From Army Bases to Primrose: Twana Holloway’s Educational Adventure

Intro  

Welcome to another edition of inspired stories where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes, how they’ve overcome adversity, and explore current challenges they’re facing.

Anthony Codispoti (03:36.961)
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast, where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they’ve overcome adversity. My name is Anthony Codaspodi and today’s guest is Twana Holloway, Director of Primrose School of Prestonwood, which is in the Dallas, Texas area. Primrose is a national chain of early childhood education centers and Prestonwood is part of the Wrigley Group, which is owned by Dr. Noel Wrigley.

who also owns eight other centers. Now, Tawana received her education in Child Growth and Development, Children with Special Needs, Child Development Associates, and Director Certification. She has 26 years of experience working with children as a teacher, director, and owner. She loves to watch children grow and to see their personalities blossom. She’s excited to help mold their futures every day so that they can better lead us in the future. And she’s a mom of five.

two sets of twins, and get this, a grandma of three. Now before we get into all that good stuff, today’s episode is brought to you by my company, Adback Benefits Agency, where we offer very specific and unique employee benefits that are both great for your team and fiscally optimized for your bottom line. One recent client was able to add over $900 per employee per year in extra cashflow by implementing one of our proprietary programs.

Twana Holloway (04:41.28)
Hahaha

Twana Holloway (04:48.599)
Okay.

Twana Holloway (04:55.733)
other.

Anthony Codispoti (05:04.011)
Results vary for each company and some organizations may not be eligible. To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at addbackbenefitsagency .com. Now, back to our guest today, the director of Primrose School of Prestonwood, Twana Holloway. I appreciate you making the time to share your story today.

Twana Holloway (05:23.243)
Thank you. I appreciate you calling me in. I’m excited.

Anthony Codispoti (05:28.289)
All right, let’s get into it. So Twana, tell me, how did you first get started in early childhood education?

Twana Holloway (05:35.454)
I was in the army and in my downtime, I would visit the childcare centers on base and it was just something fun to do. I enjoyed it. besides just being, just hanging out there, it was like play centers. So we just went to go have fun. And once I, left, once I was discharged, it was just something that I jumped into. was like, I liked it there. I want to do it again. I was actually an air traffic control operator.

Anthony Codispoti (06:01.249)
What were you doing in the Army? What was your role there?

Twana Holloway (06:05.73)
So something totally different from childcare. yeah. Yeah. Well, I was, well, it was training in there. So it’s, it’s called 93 Charlie, which is the MOS that they call it. And we did all the training there. So.

Anthony Codispoti (06:05.901)
Okay.

Was that something you had to go to school for or they just trained you in the Army for?

Anthony Codispoti (06:19.809)
Okay, so you leave there, your time’s up there, and so you decide, hey, I had so much fun playing with those kids in the childcare centers on base, I wanna do more of this. What was the next step? Did you just go to work for a childcare center? Did you go to school?

Twana Holloway (06:22.913)
Yes.

Twana Holloway (06:27.862)
Yes. Yes. So I did. I started at a child care center called the Peanut Gallery. And it was based here in Dallas, Texas. I was married and I was pregnant with my first child. And so was like, let me jump into it. They hired. And I mean, of course I always have fun doing it. And I just stayed in it. It never stopped. And it just started there.

I started as a toddler teacher, which I always like to tell people, toddlers are my favorite age group. I call it my jam. Toddlers are my jam. And anywhere I would go, it’s always that toddler program. So if they needed me to support at a different school, I was like, is it the toddler class? Because that’s where I’ll go. So I kind of stuck that out. And then I branched out a little bit more to learn about the other age groups, to get my CDA, just so I can.

learn as much as I possibly could about early childhood education. I think one of the big steps for me as I was growing is just learning the minimum standards, know, making sure that we were following minimum standards, learning about ratios, because a lot of times I just go to have fun. I didn’t care how many kids I had. I was like, okay, what are we doing today? So.

Anthony Codispoti (07:45.645)
So what was it about or what is it still today about the toddler groups that makes it your jam?

Twana Holloway (07:50.804)
my gosh, let me tell you something. The best thing about a toddler is I know a lot of people won’t say the same thing, that it’s their emotions. They don’t have a handle on it, but we get to help guide them. We get to help them put the handle on it. They don’t know the words for mad. They’re just mad. They don’t understand that they’re overly excited and they don’t understand the words for that. So we help give them the words. We help define it for them so they can go, this is what I’m feeling. This is what that is.

So when they make their next steps in growth, they get to use their words. I’m upset or I’m so happy or I’m so proud of you. And they, they’re people. I respect them. And then they respect us back by giving those those same words that we taught them. So if they are angry and they say, I’m angry, I love it. I’m okay with you being angry because you told me, and I’m so proud of you. did this all by yourself. So I just think you’re amazing. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (08:45.645)
I like that perspective because I, you I’ve got two boys, they’re eight and 10. and especially when they were younger, right. they, like you’re saying, they didn’t have that language and they would get upset. You know, my initial reaction is I want them to stop being upset. I want them to stop screaming. And so I’m trying to redirect that energy, redirect that to, you know, something more positive. And I’ve got some coaching along the way from some, you know, folks like you who are a lot smarter in this area than I am. And

Twana Holloway (08:52.438)
Yeah.

Twana Holloway (08:59.382)
Right.

Twana Holloway (09:03.756)
Right.

Twana Holloway (09:09.152)
Right.

Anthony Codispoti (09:13.675)
you they’re like, hey, let them feel that emotion, like, let it come out. And I like what you’re saying, too. You added on to that, which is name it, like help them identify it, like put a word to it. So it helps them sort of frame it the next time it comes up.

Twana Holloway (09:15.146)
Let them feel it. Yeah.

Twana Holloway (09:20.862)
meaning it. Exactly.

Twana Holloway (09:27.134)
Absolutely. And then we find those triggers. Cause once they started defining it themselves, they’ll know what’s going to make them angry. And we can say, we know that when you’re in this area, something over here makes you pretty angry. Do you want me to come sit with you? Do you want me to come play with you? Let’s start trying to find those triggers yourselves and the way you can self -soothe. Like I know that this is going to make me angry. Maybe I don’t want to do this or maybe I don’t want to play next to this friend, or maybe I don’t want to be in this center or this area. So.

Once they start to define what that feeling is, they can start to find out what’s making them angry. So we see triggers in the beginning that they don’t see, but then they’ll start to figure out those triggers on their own.

Anthony Codispoti (10:08.011)
And that’s interesting. Even at that young age, do you see that they’re able to sort of put two and two together? Like I’ve noticed, when my kids were younger, sometimes they had trouble with cause and effect. You know what I mean?

Twana Holloway (10:14.133)
yeah.

Twana Holloway (10:21.396)
Right, right. Yeah, absolutely. But I think what will happen, especially when it comes to toddlers, let’s just say we know that toddlers at a certain age are still, they’re not playing together. They’re playing side by side. Well, they’ll start to notice their surroundings. They’ll start to notice their person. They’ll see a friend come in and I always call them a friend. They’ll see a friend come in, especially when their friend notices them. They’ll start to walk away. Nah, cause I know their friend is coming to me because we both want this truck or we both want this toy.

