Humble Beginnings

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Before the thought of establishing a school, or even a home daycare  became a prospect, it was a routine trip to auntie’s house that sparked it all. At first, the term “A Special Place” was merely a term that nieces, nephews and eventually grandchildren within the family would use when visiting Tanya Ferguson’s home. Soon after, though, came the process of building something much more monumental.

During the summer of 2012, Ferguson elected to begin running her own home childcare business. Guided by its extensive focus on educating children and relationship building, parents would frequently request homeschooling as an alternative to public schooling. Ferguson would use these requests as motivation to establish ASP2 (A Special Place 2) STEAM Academy.

“It started to grow faster than I anticipated,” Ferguson said. “We wanted to make an extension of the existing childcare business.” Ferguson shared the idea with other business partners, who quickly became on board with the idea.

The ASP2 schooling primarily focuses on a STEAM curriculum, which stands for: Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics. The Academy, like the home childcare program seeks to establish structure. One of the key characteristics of both establishments is found in their ability to connect the parents and children through different activities, such as conducting out-of-school events and projects that help to diversify it from the typical childcare establishment. The group will be seeking to continue that into the grand opening of the academy school.

“Before making a decision, I would urge parents to come by and see for themselves,” Ferguson said.