers, as well as being a program administrator, I worked for the company for a while as a as a program, or, goodness, a program development specialist. And so, but then I, but then I did go that position was alleviated within the company. So I went back into the center director position, but like I said, I was in management for about 20 years with the company, and I, and I really, really enjoyed that. But then I decided after, after doing all the things within that company, I decided I wanted to go back to school and get my master's degree. I was like, you know, I, this is I'm just a lifelong learner, I'm always wanting to do more in the way of education and I working, you know, 5060 hours a week, I just was never able to do that and feel like I could do it, you know, do it right. So I left my position as center director, and, and I did go back and get my master's degree. And I was really glad I did that. And then I just decided I missed teaching, I missed being in the classroom. So I went back. And I taught pre K for oh, gosh, it's I've taught for at least five years or so after, after I got my master's degree. But then we made a move from Florida after raising our family for 22 years in Florida. We have grown daughters. So we were empty nesters. And my husband did not have a job change. But one of the company that he works for wanted him to be a little bit more centrally located. So we moved back to our home state of Indiana. And so I decided that I was going to semi retire. But that kind of led me in the direction of I didn't want to be I didn't want to stop working in the early childhood field. I have done things like adjunct work for community colleges I have. I'm still a CDA professional or professional development specialist. I've done accreditation, validation visits for accreditation bodies over the years. And so I've always been very involved in the field in general, and I didn't want to leave the field. And I especially didn't want to leave, you know, working with with children and families. So I decided, well, I'm going to semi retire but I'm going to I'm going to work from home and do something from home. My father in law lives with us and he's in his 80s he's in great, great health, but I kind of want it to be at home, you know, just be available to him with my husband traveling a lot for work. So that was what kind of led me into then looking into okay, what what will I do now that I've kind of left that, that you know that that going out to it and into a company and working? What am I going to do from home? So that was my that was what brought me to you.

Lily Jones

Fantastic. I love hearing all the steps of the journey. And I'm curious of Uh, you know, when you made that decision to semi retire, were you clear about this is exactly what I want to do next? Or how did you figure out kind of your next step?

Speaker 1

Well, I was definitely not clear. I don't know if you remember, but when I first came into, you know, the first, the first program with you, I, you know, I was really in an in, I was really very unsure about what I wanted to do. For sure I had, you know, I had some options I had, as a as an education and training specialist within the company that I had worked for. I had done some work on curriculum for our company, we had a proprietary curriculum. So I had done some work with that. But I, you know, I thought, well, I, maybe, maybe that's something I want to delve into a little bit more. But then I was also thinking, you know, I, I, I still want to work with children. So maybe something doing something in the line of tutoring, or, you know, and I had worked, I had worked, or I had done some online tutoring during COVID. And so that was something that that did cross my mind. And thinking, well do I want to do something as as far as online tutoring or teaching, but I didn't really know quite where to get started or how to go about that. And so, you know, I just really kind of had different options going through my mind. I also taught thought about coaching training teachers, which I have always enjoyed doing. But no, I was very unsure about what I wanted. What I wanted to do exactly,

Lily Jones

Which I feel like it's so normal. Very rarely, somebody like this is exactly the path that I want to take. And so I know through that process of exploration and checking out these different options, you then started a virtual preschool. So can you tell us about that?