In the beginning, they don’t notice that. just know that they’re playing with a truck and it just got taken out of our hands. Now we’re mad. We don’t know this feeling. We know that we’re angry. We know that we’re mad. Okay, let’s talk about it. Let me give you some words. I can tell. I see because you’re crying. And now they know that it’s because of this. Next time they get that toy or that truck, they’re going to look and say, is this person coming back for it? That’s that trigger. Like, okay, somebody else is going to try to come get it. What do I do now? So they start to recognize it themselves.

What can I do? Let me move over here. I want to go play with it by myself. That kind of thing.

Anthony Codispoti (11:24.845)
Okay, Twana, help us connect the dots from where we hear about you getting started at the Peanut Gallery and what are the points in between and how do you eventually end up at Primrose School of Preston?

Twana Holloway (11:30.54)
Mm -hmm.

Twana Holloway (11:36.866)
So I was at the peanut gallery for about six years and then I ended up working at Deeley Child Care Center Presbyterian Hospital. Again, I was with the toddlers and the two -year -olds. I became a support teacher, so I was able to learn about the preschool classrooms and their pre -K classrooms from there. After I left Deeley Child Care Center, I went home because we moved to a different area and I opened up my own home center, which was called Miss Tawana’s Kiddie Garden.

Anthony Codispoti (12:05.121)
Okay.

Twana Holloway (12:06.878)
And I started out with maybe like four friends and it blew up from there. I didn’t realize how fast it was going to grow. So I’m thinking, it’s going to take me some time to get kids to come in. but word of mouth, would say within the first month I started with four by the end of the month I had eight. So then I started having to, yeah, it just went fast, but it was all by word of everybody who came to my home center. It was all by word of mouth.

Once I got too big, my licensing rep came in and she was like, you need a building. And I was like, I need a building. So just, just blessed around the corner, there was an open building and I started renting it, Ms. Tawana’s kiddie garden. And I was doing that for about four years there. And we bought some property in Waxahatchee, my husband and I, and we decided let’s just move there, which Waxahatchee from where I was was about maybe an hour away.

We moved there, I shut down the center. I was like, I’m gonna take a break for a while. I thought I was gonna take a break for a while, because my younger set of twins had started high school in the area. I was like, let’s see. And then while they were at school, I got bored and I was like, I gotta get back to the classroom. I need to get back to the kids. Then COVID came. After COVID, it was just like…

Anthony Codispoti (13:09.303)
Hmm.

Anthony Codispoti (13:29.013)
Mm -hmm.

Twana Holloway (13:31.688)
Nobody’s doing anything, but I was ready to go back to work. And I remember putting out feelers on Indeed. And I got a call back from Bella Desai, who is the regional director now. But at the time she was the director at the Primrose School at Clyde Warren Park. That’s downtown Dallas. And she gives me a call and I was, I had never heard of Primrose before. And I was like, is this a real school? This is like, I was like, this is a real. She was like, yeah. And we did a zoom meeting.

So she said, do you think you can come in to fill out some additional paperwork? And I was like, sure. And I want to say the rest is history, so to speak. I was a toddler teacher there for about six months. And then I got offered the position of director of education here at the Preston Woods Center. And then I was the director of education here at Preston Wood for about maybe a year and four months. And then I got promoted to executive director. So that’s where I am now. And we’ll see what happens later.

Anthony Codispoti (14:27.253)
And so is the executive director role, is that still specifically at Prestonwood or is that set over more of the centers?

Twana Holloway (14:33.536)
So right, I’m gonna say it’s specifically at Prestonwood. If anything else comes up, it will probably be a regional position, but that’s not my say, that’s somebody else’s. And my thing is I’m so blessed because I’m sort of a yes man, wherever you put me, sure. Is that where you want me to go? of course, I got you. Yeah, wherever you want me to be, that’s me. And I’m always wanting to like.

Anthony Codispoti (14:50.839)
Team player, just chip in, right?

Well, you probably really like being in the center still, you know, so that you can have a lot of interaction with the kids.

Twana Holloway (14:58.752)
Yes. I do. my gosh. I’ve got best friends here. Like my best friends. And I love it. I mean, I, can’t imagine not being in school. I think that will probably be the caveat. If any type of growth, if I can’t be in school, I don’t know if I want that job. You know what I mean? If I can’t be able to go into the classrooms and maybe go talk to some of the pre -K friends I have or some of the babies, can I go hold a baby? Can I go feed baby? If I can’t do any of that.

Anthony Codispoti (15:18.849)
Mm -hmm.

Anthony Codispoti (15:27.81)
You

Twana Holloway (15:28.524)
I’m sure if I want to, I’m not corporate. I am a worker me, I’m not corporate. So yeah. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (15:34.623)
It’s good to know who you are and who you’re not. Yeah. And so what what are the main duties of the executive director there at Primrose Prestige?

Twana Holloway (15:44.738)
So in general, we want to make sure, I want to make sure my school is safe, not just for the students, but for the parents and the teachers. We have a curriculum here, so I want to make sure that curriculum is maintained. Even though I have a director of education, I support her in making sure that the curriculum is being implemented. I manage, I have about maybe 35 staff members.

And that’s just teachers and then I have other membership members of leadership team So I want to make sure that I’m supporting them and guiding them. However, they need me I have fantastic ladies that I work with I make sure that the children are eating healthy. I make sure that our grounds are safe and make sure that I’m interacting with families parents even doing tours marketing helping families come in to prayer to Preston would but one of the things

I’m so, I’m family focused that even if Prestonwood is not suitable for your family, maybe it’s distance or something like that, I want to help support families everywhere. So, hey, maybe we’re not the choice. I have another school. Let’s try that. You know, let’s see what we can do to help you because I want to make sure you’re part of the Primrose family.

Anthony Codispoti (16:53.389)
nice. So with 35 just teachers there in the building, this is for a child care facility, this is pretty good size. How many students can you accommodate there?

Twana Holloway (16:59.65)
Yeah, yeah, it is. We can accommodate 212 students. Yeah, yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (17:05.229)
Okay, that’s a pretty good size center. Yeah. And I’m curious, kind of going back a little bit, let’s rewind to when you had your own business. It sounds like it was really taking off. And then one day you’re like, hey, I’m gonna just take a break and shut it down and move an hour away. Like we kind of glossed over that. Was that kind of a hard decision, like a hard transition for you?

Twana Holloway (17:11.948)
Sorry.

Mm -hmm. Yes.

Twana Holloway (17:21.25)
Yes. Yeah. it was a hard decision. It was a hard decision just because I thought, how can I make it back and forth? How can I travel and be able to get the kids to school, come open up my school? Because again, I’m hands on in my own school. I’m opening up. I’m making breakfast. I even did transportation. So I want to, I just kept trying to figure out what’s the best way.

