EkataCare – The Difference
What do you want for your kids? You have to work. You need a safe place for them. What are your options? If you’re in Santa Clarita, there are only a few choices.
The first and most obvious choice is to keep them at home while you work from home. This is the option that many parents chose during the pandemic. It was obviously the safest option because there was no outside contact with other people. But many parents found this option quite difficult for obvious reasons.
While online learning options were a valiant attempt by our local school systems to keep the kids in the learning loop, those clever little kiddies figured out very quickly how they could switch over to YouTube while pretending to be interested in class. This meant parents who were supposed to be working at home ended up home schooling their kids – and this is a job many of us never wanted.
The second option: you can rely on a friend. Many people have taken advantage of this community spirit during the pandemic. However, it is generally a limited time option and maybe not the best depending on our friend’s tolerance for foreign invaders.
With services opening up as Covid winds down, now parents have to go back to work. Kids need to go back to school and the third option is to choose a child care provider. In Santa Clarita there are only a few choices.
The question to ask is: How can your kids grow in a childcare environment – physically, mentally and emotionally? At Ekata Training Center, we specialize in all three domains. Most childcare programs are well constructed – and we know because many of our parents came from these other programs. Tutor Time, Sunshine, La Petite offer safe, state licensed programs. They care for the children with qualified professionals and some even offer enrichment classes of one sort or another.
The only other options are Shin’s Martial Arts right down the street from Ekata in Valencia and The One Tae Kwon Do in Castaic. Shin’s is a state licensed program, as are we, but to my knowledge, I don’t believe The One is licensed – and one must be licensed in the state of California to provide childcare.
So, what is the difference? I’m going to share with you our program and our philosophy I hope this will make clear why we are so different from our competitors.
First, all in-service days and enrichment programs are included with no additional hidden costs. Our competitors often charge extra for van pick up, drop off, in-services days, minor holidays and enrichment classes. At Ekata all of these are included in the cost. I’m sure you’ve been given a teaser rate by a bank or some other business that seems like they have a low-cost entry, but once you’re there you find out you have to pay for everything a la cart. That is not something you will find at Ekata.
Second, we offer far more than just baby-sitting. And make no mistake about it, most of our competitors while perfectly safe – offer just that – safe babysitting. If your child is going to spend a significant amount of time at a facility other than your home, don’t you want them to do something other than play with toys?
Third, physical activity. We offer a full-service fitness facility and pediatric fitness programming that accompanies our martial arts curriculum. And here’s another significant family advantage. All parents with children enrolled in our childcare program receive FREE gym memberships! Want to save money and get rid of your Gold’s or LA Fitness membership? Well, here’s an excellent option and another way you save money with Ekata.
Shin’s has a wonderful martial arts program based in Tae Kwon Do. At Ekata, we teach Bruce Lee’s art, Jeet Kune Do. This is considered the very first mixed martial art. Our kids learn kickboxing, jiujitsu, judo and self-defense.
Shin’s also has a rock wall, trampolines and zip-line. Awesome. These activities are great for kids and provides wonderful physical activity. Tae Kwon Do teaches respect, discipline, etc – many of the same things we teach at Ekata. So, what’s the difference?
This is the difference. My name is Ed Monaghan and I’m the head instructor and developer of our programs. I’ve been a professor at UCLA for nearly 30 years specializing in kinesthetic learning as related to attentional states and mindfulness-based practices. I’m a certified mindfulness facilitator for UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center and a certified Resilience Facilitator from The Heart Math Institute. I specialize in working with children diagnosed with attention deficit disorders and adults with addictive disorders and PTSD. I’ve worked with children for over 30 years in academic, recreational and research environments. I’m also an 8th degree black belt and hold 7 other black belt/instructor certifications and multiple certifications based in exercise science.
Our assistant director, Adam Ibarra is completing his degree in early childhood development and is a longtime mindfulness practitioner and has trained under me directly for 2 years.
All of our programs are specifically designed to help your child improve physically, mentally and emotionally. Our martial arts curriculum incorporates cognitive learning therapies in order to improve attentiveness and self-regulation. Our childcare program, EkataCare is specifically designed to incorporate social/emotional learning in free play and structured activities so kids learn how to communicate and process their emotions in a healthy, non-confrontational manner. It teaches kids how do have empathy and compassion for other beings while also giving them the tools to be strong and confident. This is the yin/yang balance spoken of in eastern philosophy. We need our kids to be able to stand up for themselves; to protect themselves with realistic, proven, practical martial arts training but also develop a compassionate, caring mind state so self-protection is the last resort.
Our program includes learning about nature, plant life, other cultures – and life. We also have a kid-specific mindfulness program so that children learn to manage stress effectively. We’ve seen incidents of childhood stress, self-harm and even addiction skyrocket over the course of this pandemic. And it’s time to give our kids the tools they need to flourish under any circumstance.
So you tell me. What’s more important for your kids. There’s nothing wrong with babysitting. There’s nothing wrong with bouncing on a trampoline. But what skills are you going to carry into the world as an adult? Are your kids going to grow up and manage stress? How are they going to impact the people who surround them? How are they going to impact the world?
That’s the difference between Ekata Training Center and all of our competitors. Now the choice is in your hands. We only have 30 spots for school age children and 20 spots for teens. I’ll look forward to speaking with you soon.
Click here to learn more about our after school child day care programs