The Children’s Academy has two locations in Madison and next month will add a third location in Oxford.

The Children’s Academy of Oxford, a new learning center which aims to be more than a daycare, provides a Pre-K curriculum. The academy will be located at 415 Galleria Drive, the previous location of Mother Goose of Oxford daycare that shut down earlier this year.

Andrea Criddle has run the first two original locations, The Children’s Academy of Madison and Children’s Academy of Madison Two, for the past 16 years. A lover of Ole Miss, she along with her husband have been eyeing an Oxford location as their next expansion.

The Academy offers a curriculum for one year-olds (12 to 24 months) called My First Curriculum and another one for two year-olds (24 to 36 months) called Love to Learn Curriculum.  Each curriculum caters to the the child’s level of learning and helping them adapt to challenges and creating relationships between them and the teachers.

“We’re a preschool. We’re not a babysit service,” Criddle said. “We’re a teaching environment. We even have curriculums for our infants all the way up to the Pre-K level. We do a vigorous curriculum so they are constantly learning the entire time they’re there.”

In December of last year, a teacher was arrested and charged in connection to an infant’s death that occurred from suffocating at the Mother Goose location. In May, a wrongful death lawsuit was filed against the owners of Mother Goose as well as the teacher. The daycare closed in the spring.

With the building on the market for only a couple of months, Criddle secured it for their Oxford expansion. She also wants potential parents who might consider their learning center to understand they are not connected with the former proprietors of the location.

“We threw everything away. We’re starting brand new,” Criddle said. “We’re having it renovated as we speak. Brand new floors, brand new walls and brand new everything.”

Along with offering full day instruction Monday through Friday, Criddle said they will also be open for Ole Miss football home game days.

Criddle anticipates the renovations to be completed this month and to open by Sept. 13. For more information, parents can visit thechildrensacademyofoxford.com or call 662-871-6255.