The Lord’s Army offers childcare and early childhood development

New early childhood development center, The Lord’s Army, is now open in Weiser, providing daycare and preschool.
 Owner, Renea Crandall, is hopeful that her new business will fulfill a crucial need for Weiser families.
 Crandall came up with the idea to start a child care facility years ago when her own children were little. Crandall started working at a child care center while expecting her daughter, Katie, in 1992. While she loved the job, she couldn’t start her own center at that time due to a lack of funds.
 While there, Crandall took an early childhood development class at Boise State University. Later, while her children were younger and in school, Crandall did in-home child care for six years and loved it. She continued her education, taking psychology and early childhood psychology at College of Western Idaho in 2010.
 Recently, when her adult children fell on hard times, Crandall found herself trying to help them find a safe place for her grandkids. After realizing there were not many day cares with available openings, Crandall decided to be the solution she sought. As she began planning, she remembered her vision from years ago, and both her goals and passion for creating the best establishment she could began to grow.
 Crandall said the name of the center “The Lord’s Army” was inspired by the scripture in Ephesians chapter 6, verses 9-13, which talks about putting on the full armour of God so we may be able to stand when times are tough and to protect us from harm.
 “I feel that recently God has been taken out of our educational system, and I pray this will be that opportunity to bring Him back, to give the kids a hope for the future and the knowledge that they are not alone,” she said.
 Crandall will incorporate non-denominational Christian teachings into the lesson plans and activities for the children. She has a background in some religious-based instruction after graduating from Impact Bible School in Nampa, Idaho in 2003 at Harvest Life Church. The daily activities will include morning prayer, learning basic Bible stories and some history of the word of God.
 The preschool will follow the Reggio Emilio curriculum. The idea behind the Reggio Emilio philosophy is to have the children design their own curriculum based on what they are interested in and the questions they have throughout the day. The goal is to foster life long learners and teach them to use critical thinking to spark their education.
 Crandall’s goal in this is to make an impact on the children of our community by helping to raise very smart and critical thinking future Wolverines. She wants children to have an awareness in their hearts and minds that there is a God, that He loves us and that He is here to help in time of need.
 Crandall hopes that the new location, at 190 E. Main Street, will be convenient for parents. She also has goals of being a 24-hour facility, so that she can help parents no matter what hours they need to work and have care available for their children.
 “I look forward to being able to help the community with their child care very soon,” Crandall said.