It was a hard decision, but before I even made the decision to go ahead and close, I went around to other schools to see what their prices were for whatever their age groups were. So that when I had to tell my families that I was going to close, I put up a poster and a list to say these schools in the area charge this amount. They have openings for this age group. These are home centers. These are

center -based, these are, you know, schools, these have transportations, these have this, they open here, they close at this time. I wanted to make sure that the families that I had didn’t have a hard time finding care. And then I was blessed because while doing that, I let those centers know that I was closing. So I had, of course, a bunch of equipment, tables, all that kind of stuff like that. If there was something that they wanted, I know how hard it is to get started. And when you’re new,

it’s hard to find those things. So I didn’t sell it. And I was like, Hey, I’ll have these things. So once the school is closed, have at it. Right. Then one of the home centers that I went to, was a young lady by the name of Ms. Tealy. And she was looking for a center herself. And she asked me to come visit before I closed. I said, sure.

Anthony Codispoti (18:51.383)
Wow.

Twana Holloway (19:12.746)
She talked to the landlord that I introduced them to, and she just ended up taking over. I didn’t even have to cancel the lease. She ended up taking over the lease and changed it out. And it just worked out best for her. But it took me about six months to come up with the decision that, okay, I know it’s not going to be doable for me to do transportations, get to this side of town within an hour and cover and still be able to be home for my younger set of twins because they were starting high school. My older three had already graduated high school.

So my younger set of twins, was just starting high school. So I was like, I need to be able to be home with them in this new town. So I said, this is best to sell. But my families, we were always so close that they kind of knew what was happening. They knew my heart. They knew that I wanted to keep it going, but I was very open with them, especially with that journey. So when I gave them the list of here are these schools, this is what they have.

and this is where you guys could go and make your choice, because I kind of gave them price points and areas and all of that. It wasn’t hard for them because those schools were expecting phone calls from them. So it worked out for them. I just never want to leave anyone in the lurch, especially those families who supported me from my home to the center.

Anthony Codispoti (20:19.649)
Mm -hmm.

Anthony Codispoti (20:29.985)
I think that says a lot about your personality and your value set that you spent so much time and energy to not only make sure that the families are going to be taken care of, but then you’ve got this equipment, you’ve got this lease, like who else in this space can I help out? We’re charging for anything. I mean, you’re just giving stuff away that you’d spend a lot of your own hard earned money on.

Twana Holloway (20:32.926)
thank you.

Twana Holloway (20:38.924)
Mm

Twana Holloway (20:44.48)
Right. Right.

Twana Holloway (20:50.242)
Yeah, because I know how hard it was to get those things, but I still do that. Even to this day, if I come across something that I know someone needs, I’m, hey, I have this. Do you need this? I found this. Do you have this? My daughters, they’re all grown. Like I have my oldest daughter’s, she’ll be 30 years old in January. And she said, mama, why are you still giving this stuff away? Why are you still buying stuff and giving it? said, cause you never know who needs it. You never know. Here.

take it to your church. Somebody may need it. I know this person here. So they’re like, you’re always going to find something. So now they do this thing. They call me to find it. Mama, can you find me this? And I go, yeah, I got it. I get it for you.

Anthony Codispoti (21:31.281)
You’ve got a big heart, Twana. So has there ever been any thought to go back to owning your own center since you left? Yeah.

Twana Holloway (21:33.236)
I love my babies.

Twana Holloway (21:39.882)
Yeah, that has been. Here’s the thing, now that my children are all grown up, I actually live, I live an hour and a half away from where I work. So I thought, yeah, so I’m thinking like maybe I want to find something and do something closer to home. But again, I enjoy Primrose. It’s a great school. The curriculum is fantastic. As a matter of fact, all my teachers are looking at me right now doing this.

Anthony Codispoti (21:50.138)
my goodness.

Twana Holloway (22:10.016)
They’re fantastic. I love these ladies. And I’m thinking, I think this camaraderie, I wouldn’t have immediately when I move and I would feel.

Anthony Codispoti (22:18.701)
Can you turn it around? Can we see him? Yeah.

Twana Holloway (22:19.966)
Yeah, hold on one second. Say hi.

Anthony Codispoti (22:25.613)
that’s great. I love it. love it. So tell me a little bit about Primrose, because you’ve got an interesting perspective, right? You’ve worked for some different child care centers. You’ve owned your own. And now you’re part of a national chain that has these franchise opportunities. So with all those kind of different experiences, what can you look at and say, wow, this is

Twana Holloway (22:27.967)
You

Twana Holloway (22:39.446)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (22:53.857)
This is the tremendous value that Primrose offers us. Being part of this family, this group, this network, here are some of the advantages that we get.

Twana Holloway (23:00.684)
Right.

absolutely. So one of the things that I always like to tell people, especially if I’m hiring, there’s daycare. Primrose is a private school. So, but even though it’s early childhood education, I think having this extensive curriculum that we have from infants all the way to our kindergarten program is amazing. The training programs that I have, I think it’s wonderful. I think how it’s guided, but also I think, and I like to call it Wrigley Primrose with Dr. Wrigley.

he promotes from within. So not every school can say that they can do that. With Primrose, especially being the corporation that it is, I think there’s so much more that they have to offer. There’s so much more learning that they have to offer. There’s so much more growth that you can get involved in. And I don’t think there’s a limit yet. I think it’s still growing. I know that childcare is still changing. It’s still evolving just because there are

families that are deciding, I want early childhood education? And what does it look like for our family? What does it look like for teachers that are coming into early childhood education? Because it’s totally different for them now than it was from when I first started. But I can say coming into a school like Primrose, there are so many more advantages because the education process is there for you. You can absolutely, there’s so much more to learn in an early childhood setting, like the way that Primrose sets up for the teachers.

Anthony Codispoti (24:29.835)
When you say that there’s so much more to learn, are you talking about from a staff, like an employee perspective, there’s more for you to learn, or the curriculum that’s set up for the students, for the children? Okay.

Twana Holloway (24:34.443)
Yeah.

Twana Holloway (24:38.444)
For both, for both. I think as an employee, the teamwork that’s offered, that we get to learn from each other. I think sometimes when you go into, I wanna say just a normal daycare setting, a lot of the stuff is hands -on that you have to do by yourself. But as an employee with Primrose, the way that they learn, there’s so many people that’s behind it, that you’re cross -trained so well from other teachers. It is my goal to make sure my teachers

Even if you come in as an infant teacher, I want you to visit another classroom. I want you to see how Pre -K runs a Wonder Time. I want you to see what the outside time looks like for toddlers. I want you to see what the cook is doing. And let’s take a look at the menu. What would you like different on the menu so that we can kind of bring it up to our regionals so we can get some changes? I want them to have a voice. In certain cases, when a center is individually owned,

A lot of teachers don’t have voices, but here they do. They get to say, Hey, can we do this? And it’s one of the things that I want to foster with teachers. Like, tell me what you like. I want to hear it. I’m, I’m not the end all be all, you know, we work together. I’m even when I tell them and I go in the classroom to help support, I even tell them I’m, you’re my boss. When I come in there, you, you tell me this is your classroom. What do you, what you want me to do? I’ll change diapers. You want me to do circle time? I got you. You are my boss. I’m not coming in as your director.