Speaker 1

Sure. I finally, yes. decided on starting virtual preschool. And my preschool is called smart steps, virtual preschool. I started it about a year and a half ago now. And when I first started, I just had my niece in class. And it was, you know, it was one of these things that I was like, Okay, I'm going to do all of the things to get this started up, I'm going to, you know, start a website, I'm gonna get, you know, I'm going to get my website going, I'm going to do some advertising, I'm going to figure out how I'm going to do this whole thing. And I did. And at first I was like, Okay, well, I just have my niece, but I do I just had my niece and so I was able to do you know that that first a year and a half ago, which was half of the school year, I was able to kind of do that as as as a test run. And so what I do is I at that point in time I had live to our I had it set up where I had the option of, of parents enrolling their child in a preschool class live preschool class, which was scheduled to be 45 minutes to an hour, twice a week, or and that would be for 334 year olds, or a pre K class, which would be for those a four to five those kiddos that would be going into kindergarten the next year. And that would be three times a week. And those classes are about an hour long. And so I set those up to where I advertise those as, as classes that are are available to prepare to help parents prepare their child for preschool or I'm sorry, I'm sorry for kindergarten. Sure. Well, those those classes are our our classes that are like I said, relatively short in length, but available to parents that may maybe stay at home parents may be parents that are homeschooling their kiddos, maybe parents that have children with special needs and are not really wanting to put their their children into mainstream program or, or even parents that live rural or not near a program. that they can put their child in, or really need to put their child in on a on a, on a full time basis or even a part time basis. But that they want to have, they want to be able to expose their children and get their children prepared or have someone help them, prepare them for kindergarten. Because as you know, nowadays, children are kind of at a disadvantage if they have not gone through some type of a preschool program as they go into kindergarten. And so I just I do, we do a lot of really, we do a lot of fun activities, and activities that are going to prepare, like I said, prepare their prepare their child for kindergarten, so we'll open with some, some will open with things like, you know, like the days of the week, and the months of the year, we'll talk about the weather where they are, because, you know, it's it's all of our, all the kids are in different parts of the country. So it's really neat, they get to hear about how it may be snowing at one one child's house, and it may be, you know, it may be 90 degrees, that another one's and that's always really neat for them. And we always have course, super passionate about, you know, reading to children. And so we always have at least one story of the day, I have a theme based program. So all of the activities, the stories, the songs are all based around a theme for either the month, or for the bi weekly period. And so we'll we'll do songs, we'll do stories, we do a look at one literacy activity each time in one math activity each time. And then we have, you know, a day where we'll do some type of of developing social emotional learning skills, we'll do a day where we have a craft near the end of class, you know, so different things, and different types of activities every day. So you know, so that it's never getting boring, we do a lot of movement, getting them up and moving. And the neat thing about the program that I think is most appreciated by the parents is that it within the children or within the child's tuition, the parents receive everything they need everything the child needs to do my to do the program. So when I plan out, and when I plan out the activities for the children, I then send them well, at the beginning of the school year, they get an entire school supply box of all of the supplies that they will need over the course of the year. The things like the crayons, the scissors, the markers, the basic, the set of paints, and a set of watercolors, and you know, the things that they'll need playdough, things like that, that they will need and that they'll use periodically, of course through the year, but then each month, they receive a monthly materials box or monthly materials kit that has all of the things that they will need for the entire month. Things like the supplies for the crafts, we're going to do things like the printables that they're going to do that whether it's a game where they have cards, or whether it's a graph that we're going to work on, or whether it's a, you know, Spinner for a game, whatever the case may be, they get that in the box. And so there's very, very little that they ever have to add, you know, if we're painting, they may have to go get their child a cup of water to rinse the brush out. But that's the extent of it. So they're not having to go to the store all the time and buy the supplies and they love that. And it has really worked out well. And the the program, I think has well, the all of the parents that I have in the program have have really been very pleased with it. And it it has also I think, given my my families the opportunity to spend more time working with their child and feeling like they don't have it just it's easier. It's and it's and they don't get frustrated because the child is listening to me as we're going through because the classes are live. So we're going through and we're doing these things together that the or the parent is just there or not just there but the parent is there doing the things with their child, they're interacting with the child and they're helping To facilitate so they're helping their child if they need help, but the child also feels that independence that, you know, they're that they're able to do the things that they're able to do. So it's worked out to be a really great, great opportunity. Great program.

Lily Jones

Wonderful. Yeah, I mean, I think as a parent, it's so helpful. Not only getting all the materials, but also having the opportunity to see your child in class, you know, with in person classrooms, you don't really get to see that, you know, I'll go a few minutes early to pick up my third grader and try and peek in there. But it's like, I don't really about what's happening. Yeah. And so I remember during COVID, it was also interesting to me just hearing a little bit of like, how, how were my kids teachers talking to them? Like, what types of strategies were they using for problems? And being able to give a little bit of an inside peek?

Lisa Hutchinson

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we just, we just finished this this year. And we just had, as you can see, behind me, our pre K graduation, yesterday, and one of the parents was at one of the little girl's parents was telling me that she said, you know, this has just been she was I, in fact, I had I asked her, I said, Can I quote you on some of the things? Right, but she said, you know, she said, I just she said, this has been the best program, you know, for my daughter. And she said, I just have, you know, I just have really enjoyed working with her. And doing this program with her. And she said, and I have even learned so much. Thank you so much. It's such a you know, and and, and I don't know if it was, if it was things that she learned that that her daughter learned, or if it was things that she learned as a parent or a combination of things. But you know, but it was really it was a very nice compliment. So that's lovely, pleased.

Lily Jones

I love it. Well, I know that your business has grown and evolved over the years starting with just your nice to now have a you know, a variety of different students. And I also know that you're branching off into a new kind of direction as well, with the learning resources that you're creating. So can you tell us about how that came about? And what that looks like?

