Ames preschool and school-age children will be exploring the world as their own backyard this summer through a program at the ISU Child Care Center.

Karri Kerns, director of the center, said the program will focus on the theme, “Our World, Our Backyard.”

The program is designed to be a camp-like atmosphere for school-age children, Kerns said, and will include various outdoor experiences.

This will be the first summer the ISU Child Care Center has been open.

The center opened in fall 1997 and currently serves about 30 preschool and school-age children, Kerns said.

Kerns said summer enrollment is hard to estimate, but that the program would accept about 20 school-age children and 25 preschoolers. Kerns said there is a need for summer child care.

“When the kids are out of school, their parents are always looking for care for their children,” she said. “All of the sudden, they have full days that they need to keep full.”

Enrollment at the center is divided, with 60 percent of the spots designated for children of students and 40 percent for faculty children. Kerns said predicting whether that ratio will change over the summer is difficult.

“My thought is that when people have school-age children, they’re probably not going to move away [for the summer],” Kerns said.

Eileen Sotak, junior in elementary education, said her 3-year-old daughter is enrolled at the center and will most likely participate in the summer program.

“I’ll be in summer school in the summer, and she’ll have a new sibling, and they’ll both be going there,” Sotak said. “She’ll probably be there longer than the infant, simply because it’s a routine.”

The structure and educational background the program provides has made it one of the best, Sotak said.

“Being in education, I see a lot of things that people might not,” she said. “There’s lots of useable equipment for preschool-age children, and they play twice a day outside.”

Sotak said she is a full-time student and her husband works full time.

Her daughter typically spends six to seven hours each day at the child care center and will probably follow a similar routine in the summer.

“We treat it more like a school for her because of her age,” Sotak said.

Kerns said the curriculum for the summer program is in the planning stage, but one of the goals is to keep the children busy.

“We plan to have lots of activities, but also while the children are there, they will be learning different things,” she said.

Kerns said part of the registration cost for the program will be used to purchase backpacks filled with supplies for the children’s field trips, including caps and sunglasses.

Sotak said she has enjoyed the ISU Child Care Center because it has given her daughter a chance not only to learn, but also to enjoy herself.

“Everything about it is fun,” Sotak said. “I just want her to have a good time — it’s summer, for crying out loud.”