And they get to see that. They don’t just see me sitting behind the desk. Because for me, that’s not the fun part. The fun part for me is getting my hands and clothes dirty, going in there with them. On the curriculum standpoint, with Primrose, it’s so easy for the teachers to follow, but it’s also so extensive for the children to learn. And I love it. And the teachers get to challenge kids with the curriculum. So the curriculum leaves it open to where it’s not

just open and close. It’s so open -ended. And that’s the best part about the curriculum. It’s so easy for them to do.

Anthony Codispoti (26:39.673)
So you said something there that was counterintuitive to me I would have assumed being part of a larger organization that the teachers would have less input than they would at like a single owner facility But and you’ve been an owner of a single member facility and you you have friends who are as well So you have a good perspective to speak from saying that’s not the case like they’ve got more input here

Twana Holloway (26:42.87)
Mm

Twana Holloway (26:51.722)
Right. Yeah.

Twana Holloway (26:57.356)
Yeah.

Right. It’s not the case. Yeah. Cause we want their input. It’s you can’t build a team if no, no members of the team have anything to say towards it. That’s, that’s the teamwork. That’s the teamwork. I want to hear from them. They do have a say. They, they, I want to hear their opinions. I want to hear their thoughts. I want to hear their input because I want to use them. I can honestly say that even with my teamwork here, my leadership team that’s here before I can make a decision.

You guys tell me what you want. I’m not making that decision by myself. I want us to make it because I want you to be comfortable with it. When teachers are doing something in the classroom, if there’s something special that they want to do, tell me what you want to do. Let’s make sure it’s safe. Let’s make sure it’s healthy. Let’s make sure it’s guided by children. And then you let me know and you can do it. Let’s go for it. Why not? Why not? Yes, it does. I agree.

Anthony Codispoti (27:48.845)
Teamwork makes the dream work, right? Yeah. And that was one of my kid’s favorite preschool teachers saying that he used all the time, Mr. Jared, teamwork makes the dream work. And that still gets brought up sometimes. Tell me a little bit about Dr. Wrigley. What is he like as a person? What’s it like to work for him?

Twana Holloway (27:58.531)
I love it. I love it.

Twana Holloway (28:05.996)
okay. Let me tell you something. I, like, I know he’s not owner. No, he’s super cool. Like I call him the super cool. Every time he comes in, like he comes into our schools a couple of times a week and he walks through the, he walks through the building, says hi to the teachers. Like they know he’s owner, but he’s not like, like untouchable, right? And he, we just call him super cool, but he’s really good because he hears us too. But the same thing, we have input. The same thing that he allows for us.

Anthony Codispoti (28:09.963)
You just lit up there.

Twana Holloway (28:35.614)
I want to allow for the teachers because we all have to be heard. I’m blessed because he has this thing that he says, inspect what you expect. So that means if I have expectations for my school to make sure that those expectations are still being followed through, I need to go back and check. So that’s one of the things where I ask teachers, give me your input. Let’s talk about it. Because then I want to go back to make sure that that’s what we did. He is,

I can say he’s intelligent and smart and all that stuff like that, but he’s personable. He’s not above hearing us. And this is for all of his schools. Even if we have something going on personally, I would say maybe it was a year ago, one of my daughters was in the hospital and I was with her and he called. He was like, hey, does she need anything? Where you guys at? That’s him. And it’s, he’s a blessing. He is a blessing, but he doesn’t just do it.

For me, he would do it for the teachers. He would do it for any of his other schools. But he’s hands -on. He’s hands -on. And we like that. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (29:41.569)
He’s really involved. And is there growth plans for his, for the Wrigley group? Do you know like?

Twana Holloway (29:46.194)
I mean, I will say there are, I just can’t say what they are. I don’t think he knows how to sit still yet. He hasn’t met a cloud he can’t touch yet. So that’s what I’m gonna say.

Anthony Codispoti (30:02.103)
Yeah, that’s great. Common entrepreneur’s dilemma. Can’t sit still. Yep. Yep. That’s how we’re wired.

Twana Holloway (30:05.982)
Absolutely. Exactly. It’s the what’s next. Okay, now that this is done, what’s next? That’s him. I think that’s what I’m going to call him, Mr. What’s Next. Yeah. Yeah. Mr. What’s Next. Yes. Yes.

Anthony Codispoti (30:15.403)
Mr. What’s Next, Mr. Cool and Mr. What’s Next. Those are pretty good nicknames. So Twana, tell me what does a typical day look like for one of your students?

Twana Holloway (30:26.658)
For one of my students, let’s see, I want to pick one. So I have a best friend. I’m going to call her my best friend. And it depends on any day. If it’s a morning while I open, she’ll come in at the door and she says, bye daddy. That’s it. Cause I’m there. So we hang out. I want to tell her she helps me answer phones. She just grabs the phone for me so that I can answer it. We have conversations about our cats. And then after my second person comes in, I walk her to class.

Anthony Codispoti (30:27.746)
Mm

Twana Holloway (30:57.026)
Parents come in, they sign in. Sometimes they let the little ones help them sign in. They go to class, pass the little one off to the teachers. Time to wash your hands. And this is in every classroom. Then there’s children’s choice, breakfast, and then it’s time for harmony and heart, which is the music time in the morning. This is throughout the whole entire school. So at 8 .15, harmony and heart is going on throughout the whole entire school. After that, the schedules become a little break.

broken up because then there’s outside time, there’s wonder times, there’s circle times, and each classroom is doing something different. So depending on the age group. In my older classrooms, when they come in to wash their hands, they have to sign in. It’s the way they do their attendance. With the younger classrooms, like the toddlers, when they’re doing their attendance, there’s a basket where we try to help them find their name so they learn to recognize what their name looks like. As they grow and go into the next age group, the next age group, they get backpacks.

They have to come in, find your name, hang it on your backpack, find your name on the attendance board, they’ll put it on the part where we’re here today, and then let’s get started. Let’s get started with the day. Then there’s the curriculum that they’re going to follow through, the wonder times that they’re going to do, the thumbs up activities that they’re going to do. So it’s different in every age group, those particular activities, but topics are pretty much the same. It’s just scaled with their age.

Anthony Codispoti (32:23.369)
What are the different H groups that you service there?

Twana Holloway (32:26.518)
I’m sorry, say that again.

Anthony Codispoti (32:27.531)
What are the different age groups that you service?

Twana Holloway (32:29.762)
We go from infants to pre -K here.

Anthony Codispoti (32:32.525)
Okay. And there were a few things I wanted to ask about. What is children’s choice?

Twana Holloway (32:38.474)
Children’s choice is they have different centers in the classroom. So in the mornings they get to their choice, but also within children’s choice, there’s writing centers, there’s art centers, there’s math and science centers. This is where they get to choose what they want to do when they first come in. It’s their choice. So they have that time in the beginning of the day until after breakfast is over. that’s children’s Wonder time is a learning time. So whatever the topic for the day. So one of the things we’re talking about is culture week.

Anthony Codispoti (32:59.755)
And how about wonder time? What is that?