Lily Jones

I can, oh, and well. And one thing before that,I should add that. This year, I did add a two year old class to my, to my smart, smart steps, the virtual school to the to the smart steps virtual preschool program. I had a parent request that I do classes for two year olds. And I said, Ooh, I don't know how. But I was just telling her yesterday that I said, I am so glad that you asked me to do this. And then I said, Okay, we'll try it. I don't know. But it has gone so well. So I Yeah. So now I do a two year old class, which is only 30 minutes, but but it has it's gone. So well. Also the the growth and the learning that I've seen in these kiddos throughout all of the programs has just been has just been phenomenal. So yeah, so now I do a two year old, a preschool class and a pre K class. But yes, so anyway, I do I decided that I once I established my smart steps virtual smart steps virtual preschool program and got my business itself started. I was I decided that I wanted to do a couple of maybe a couple of other things to branch off from that kind of under that smart steps umbrella. And so throughout the past year and a half, as I've been doing my smart steps, virtual classes, I have been developing my own curriculum. And that was much in part to having taken the your curriculum development program. And so after getting that certification and feeling, you know, feeling like I was a feeling confident in, in putting the curriculum together that I wanted to use for my program. I started doing that. And so now I have, you know, really put together a year's worth of curriculum for all of my age groups and I and over the course of this past year, I started thinking about Okay, now, I since I do want to add on to my business and kind of go in into another direction, in addition to the virtual preschool, like I said, I decided that I was going to, to add on smart steps learning resources, which is where I am making my curriculum available to, mainly to homeschooling parents. Now, it is certainly going to be available to, it's certainly something that early childhood, teachers can use as well. I know a lot of programs have their own curriculum. So this would be something that could, could be supplemental to it. But I also know that there are programs where the teachers have to, you know, they have to do their own lesson plans. And so this would also be certainly something that that teachers in the field could use. But at this point, I'm starting to mainly market it toward homeschooling parents, I found that I had some questions over the year over the past year, that parents would inquire about my virtual program. But for one reason or another, maybe the times didn't work out for them for the program, or they were just really wanting to do their own home, they were wanting to do their own homeschooling, they were wanting to specifically homeschool their child, but they were looking for okay, what what materials should I use? What are the best thing? You know, what are the best tools and materials? Resources that I should use? Because there are so many, there's so many things out there? And yes, there's lots of free things. Of course, Pinterest is like, you know, oh, I can get anything from Pinterest. But is it the right thing? You know, that type of thing? Is it the you know, our standards or learning standards taken into account? When you're looking at some of these activities to do with your child? Aren't? Are we you know, are you doing? Are you doing the right things that you should be doing to prepare them for kindergarten. So that's what I decided to do in, in developing smart steps to learning resources is to package my curriculum. And in some cases, I'm definitely making some changes to it. Because some of the things that we're doing in the virtual preschool are things that are that I will not be be putting in the, the curriculum packs, but then there will be things that I'll be putting in the curriculum packs to kind of supplement that. So what I'm doing is I'm is I am packaging each month's curriculum to make available to homeschooling, homeschooling parents of two to five year olds,

Lily Jones

Great. I think that's so smart thinking about what you know, works and what you've created. And then giving access to that in a variety of different ways, I think is amazing, and having those different options that people can choose from. Yeah, thanks. So shifting gears a little bit. I know, we both know that starting businesses come with a lot of learning. And so I'm curious, so what you've learned about yourself through starting a business, um,

Speaker 1

I have learned, well, the learning, the learning just keeps going, of course. And like I said, I, you know, I have I have always been a very eager learner, I have always been a lifelong learner, and I just, I enjoy learning new things, but I will, I will definitely say that I have, I've, I've learned that it has become a little more challenging to me, as I've gotten older, but I've learned that I can do it. You know, I think that we all have, you know, we all go through those periods of imposter syndrome. When I was, you know, when I was doing when I was starting my virtual preschool, I, I found other programs that were out there and I was like, Well, what's going to set mine apart? You know, what is going to? Well, me and what I've developed is what's going to set mine apart and I feel like I have a lot to offer. And and you know and just telling myself and reminding myself of those things, and just getting in there and doing it, you know, and then the same thing that came around well When I was worth starting to work on, on the smart steps to learning resources, I thought, you know, there are a lot of things out there that are available to teachers into homeschooling parents, but I feel like I have so much experience and knowledge and, and, and I know what people what parents need to be able to, you know, to prepare their children for kindergarten. And so I think you have to push past that, you know, you have to push past the imposter syndrome. And, and I, I find that I have, you know, there, there are programs such as yours that I've that I take that I watched the videos over and over again, to be able to do especially the things that are, are technology related, I feel like I'm, I feel like I'm pretty good with technology, I feel like I, I, I feel like I can do it, you know, I feel like I can get in there and get things going. I will say that, that I you know, that sometimes it takes me a little longer than it used to, and I have to watch things a little given again, and I'm got my you know, I'm making my notes for you know, but but I do it, and I and I, I find it a challenge. And I like that, you know, I I've just never been the type of person to just sit idle all day. And, and not, I mean, I love to sit and read, but I just can't, you know, I have to be doing something. And, and, and doing something for children is what makes me happy, you know, so. So, you know, like I said, I think pushing past the, the the feelings of you know, this is a lot of work. And do I you know, do? Do I really want to do this? Is this really going to you know, is this really going to be worth it? To me, it's it's, you know, it's worth it?

