Our Mission

At Living Word Early Childhood Center we provide a safe, christian, developmentally appropriate environment that nurtures children’s curiosity to grow spiritually, socially, emotionally, physically and cognitively through a play based curriculum.

Living Word Early Childhood Center provides rich and exciting experiences for your child every day. Throughout the school year teachers use their knowledge of  child development and the individual children’s interests to help them design thematic units to study with the children. It is through hands on experiences, interactive opportunities, and an abundance of different materials that the teachers are able to help children learn and grow in all areas of development. The foundations for their social skills, self-esteem, perception of the world and moral outlook are established during these early years, as well as the development of cognitive skills.

We provide hands-on activities for fine motor skill growth, such as cutting with scissors, drawing, painting, play dough and writing centers. Preschool wouldn’t be preschool without open ended art activities with a variety of mediums – paint, dough, nature objects, etc.

Gross motor skills are encouraged through outdoor playground time, indoor playtime and throughout the day in the classroom with stretching, dancing, and other movement activities.

The whole child is nurtured with music and motion and science experiments to engage exploration and problem-solving.

Our staff of experienced and caring teachers encourage and inspire children’s natural excitement for exploring, discovering and learning. They implement developmentally-appropriate curriculum to enhance social, emotional, physical, cognitive, and spiritual growth. We help children see themselves as competent individuals and develop into life-long learners.

Living Word ECC graduates enter kindergarten with the skills and the confidence necessary for success and a love of learning.

We are an outreach ministry of Living Word Church, dedicated to providing social and educational opportunities for children, ages 15 months to 6 years of age.

Our Staff

Becky Miller

Director of Early Childhood Center

bmiller@livingwordumc.org – 636-821-2860

Becky graduated from Webster University with a degree in Early Childhood Education with an emphasis in Special Education. She worked for a non-profit agency in an inclusive 2 year old classroom and then a 3-5 year old classroom while also providing developmental therapy in the community through Missouri’s First Steps program. She also ran a program called Sibshops for the siblings of children with special needs and later owned and operated her own childcare business out of her home while her three boys were growing from infants to preschoolers. Two of her three boys attended Living Word Early Childhood Center (LWECC) for preschool and she taught at LWECC in different capacities since 2014. Her passion is working with children and families to help all children learn, grow and play together in order to become important and valued members of our society. Becky, her husband Jeremiah, and their three boys live in Wildwood.

Jessica Smithson

Early Childhood Center Assistant Director

Jessica grew up in Mississippi and Tennessee and moved to the St. Louis area in 1999. Her family joined Living Word in 2000. Her husband, Jeff, works for Sams Club . They have three children: Ryan, Reagan and Reid. Jessica joined the staff of Living Word ECC in July 2006. If she had free time she would enjoy reading and scrapbooking!!