Twana Holloway (33:07.074)
So we’re just talking about multiple cultures. We’re talking to families about their cultures. Children have brought in posters, they brought in foods, but we want to talk about what they’re doing. Tell us about yourself. So we’re talking about the many cultures that we see, babies from all over the world, especially depending on which age group that we’re talking to or that the teachers are with. And then the next Wonder Time is an art project, which is Wonder Time 2, about…

that culture, let’s do this art project. This is what it looks like here. So it’s different art projects. And right now we’re getting ready because next week we’re having a museum gala for all the paintings that those classrooms done. So it’s gonna be a nighttime activity where parents get to come in and get dressed up and come bid on art. So, and the proceeds go to the Dallas Casa. So it’s a charity event. So the parents get to buy their kids paintings for charity.

Anthony Codispoti (34:01.944)
that’s terrific. And what is Dallas Casa?

Twana Holloway (34:04.148)
Dallas Casa is a program for children who are being adopted. It’s pretty cool. I love it. Yes.

Anthony Codispoti (34:11.595)
Nice. And the last one that I want to know about is thumbs up. What’s that?

Twana Holloway (34:16.23)
okay, so a lot of kids like to call it go outside, but it’s more than that. There’s a physical activity that we do for thumbs up. We’re monitoring and we’re doing an assessment just to make sure those gross motor skills are where they need to be. So what a child will think it’s pretty fun to jump from hoop to hoop. The teachers are checking to see if they can jump off two feet. They’re checking to see if they can throw the ball this way and underhand it. They’re just watching their mobility. And if they can do that, it’s something that the teachers will mark up. Yep.

I can see that they can do that, but the parents, well, the kids think they’re just having fun.

Anthony Codispoti (34:52.385)
What, if you had to pick one thing, Tawana, what do you think sets your center apart from other traditional child care centers?

Twana Holloway (35:01.772)
Hmm. The atmosphere was the atmosphere for sure. not only are we like family oriented here and I think we’re very open. think the atmosphere for us sets it apart because families know what to accept, you know, and they know what to expect from us. And we try to make sure we keep that communication open so that there is no

There are no questions. There are no questions that need to be asked. They don’t have to wonder what’s next. The communication is there.

Anthony Codispoti (35:40.621)
What are some of the most common concerns that parents have when starting their kids in a new childcare environment like yours, and what can you tell them to put their minds at ease?

Twana Holloway (35:50.284)
Couple of things. Yeah. First, I want to know if this is the child’s first time in childcare and how old they are. If it’s a little tiny baby, I worry about the parent and not the child because there are many times when mom’s dropping off baby for the first time and then mom’s crying. Our goal is to make sure mom is okay. Mom and dad are okay. So we give hugs. I’m going to hug mama.

Anthony Codispoti (36:16.236)
you

Twana Holloway (36:16.758)
Come on baby girl, let’s go right here. And do you want to stand at the door? You can stand at the door and watch for as long as you want to. The one thing that you don’t want to do is let, and not let them know that they have access to their baby. Yeah, you dropped your baby off, but you want to run back in there and go get that baby? ahead. That’s your child. But we want you to be comfortable and knowing that they’re okay, stand at the door as long as you want to. But we do that for the moms, especially if it’s a little baby and it’s their first time. If it’s an older child and they’ve never been in childcare before.

moms are gonna cry. I like to bring them to the office, sit down. If they have extra time, you want some coffee? How about we order coffee? Let’s just chat. And then we’re gonna go back down just to go see how baby is doing. Let’s see what the teacher is doing with baby. And we’ll go from there. If the child has been in childcare before, we just wanna see how they transition. Why are you doing that? He knows you guys are here. Look, this is my education director.

Anthony Codispoti (37:12.555)
This is the atmosphere you’re trying to hide. She’s cowering away.

Twana Holloway (37:18.338)
We want to make sure. Okay. If they’ve been in childcare before and they’re coming to us and the child is new to us, we want to know how they transition. But before any child starts, we do a parent teacher orientation just so we can get to know the family, just so we can get to know the child, just so they can get to know the teacher in the classroom.

So that if there’s any tips mom and dad got for us, especially if the child is transitioning from one school to another, let us know. Maybe it’s a favorite toy. I have one friend here who is her first time in childcare, because she stayed home with grandparents. She came to do the tour with us. She liked looking in the window at the classroom. But mom says, I don’t know how I’m going to get her to go into the class. Well, she wears princess dresses every day.

I said, you look so brave in that princess dress. Every day there’s a different princess dress she’s wearing. I said, if that’s going to make her feel brave to go through the classroom, she can do it. And every day she’s wearing a princess dress because that’s what makes her feel brave. Mom and dad were concerned. I was like, that princess dress, she looks beautiful. She looks like she’s ready for the day. And we call her out on it and she’s so proud. She does really well.

Anthony Codispoti (38:35.596)
I love that.

Twana Holloway (38:35.936)
whatever we could do to help that child feel comfortable. That’s what we’re gonna do. But we’re also gonna do that for mom and dad. Bye, Quincy. So, and we’re also gonna do it for mom and dad.

Anthony Codispoti (38:45.387)
My youngest son wore pajamas to preschool every day. Every day, yep. He had other kids saying, hey, Valentino gets to wear pajamas, why can’t I wear pajamas? So for us, it was just the easiest way to get him out the door. He was comfortable in them. But that’s a great story about one of your friends there just being brave and confident in her princess outfit.

Twana Holloway (38:47.412)
Bye.

Every day, yeah.

Twana Holloway (38:57.954)
I don’t have a wreath.

Get him out of that.

Yeah.

Exactly. She does so well. Every day she comes in, her grandmothers, and she comes in with both grandmothers and they’re so happy because they were, the grandmas were having the hard time. Mom and dad were good. It was the grandmas who were having a hard time letting go. And they felt great about it. And she does so well in classroom. Now she speaks to everybody. She waves bye. She says, hello. You get those friends that where transitioning is hard, even at every age.

So I always want to let teachers know just because maybe this kid is a five -year -old and they’re crying at drop off, it’s okay. Transition is still hard for that five -year -old. We respect them. These are still people. Despite them being younger people, they’re still people. It’s hard for us as adults to transition. We don’t like people to see our nervousness if we start a new job, if we go into a new place. That’s a transitional moment. That’s a transitional emotion. Now we might not scream and grab hold to somebody.

Twana Holloway (40:04.262)
but we’re still feeling those feelings. They are feeling those feelings too and it is okay for them to feel those feelings. That particular transition, those emotions are natural, normal, and they’re wonderful feelings because they’re being heard. Hey, I’m scared, I’m nervous. Hey, I can tell you’re scared and nervous. Let’s go try and find some things that will help you feel less scared and nervous. And if you just don’t want to play, that’s okay. If you just want to stand right here, you let me know when you’re ready. We got you. Just being patient.

But understanding that just because those feelings are big for them, that doesn’t mean we all don’t feel those feelings. We all feel those feelings. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (40:41.805)
That’s a good reminder. You know, I’m curious when parents are sort of shopping around trying to find a new childcare center for their families, it’s a big decision, right? Like, where do we feel comfortable? Where do we trust people? where’s the best option for us? What advice can you give to people who are searching and trying to make this important decision?