Lily Jones

Absolutely and I think it's so great to just normalize that it's hard. And that hard is not bad. You know, like you said, like you want to challenge and you want to learn new things. And I think most of us do. Right? And so not seeing when an obstacle comes up or something is hard, or it feels like oh, maybe I shouldn't do this, like not seeing it as a blocker. Right. And really seeing it as an opportunity for learning can be so powerful. Yes. So going back in time, you know, thinking about when you first started thinking about growing a business starting a business, I would love for you to think about other people who might be in that spot right now thinking maybe I want to start an education business. So what advice would you give them?

Speaker 1

Well, I would I mean, I, I've been I've been asked that question before and I, you know, I have nothing but the phrase just do it to say I mean, truly, I I would never I would I would never change anything that I've done so far. I would not go back and say, No, it wasn't worth it or no, don't do it. It's too much work, no dough, you know, you have you know, you have to be ready for you have to be ready to work hard. It some things don't come. I mean, they met you know, some things come easy to some people and some things don't. But there's always going to be you're always going to come up against some stumbling blocks, you know, you may not have with with my virtual preschool at first, I didn't have very many enrollments. But I knew that which was going to be a possibility. And you can't let things like that stop you or put up roadblocks and say, Okay, well, this just didn't work. You have to push past that. And so I would say you know, you do it, don't don't doubt yourself. If this is if these are things that you want to do. And you you know, you have decided that this is something that is really of interest to you. Do it, you know and, and, and find, find the resources that you need, find the people that you can build a you know, build a community with. And I mean, you know, like you said at the beginning I've been in Educator Forever for quite a while now, and just being in that community and knowing that you're going through some of the same, you know, you may not be building the same kind of business, but we've all been educators, and now we're, we're, we're going into a different, a different chapter in our lives, for whatever reason. And so we all are, you know, we're all in a similar, similar boat, as they say. And so I think just being, you know, being in a community that everybody understands each other, and can cheer each other on and can answer questions and help help each other out. That's, that's what it's all about. And it really, you know, it really helps when you get, you know, when you when you get to those struggles, and then when you are, when you're, when you're doing well, you can share those other people on and it really helps. It's so it's so good to be a part of a community and I and like I said, I I say go for it. Don't don't doubt yourself, just do it.

Lily Jones

Just do it. Absolutely. I mean, I totally agree that the he is taking action, and knowing that it's possible, you know, the, of course, there are going to be roadblocks, and you can get through them. And I think that can be a powerful part of being part of a community to is seeing other people and saying like, Oh, she was able to do this, you know, I bet I can figure it out, too. Let me try and unpack that or get some stuff here. And so being able to see all the possibilities is also so key as you take that action forward. So true. Well, thank you so much, Lisa, for coming on the podcast and sharing about your journey and your business. So where can people connect with you?

Lily Jones

Well, so for my for my for my business, my smart steps, virtual preschool, I have a website, and that is smart steps, virtual preschool.com. I am I have a right now I have a free product out for my smart steps to learning resources. And I am in the process of putting my first product out. For that my first product, my first curriculum pack up for sale. And getting that out there. So we'll have I think we'll have links for that for you. For both of those pretty soon, pretty quickly. But and well. In fact, by the time this comes out, by the time this podcast comes out, I will have those out there for you to be able to see what I have in store on that. And otherwise, as far as reaching me, I can be reached at oh gosh,

Lily Jones

I have several email addresses in the show notes that you'd like to share to

Lisa Hutchinson

Yeah, I'm always I'm always willing and able to, to chat and and certainly more than willing to answer anybody's questions about anything I can help with. Wonderful.

Lily Jones

Well, thank you so much, Lisa again, it was so nice talking with you.

Lisa Hutchinson

Thank you Lily. It was great to be here.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Lily Jones