Post Author
Emily Blevins
Communications Director
After more than 20 years working in the banking industry, Annette Anderson-Samuels followed her passion and opened Phenomenal Kids Child Care Services, LLC in Kings Mountain, North Carolina. “Although I loved my work at the bank and I loved the people I worked with, I had adopted two toddlers and I wanted to be closer to home,” she said. “Everything started falling into place so quickly, and in 2017 I had my first student enrolled under my temporary operator license.”
Annette’s passion for early childhood education started when she was a child. “The way my kindergarten teacher cared for all of her students really inspired me—she made me want to be a teacher, though I didn’t follow that path until later in my life,” said Annette. “And in rural Cleveland County, there was a great need for child care, and especially family child care, as so many were getting out of the business due to burnout.”
As a child care provider and business owner, but also a parent and family caregiver herself, Annette has worked to find ways to effectively manage all the different roles in her life. “I recently hired someone who has all the health and safety qualifications needed to be a substitute. She comes to my program when I have medical appointments for myself, my children, and my mother who has been diagnosed with dementia,” she said. “Until now, making appointments was tough. I had to close early, open late, or be closed an entire day, which was a big inconvenience for everyone.”
One of Annette’s favorite parts about being a child care professional is watching children learn and grow before her eyes—and hearing stories about the children’s successes when they have left her program and are attending Pre-K or kindergarten. “I had a student who loved to stack blocks and build things, and his mother told me that he recently won the ‘architect award’ in his kindergarten class for the things he builds,” she said. Annette also had a parent message her about how her son who is now in kindergarten and is reading at a 2nd grade level—and she attributes her son’s success to what he learned when he was at Phenomenal Kids.
Something I heard long ago was that “if you don’t tell your story, someone else will, and they will get it wrong.” This phrase has stuck with me, and I’ve made it a point to ask those I meet to tell me what it is that people are getting wrong. When I asked Annette what people get wrong about the child care industry, she said that most people talk about child care providers as if they are babysitters.
“We don’t ‘watch’ kids,” she said. “We’re educators—and as early educators, we monitor our little students to ensure they are on the appropriate developmental track for their age level.”
The foundational structure and support that early education provides children is critical to their short- and long-term success, but for Annette, it’s important that this support is inclusive of children who have different needs and abilities. “I have a student who is nonverbal and started with me part-time,” she said. “She’s enrolled full time now and she’s started saying a few words. All the students in the program are learning letters and words in American Sign Language (ASL) and we make it into a game, and it’s been very helpful for her as she’s learning and connecting with her classmates.”
For Annette, Phenomenal Kids is her dream come true. “My love for children and the joy I receive from watching their enthusiasm when they learn something new is what keeps me loving my career,” she said. “I love being a child care provider for early education.”