Kid WHYs began being developed and created at a very young age.
Jessica May, the creator and president of Kid WHYs has always been most interested in the early childhood stage, the time when the why questions are most prevalent!
She loved children and wanted to help them.
When the first daycare arrived in her hometown, she thought that she would one day open her own facility and reach as many children as she could.
By the age of 10, she was begging the neighbors to let her babysit.
She started teaching preschool Sunday School in 9th grade, which was the earliest age she was allowed.
Similarly, she started teaching swimming lessons once she was old enough to get certified.
In college, she continued working as an educator and presented lessons to high school students as part of an outreach program. She studied Psychology, where she studied development, social psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, and absorbed as much as she could about people.
In fact, she even minored in Anthropology and learned about the various cultures of the world. She was fortunate enough to participate in a great program called Semester at Sea, where she was able to travel to 10 countries while studying different cultures.
In her free time during college, she also worked as part of a sports camp over the summer and taught gymnastics. She became an orientation advisor to help educate incoming students about college.
After college, Jessica became the director of an education center. While she enjoyed working with the children, and learned a lot about business, she wanted to spend more time impacting the students, and left that job to become an elementary school teacher. While teaching, she worked in the before and after school program, led the student council program, helped the students begin a competitive cheerleading program, and worked with the summer camp. While doing all of that, she filled her free time by starting a cheerleading program for the city and taught preschool Sunday School classes at a church. While she loved teaching and would have been happy there forever, she was also starving for further development knowledge, and she left her role to earn a Master of Education degree.
As part of her graduate studies, Jessica participated in a federal research grant, traveling to childcare centers throughout the state to evaluate the centers. (What an experience that was!) While pursing her degree and working on the research grant, she also taught preschool gymnastics, worked as the childcare director of a church, and worked with Club Med in the Child Watch.
Towards the end of her program, Jessica got engaged, and moved back to California. She accepted a position as the Early Childhood Program Manager for a science museum. She really enjoyed the hands-on science opportunities, but after a while, she was ready to return to the classroom. Jessica returned to teaching and was loving every minute of it.
Again, just teaching was not a big enough challenge, so Jessica returned to school to add a Special Education teaching credential, and she did this as part of an accelerated program, which would allow her to complete the program in one year, while also teaching her class full-time.
When Jessica found out she was going to be blessed with her first child, she and her husband moved to a location that was more affordable (and more family friendly.) During that time, Jessica continued to read about early childhood, and used her children as guinea pigs in her own research questions. She also started Kid WHYs.
It has been growing and developing since her arrival to the Austin, TX area in 2006. Jessica and the Kid WHYs staff are passionate about helping children and their parents in the community and around the world. If there is anything we can do to help, please feel free to contact us.
Check out the information we have to offer. We love to hear from you and feel free to ask WHY, here.
We are honored that you are here trying to become Kid WHYs with us!
We look forward to becoming Kid WHYs with you -whether we are privileged enough to meet you in person or if we just hear from you on the blog!