Twana Holloway (40:49.634)
Yeah.

Twana Holloway (40:58.71)
Yeah.

Twana Holloway (41:05.796)
absolutely. Okay, so one of the things I get to say, I love doing tours. I always ask a family, is this the first stop? Are we the first stop that they’ve stopped? Or are you still looking? How did you hear about us? That kind of thing. This is how I would do a tour. When we are getting the phone calls for tours or emails for tours, what we ask is, what’s the most important thing that you look for in early childhood education? Or what is the most important thing that you look for in early childcare?

We want to hear that. We want to make sure that we offer that. We kind of go through that process. Once they come in, they’re asking their questions, they’re asking about curriculum, they’re asking about all these things. If we don’t fit, and sometimes I can tell if we’re not the best fit for them, even during that tour process, I still want them to feel welcomed. I still want them to say, hey, I still have questions. Can I call Tawana back?

I still want them to know that even though we may not be your choice, I want you to find the best choice for your little one. How can we do that? How can I support you in still finding your best choice? It may not be us. I’m okay with it if it’s not us, but that doesn’t mean I love your child any less because it’s not us. It doesn’t mean that I love your family any less because it’s not us. That means that you need something specific and maybe I can help you find that.

what I will do before you leave, if it’s in the area, I might tell you, hey, I think Primrose is a great school, so let me find a Primrose in the area that you need. If it’s not Primrose, let me give you this website to go to so you can find the school that best fits your family. Because for me, before you leave, I want you to find what you need for your family as a whole, because that’s what we’re here for. I mean, and I will tell families, although I think we’re the best.

But if we still don’t fit your family, how can I help you find that? Because we may not be that, it could be this one little twig. It could be anything. Doesn’t matter. How can I help you?

Anthony Codispoti (43:09.665)
Yeah, well, I see your heart coming through again, Tawana. It’s clear you’re very much a relationship person, and I respect that. Can you think of maybe a particular success story for one of your friends that’s come through the center?

Twana Holloway (43:13.236)
Okay. I am. Thank you.

Twana Holloway (43:23.712)
Let me see. Okay, let me be specific. hate to, it’s more than a success story from a friend. It’s my grandson. So my grandson had never been in childcare prior to this. He was always either home with mom or he was with an auntie. So it was, if it wasn’t mom, he was with one of his aunties. And I remember when he turned four and I told my daughter, said, he really needs

interaction, he really needs socialization, he really needs to be around children his own age. And I said, we have space available where I am, you know, I will just cover the tuition because I really need for him to be ready for school. And so she was a little nervous.

Twana Holloway (44:13.258)
And so she was a little nervous, but she was okay. Cause she was like, okay, if he goes to school, I know he’s where you are, mom, he’ll be fine. And I said, great. He started here. He used to meet kids at the park before he would go to school. And he wouldn’t say, hi, my name is Kai. He would just walk up to a kid and go, and he was like, that’s, on kid. That’s not how we meet friends. And he came to school and Miss Grace, my admin,

Anthony Codispoti (44:33.538)
you

Twana Holloway (44:41.482)
She was there that morning to open and I was like, hey, Kai’s first day. She walked him to class. He was so excited. Now he didn’t have a hard time transitioning. He was, cause he just said, he, and he asked her, he asked her, he said, is this the class where my friends are going to be? So she was like, yeah. Now, mind you, we, I know he’s a smart kid. I know he’s really intelligent, but just no socialization. So one of the things he did, he just tried to find a friend.

Just kept trying to find who’s gonna be my friend. So he went through the whole classroom full of friends. I think maybe three months later, the teacher at the time, Miss Jennifer, she went through and she was talking about letter sounds in reading. And she says, my gosh, he knows all of his letters. He can write his name, at least his first name, because his last name was really, really long. She’s like, he can write his name and he understands letter sounds. I said, great, you know, I said, however you do it, I’m just, hey.

Tell it that is mom though, cause I wanted to set a precedent that even though grandma is the director, that does not mean that, you know, I want you to have that conversation with her, but that kind of thing. And I want to say maybe even a couple of months after that, she had the kids separated at tables. And so I said, what are they doing? She said, they’re reading. Cause I was doing classroom observation and I kid you not, I don’t know why I didn’t have the faith. was like, is reading. And she was like, yeah, Kai is reading.

I said, no. I go over and he said, look, Nana. So he’s reading this little tiny book. And I said, my gosh, I’m so proud of you. And he graduated our kindergarten program, went off to school. And that’s say three months in school in the ISD, his teacher called his mom and she’s like, can I talk to you about Kai? First thing my daughter says is, is he in trouble? And so teacher says, no, but he’s in kindergarten. He’s reading on a third grade level.

Anthony Codispoti (46:36.513)
Whoa.

Twana Holloway (46:38.92)
She called me here at the job. She said, can you tell his teacher? I told his teacher, I texted Grace. We were so proud of him. I was so proud of him. And then when I called him that night, when I got off work, I was like, hey, I said, I hear the teacher call. And so he goes, yeah, she says I’m smart. And I was like, I think you are. For me, that is firsthand success story because

Anthony Codispoti (46:59.628)
you

Twana Holloway (47:06.048)
He did not have any of that stuff before starting, but he did so well and I’m so proud of him. And we still have some of the friends here who used to go to the school that still comes in and see us. And I see how they’ve grown and they tell me about school and they’re so happy and their parents are so happy. One of my families, her son, just got, he was accepted into one of the private schools in the area. She was so nervous.

He got accepted to four private schools. So she had her pick. So she came in crying. She brought the teacher gifts. She was like, he got accepted into four of them. And I was like, yeah, I can say firsthand, it feels good to hear that kind of thing. It feels good. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (47:38.956)
Wow.

Anthony Codispoti (47:50.369)
That’s really rewarding. And that tells me that either you’re putting something in the water there, you’ve got a really good curriculum, or you’ve got fantastic teachers. What is it?

Twana Holloway (47:55.83)
God.

Twana Holloway (48:00.45)
I’m gonna say definitely a good curriculum, but the teachers who, I swear by these teachers. swear, will, yeah, these are my ladies.

Anthony Codispoti (48:12.503)
So let me ask you, it’s a tight labor market, Tawana. What are you doing that’s working so well to attract and then retain these great teachers?

Twana Holloway (48:21.718)
I will say, think for, because of the labor market, I can’t say that it’s just something I do it. I want to find people with the passion for it. If you have the passion for it, I’m going to support you. I’m going to support you. And I think that’s what teachers need to know that, Hey, I want to do this. I want to learn more about this. I want to be into this. So it’s my job to take that and cultivate it. Okay. Let’s talk about it. What do you want to do? Show me. Let’s see this.

I would say having goals, having them come up with goals for themselves. I don’t want teachers to come in and just say, this is just a job. It can be more. Where do you see yourself in three years? How can I get you there? Because even if in three years, if Primrose or even early childhood education is not for you, where do you see yourself? How can I support that? Because then if you know that I have your back here and I can support you here,

I know that that word would spread to say, know what, Ms. Tawana, Ms. Lindsey, Ms. Grace, Ms. Anna, they had my back. They got me. They support me. Whatever it is. And then we get to see those teachers come back or we get to see them grow. I am blessed to say like four of the teachers that we’ve had here have already been promoted and transitioned into leadership positions at other schools. I want teachers to grow. I even tell them, hey, Dr. Wrigley promotes from within.

