Dear Families,
We are so happy you have found our website!
My name is Irina Faulise. I am the owner and the director of Sunflower Bilingual Daycare. Our Early Learning center is a bilingual center where we offer a Russian-English program. Our children come from many different backgrounds - from Russian only speaking families, from families where Russian language is present or dominant (many countries of the former USSR - Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, Lithuania, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, etc.), from mixed Russian speaking - American families speaking both languages, and from English-only families.
Prior to becoming the owner, I was the parent of this center for almost 6 years. I remember there was a time in my life when I was frantically looking for the daycare for my 4 months old, as I was planning to go back to work. My husband and I were very happy to have found a bilingual childcare center that would foster the development of both Russian and English languages. The bilingual program has been and will always be the most important factor why we chose this center as parents. My husband and I loved Sunflower so much we were thrilled about the opportunity to purchase the center.
I am a licensed ELL/ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher, and I do understand very well what is happening in the mind of a child learning simultaneously 2 or 3 languages. I worked in Lakeville school district as a substitute teacher for 2 years and in Aspen Academy, which is a wonderful charter school in Savage, MN for 5+ years. My last 2 years at Aspen Academy I was also a Peer Instructional Coach, helping my newer Aspen colleagues in the areas of classroom instruction and behavior management. I spend many hours training our staff positive behavior management techniques.
Our great staff and I have a lot of knowledge and energy to invest into Sunflower Bilingual Daycare to continue providing the quality bilingual childcare experience. Almost all our staff have the actual teaching degrees from the former USSR. I know all MN Kindergarten standards and will personally ensure that our preschoolers are ready for Kindergarten!
Lastly, I have the certification of a Professional Food Manager and we follow all USDA guidelines to serve only healthy foods to our children.
Please contact me to stop by for a tour and I will be happy to show you our daycare facility and answer all your questions!
Irina Faulise
952-297-7226