DAY CARE MAKES THE GRADE : PARENTS LOOK TO GROWING CENTERS AS WAY OF GIVING KIDS A JUMP ON EDUCATION.

Byline: Sherry Joe Crosby Daily News Staff Writer

Marianna Wallasch smiled as she watched her 2-year-old son Tyler scamper about a colorful playroom equipped with blocks, stuffed animals and two video cameras.

Standard features at Tutor Time Child Care Learning Center, the cameras ease the worries of working moms like Wallasch.

``I feel he's in a safe environment,'' said the Acton mother who drives a half-hour one way to drop off the youngest of her three children at the Valencia center.

Commercial day-care centers such as KinderCare Learning Center, LaPetite Academy and Tutor Time are finding a niche among Santa Clarita parents who want a head start for their offspring. The centers offer everything from lessons in computers and social science to reading and math.

``We provide an environment where children are free to explore and create,'' said Bobbie Lehman, director of Tutor Time. Parents ``like the fact that we individualize care for children and we provide an academic setting.''

But family day-care operators, who care for the vast majority of children, said bigger isn't necessarily better. They said children in their care receive more attention and thrive in a homelike environment.

``A lot of people realize kids get more special attention,'' said Cindy Louthan, a licensed day-care operator who cares for infants through 5-year-olds in her Canyon Country home.

Operators of chain day-care centers, such as LaPetite Academy, said they have dramatically transformed the child-care industry for the better. As more and more women join the work force and standards of living increase, the demand for quality day care has risen.

``We have brought it to a level of professionalism that didn't exist in the past,'' said Jim Kahl, chief executive officer of LaPetite Academy, a Kansas City-based child-care provider that has 770 facilities throughout the United States, including two in Santa Clarita.

``What we do with staff, training them to work with parents and children . . . it's a whole spectrum of programs to get them ready for school,'' Kahl said.

At Tutor Time, children learn the alphabet, numbers and shapes using everything from computers to old-fashioned blocks. The center also has a library and a pint-size village featuring a house, a post office and a fire station.

Parents and children alike seem to enjoy the center.

``It was so gorgeous,'' Valencia resident Helene Sachs said of Tutor Time where her 4-year-old daughter Robin is enrolled. ``My child stayed in the village for 2-1/2 hours. I couldn't drag her away.''

Wallasch said she likes the center because it accepts children who are not yet potty trained, a requirement at other day-care centers.

``It's the best option for kids who are not potty trained,'' she said.

Tutor Time enrolls children ages 6 weeks to 6 years old. Children with special needs also are accepted, said owner Wafa Haddad as long as teachers can continue to pay attention to the rest of the children. In the infant-care room, for example, teachers watched over a 4-month-old boy with a brain shunt.

``Here there's a school where there's a lot of people to watch over (the children),'' said Sharyn Vilensky, assistant director and head of the infant-toddler program at Tutor Time.

To care for children with special needs, Tutor Time keeps classes small. Classroom ratios dictate one teacher for every four infants or toddlers, one teacher for nine 2-year-olds and one instructor for 12 preschoolers.

Full-time care for infants and toddlers at the center cost $150 a week. Full-time care for 2- and 3-year-olds costs about $120 a week and $105 a week for 3- to 5-year-olds.

Family day care costs slightly less. Weekly rates for infants average $125 a week while those for preschoolers average $100 a week, Louthan said. And parents get more for their money, she said.

``Why spend an arm and a leg to send them to preschool,'' said Louthan who also reviews the alphabet, numbers, shapes and colors with her youngsters. She said preschools, such as Tutor Time and KinderCare, appeal to parents trying to keep up with the Joneses.

``It's a status thing,'' she said. ``Parents want to say they send their kids to LaPetite or to KinderCare.''

Tim Salmon of Valencia, said he enrolled his 3-year-old daughter Randi in Tutor Time because he was impressed with the staff. Lehman used to watch his daughter at another Santa Clarita preschool.

``It's like `Oh my God, oh my God, where do I sign up?' '' he said after learning that Lehman was leaving to oversee Tutor Time. Salmon said his daughter is impressed with the center, too.

``She likes everything,'' he said, noting that Randi has developed an aptitude for computers. ``She comes home from school and wants to get on the computer.''

Haddad said Santa Clarita has enough room for both large and small day-care centers: ``There's more than enough children to fill up all the preschools in the valley.''

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2 Photos

Photo: (1--color in SAC only) Loretta Dodson gives fourstudents a ride at Tutor Time Child Care Learning Center in Valencia, which introduces kids to computers and the alphabet.

(2--color in SAC only) Tutor Time Director Bobbi Lehman, takes time to get to know two of her students.

Tom Mendoza/Daily News