Mercer Island’s newest child care center is ready to make its community debut.

Bright Horizons, the Island’s new early education and preschool center, will host its grand opening at 10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 16. Located at 9555 S.E. 36th St., the day care center serves children ages six weeks to five years old, and has the capacity for just under 200 youths.

The grand opening will feature a ribbon-cutting ceremony, children’s activities, face-painting and a musical performance by Recess Monkey.

Center director Analia Galloway said she is thrilled to introduce the community to Bright Horizons, which has 25 locations in the Seattle-area, including centers in Redmond and Bellevue.

“We really just wanted to continue to grow in the Eastside area and felt there was a need,” she said. “Obviously, there are other preschools and centers in the area, but we felt that we could make an impact on the community.”

Bright Horizons had a soft opening on Nov. 2, initially serving 31 students. The new location includes a kindergarten prep classroom, a ’Movement Matters’ room with a rock-climbing wall, and an enrichment room with a STEM lab and art studio. Staff and faculty will be on hand to meet parents, and a station will be set up providing enrollment materials and curriculum guides.

It is the curriculum that sets Bright Horizons apart, Galloway said. With its own educational program called ‘The World at Their Fingertips,’ teachers use their observations to help adapt and tailer lesson plans to children’s needs, aiming to use a child’s own interests to inspire learning.

“We’re big believers in emergent curriculum,” she said. “It makes learning more fun for the kids. They’re more apt to want to learn and grow, so we do an emergent kind of weaving in what they’re interested in with their learning development.”

For more, visit www.brighthorizons.com/mercerisland.

The ‘Movement Matters Zone’ at Bright Horizons includes a rock-climbing wall for youngsters.