So tell me what I can do to get you there. Cause I want you to go there. I want you to grow. I don’t want you to stay in one place. If you don’t want to stay in one place, I don’t want you to stay in one place either. Tell me what you want to do so I can help you. I’m sorry.

Anthony Codispoti (49:58.849)
There’s your heart coming through again, Twana. I love it. It’s great. No, it’s great. I mean, there’s a lot to be said for just doing the right thing and treating people the way that you would want to be treated. You’re talking about helping these families out that might not be a good fit for your child care center. Helping the teachers that work with you if they want to move along in their career. How can I help them? There’s a lot to be said for that. think those are wonderful qualities to have.

Twana Holloway (50:07.468)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Twana Holloway (50:13.73)
Mm -hmm.

Anthony Codispoti (50:27.509)
in anybody but you know terrific in an executive director spot like that.

Twana Holloway (50:28.18)
Right, I think, yeah.

Absolutely. think sometimes early childhood care is not for everybody, right? You get those people who see children and want to work with children because they’re so cute. my gosh, I want to work with these kids. They’re so adorable. Look at them. Look at, look at her little face. And you get into the classroom and cute only takes you so far. Cute only takes you so far. I have tons of cute little kids, but when they get mad, do you know how to get through? Can you get through to them?

Anthony Codispoti (50:53.099)
Hahaha

Twana Holloway (51:02.454)
They just threw that truck. Do you know how to get through to them to fix that? And they’re like, I don’t, don’t know what to do. Why are they doing this? Yeah. Cause now they’re not that cute anymore. Right. And the cute just went out the door. Now you’ve got this little kid who’s just thrown trucks. Now it’s got blocks. How do you keep them from doing this? So it’s, you have to have the passion for it. You have to have the understanding for it. You have to be able to know how to give them words. Maybe it’s an older child that

Anthony Codispoti (51:12.663)
Mm -hmm. You good?

Twana Holloway (51:31.082)
you have in maybe a pre -K classroom that you say, hey, you left your toys out. Can you go pick them up? And they look at you and say, no, I’m not going to go pick them up. You do it. How do you get through to that? Everything is not going to be sunshine and rainbows. Can you work through that? Can you not take it personally and just take it professionally? That’s two different things. Some people take those things personally and not professionally because the professional person in you is going to look at that child and say, you know what? Okay.

Let’s start over. We got to clean the room because we have to do this. I’d like your help. I know that you picked it up, but maybe you think it’s a lot of work to do. Would you like for me to help you do that? Sometimes you got to come with a different plan, but that’s thinking professionally and that’s taking it professionally. Because if we take it personally, we miss the point. We miss the window of opportunity to teach. We miss those teaching moments and everything is a teachable moment in early childhood education, even for teachers.

Anthony Codispoti (52:31.029)
What’s a serious challenge that you’ve had to overcome either in business or in your personal life? And what are some of the lessons that you learned coming through the other side?

Twana Holloway (52:34.05)
Thank

Twana Holloway (52:40.628)
Okay, I would say for me, I think it’s a couple. I’m going to say in business. When I had my own child care center, it was just me. There was no assistant directors. There was nobody else. So I was doing all of it. I was doing the paperwork. I was in classrooms. I was doing the cook. I was doing the driving. So I was able to, I take it all. One of the things that I had to learn here and still learning while I’m here is I have a team. Use them.

Because sometimes I have a tendency and then my director of education who you saw behind me, she’ll tell me, stop, you don’t have to do all of that by yourself. So it’s one of those things that I’m still learning, but I’m blessed that I do have a team to support me in that. That’s still professional growth that I’m still learning. It’s also still something personal for me that I’m growing to say that I need to save when I need help. I gotta say, if I can tell the kids, let me know when you need help, I gotta learn and do that too.

I’m learning. It’s still a progress, but I’m getting there. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (53:42.685)
It’s a tough transition to make. I talk with a lot of business owners who are, they’re the start, they’re where everything began, so they’re used to wearing all the hats. And then over time as they grow, they add staff, maybe they add a couple of centers. It’s really challenging to make that transition. And you’ve got a somewhat similar path, right? You had your own small center, you did everything yourself, you wore all the hats, and now you’re in a much different environment.

Twana Holloway (53:58.039)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (54:10.109)
It takes an adjustment of changing your approach, changing, leveling up your skill sets into something new. And that growth can be uncomfortable.

Twana Holloway (54:12.022)
Mm

Twana Holloway (54:18.038)
Yes.

Yeah, and it can be. But I think that if we sit in our comfort, we won’t grow. So got to move. It is a challenge. It truly is. But I try to be a better communicator. And I like when people communicate. I’m one of those I can hold myself accountable. And I also want someone to come say, hey, hey, I really need you to do this because of this. And I’m like, and my word is bit. I go back.

You know, think my ladies, if I say something, I don’t say, okay, yeah, sure. My word is bet. It means I’m gonna do it. Bet, I got you. Whatever it is, if that’s what you’re saying, I receive it. Bet. So that’s how I know I’m gonna meet that challenge.

Anthony Codispoti (55:03.851)
Yeah, and I like what you said about if we sit still and we’re comfortable, we don’t grow. And one of the things I tell my kids is growth happens at the uncomfortable edges of life. And it’s hard to be in that spot, whether you’re a kid or you’re an adult. But that’s where the true growth comes from. Twana, what’s a fun fact most people wouldn’t know about you?

Twana Holloway (55:08.46)
Yeah.

Twana Holloway (55:13.12)
Yes, yes.

Twana Holloway (55:17.986)
Yeah, it is, it is.

Twana Holloway (55:27.831)
Fun fact.

Anthony Codispoti (55:30.465)
Something interesting.

Twana Holloway (55:32.843)
Mm -mm.

Gosh. I’m a pretty open book. can’t say most people, but I’m trying to think of something, a fun fact that most people wouldn’t know about.

Anthony Codispoti (55:45.387)
What would I find interesting about you that I haven’t already found out here today?

Twana Holloway (55:48.203)
as an air traffic controller, I had the opportunity to, repel and jump out of a helicopter. I didn’t like it. Yeah. I know it, it wasn’t part of my job, but I did do some support in detail at jump school and I was one of the lucky ones. Lucky they got a chance to do that. it’s an experience. I will say that.

Anthony Codispoti (56:00.993)
jump out of a helicopter. I didn’t realize that was things people did.

Anthony Codispoti (56:20.929)
Now, sorry, jumping out of a helicopter, are you wearing a parachute? Because you’ve got like the, is that right? Okay, because you’ve got the wind sort of like pushing down from the, okay.

Twana Holloway (56:21.088)
I think that.

Twana Holloway (56:24.73)
huh. Yeah. Absolute. Yeah. A parachute. So we all parachuted out. I was lucky. was… I want to say it was fun way afterwards. Like I can laugh about it now, but at the time I was… couldn’t… God bless me. I was crying. I was that person. So… But I did it. I did it. I can say that. And I was blessed to say that I did it.

