You know a daycare is doing something right when the little ones it once cared for start dropping off kids of their own.
Such is the case with Learning Step Children's Centre, which opened in 1988 near the intersection of Queen and King streets west and Roncesvalles Ave. "Something was needed in the neighbourhood; there wasn't much around here back then," explains owner Nick Anastasiou. “My wife, Maggie, was working as an early childhood educator. We had just married and I said, ‘Let's open a daycare. Our kids can go there, too.'”
Dozens of daycares have opened in the Roncesvalles neighbourhood since then, what with it becoming one of Toronto's most family-friendly areas. But little has changed at Learning Step: It's still non-profit, it still charges less than many newer arrivals and with 10 toddler and 16 preschool spots, it’s still the uncrowded, intimate space Nick and Maggie originally envisioned. "Our kids grew up here. They're older now, but we just kept going,” Nick explains. “It's simple: We enjoy what we do."