Anthony Codispoti (56:51.319)
Good for you.

Twana Holloway (56:54.422)
Let’s see. I mean, like I said, I’m a pretty open book. I love dad jokes. I think they’re funny. I’m corny that way. But again, my ladies know this. Another thing is I love to sing and dance. It’s my favorite thing. I don’t know why I can go into a classroom. I can make up a song on the fly with the kids in the classroom. If I need them to do something, if I’m about to do something, it’s

Anthony Codispoti (56:57.869)
Okay.

Okay.

Anthony Codispoti (57:05.037)
you

Anthony Codispoti (57:12.653)
Okay.

Twana Holloway (57:23.552)
Just my favorite thing to do is to sing and dance with the kids. So, no, I don’t have any kid songs. I do have a favorite song though. And I was taught this song a long time ago and it’s about the butterfly and it’s the fuzzy caterpillar. He wiggled up the tree. He wiggled short, he wiggled long. He wiggled back at me. I put him in a box and don’t go away I said. But when I opened up the box, he was a butterfly instead.

Anthony Codispoti (57:26.807)
Can we get a little impromptu performance here today?

Twana Holloway (57:51.466)
I know I could not make one, not even if I tried, because only God in heaven could make a butterfly. And that is my favorite song. And I’ve sang it to all of my children, and I’ve sang it to all of my grandbabies. And I love it. It is my favorite song to sing to them. Hello. Thank you.

Anthony Codispoti (58:06.165)
Well, thank you for sharing that with me and the rest of the audience today. I enjoyed that very much. Tawana, any specific books or mentors, podcasts, other experiences that have been helpful in kind of shaping you and your…

Twana Holloway (58:21.408)
You know what? It’s funny. It’s not a lot of books or podcasts that I do. I really don’t. One of the things that shaped me is just people. It’s other teachers. It’s other leadership members. It’s anybody, anybody who’s in a position where it’s something that I don’t know. I want to hear from them. I think from it’s people that I want to learn from. I would love to be one of those people who likes to read a lot. And the things that I’ve read prior in early childhood.

It’s things that we kind of learn as we go in there. And it’s like those little advices, but when it comes to the deeper stuff, the interpersonal things, those are my favorite things to learn from people who are actually in it. And it doesn’t even have to be childcare. It could be in the medical field. It can be just the person on the street. I remember I met this lady when I was pregnant with my oldest daughter. And one thing that I’ve learned, she said,

She asked me, she said, is this your first child? And I said, yes. And she goes, the one piece of advice that I could give you is you’re going to be repeating yourself for the rest of their lives. And then I didn’t know that. And now, my God. And my daughter, again, my oldest daughter is going to be 30. And I’m still saying the same thing. And that’s like, if I could find this lady right now, it’s the best piece of advice.

that you just be prepared. You’re going to be repeating yourself all the time as a parent. And then you can say, I thought we talked about that. And they will say, I don’t remember this. Same thing I do with my brother, my sister, my cousins. And I was like, this lady said this. And I remember. But I think that was my favorite piece of advice because it still holds true. And I’ll now give it to every parent. Just understand you’re going to be repeating yourself for the rest of their lives.

Anthony Codispoti (59:50.135)
Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (59:58.284)
Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (01:00:12.749)
Well, that was a good reminder for me to hear again today. Yeah, I feel like, especially in our morning routines and our bedtime routines, I feel like I am saying the same thing 10 times every morning, every evening. And so it’s not unusual. My kids aren’t broken. I’m not broken. This is just human nature. So, yeah.

Twana Holloway (01:00:20.907)
Absolutely.

same thing.

Exactly. It’s the same thing.

Twana Holloway (01:00:31.852)
Nope, it is just human nature. And you can’t get mad about it, because now that I’ve given this advice, now you know. I hope I don’t have to tell it to you again. It is what it is. Like, OK, let’s move on. I’ll tell you again.

Anthony Codispoti (01:00:46.317)
Tuan, I just have one more question for you today, but before I ask it, I wanna do two things. First of all, if you’re listening today and you like today’s content, please hit the subscribe, like, or share button on your favorite podcast app. Tuan, I also wanna tell people the best way to get in touch with you, what would that be?

Twana Holloway (01:00:48.148)
Of course.

Twana Holloway (01:00:55.052)
Absolutely.

Twana Holloway (01:01:02.082)
So I am here every day at the school. My schedule varies, but if you want to get in touch with me, you can call our school, Premier School of Prestonwood at 469 -791 -9131. And my email address is director at primroseprestonwood .com.

Anthony Codispoti (01:01:21.255)
And the website is primrosechools .com slash schools slash Prestonwood. Okay, last question for you, Tawana. I’m curious, how do you see the childcare industry evolving in the next few years? What do you think the big changes are?

Twana Holloway (01:01:24.438)
Yes. Yes.

Twana Holloway (01:01:37.012)
You know what? I will say I think a change that I would like to see, because one of the things that’s happening is we see a lot of grandparents come in. I would love to see older teachers coming in. I would love to see more parents being involved in child care and not just the aspect of what is my child doing in child care. I would love for them to come into the classrooms just to see what that’s like for teachers in the classroom, because I think that

Although parenting is a job within itself, I think parents having the understanding of what teachers go through with multiple children, their child’s age, to be able to see that. And I think childcare should open it up for parents to be able to experience those things too. I think it works better when we all understand each other’s job. I think where teachers can understand what parents are dealing with, I want parents to be able to have advice. I would love for there to be…

a connection between parenting and teaching that’s not just the basic communication, hey, your child did this today, or my child didn’t sleep well last night. I would love more of this, more hands -on communication, more hands -on interaction with parents and teachers to where it’s an understand goal that we are bringing this child up together and the way we do it together. Yeah, I want it to look like where, let’s see.

Anthony Codispoti (01:02:58.977)
What do you think that could look like?

Twana Holloway (01:03:04.63)
The best way I can say it, if the parents are in the classroom, hey, it’s your day. Come on in. How about you come do this Wonder Time with us today? It’s your day. You get to see what this looks like. That interaction, that’s what I want to see. I want to see more parents doing that involvement. Hey, why don’t you go do small group math with these pre -K friends? That’s your day today. And having parents volunteer more. I think it’s easy for parents to want it and not see how it’s actually happening.

And I would really like for them to see how it actually happens.

Anthony Codispoti (01:03:33.634)
Hmm.

I think that’s a great idea. there any chance of trying to implement this like on a pilot program or? Okay. All right. We’ll have him watch at least the very end of this episode. it’s planting that seed in his mind. Well, Tawana, I want to thank you for being such a wonderful guest today. I really appreciate you sharing your time and story today.

Twana Holloway (01:03:41.29)
Let me talk to Dr. Wrigley, see what he says. Yeah.

Absolutely.

Twana Holloway (01:03:54.216)
Thank you. Awesome. Thank you so much for inviting me.

Anthony Codispoti (01:03:59.297)
Folks, that’s a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories Podcast. Thanks for learning with us today.