All Learning Begins with Connection
By: Julie Kirchner
Talking about building connections is a love of Jonnah Buchanan’s. “Truly, all learning begins with connection,” she enlightens. Jonnah is the executive director of Launch Learning Preschool, an innovative new nonprofit in Merritt Island, Florida, offering a unique whole-family education framework designed to strengthen families in raising happy, healthy humans.
“We know from brain research that connections on the outside—like when we physically connect with someone face-to-face—literally build the connections in the wiring of our brains,” explains Jonnah.
Brain-based research is at the heart of Launch Learning’s program design, including their monthly Parent Connect education classes for parents. “That’s why, from the beginning of the day, we get down eye-to-eye with our kids, and we are intentionally doing fun hand games and greetings with them . . . it’s because that first immediate connection with them actually helps strengthen the neural connections within their brains,” Jonnah says. These kinds of connections form a strong foundation for early childhood brain development and help build cooperation, impulse control, and other social-emotional skills like empathy.
For Florida’s Space Coast (home to the Kennedy Space Center), it’s probably totally appropriate for a preschool to sound like rocket science. This preschool has some serious local roots, too. Launch Learning is a legacy program modeled after the Eastern Florida State College (EFSC) Lab School founded in 1967, a program that served more than 7,500 children and 14,000 parents over 55 years. During the pandemic, the EFSC Lab School program closed, and a new opportunity came to light.
For Jonnah and her husband, Jimmy, the whole dream of Launch Learning started because of the transformative effect that Lab School had on their family. The couple participated as new parents in the Lab School program, an experience Jonnah shares about enthusiastically: “It truly was such a dynamic program, and I saw this shift in the way that we parented, the way that we connected with one other, and the way that we did life—it was more playful and fun. We felt more confident in modeling for our kids the different social-emotional aspects of growth. That’s truly what ignited this dream. It was because I got changed. My parenting shifted. And I was like, I want so many people to learn what I just learned.”
“That’s truly what ignited this dream. It was because I got changed. My parenting shifted. And I was like, I want so many people to learn what I just learned.” – Jonnah Buchanan
Jonnah’s mother-in-law, Dr. Gail Buchanan, was the former, longtime director of the EFSC Lab School until her passing five years ago. “Something she had always wanted was for this incredible community asset to be self-sustaining and to continue to impact young families in Brevard. Jimmy wanted to be able to continue and carry the torch for his mom. So, the dream is twofold. We want to honor Mom and also this awesome dream that has now ignited in us because of the transformative impact that it [Lab School] had on our family,” she says.
In 2020, Jimmy and Jonnah purchased a property in Merritt Island and began development on what would become the site of the brand-new Launch Learning facility as it stands today. This month, Launch Learning opened its doors to families for the first school year of in-person classes as a standalone nonprofit separate from the Lab School. Launch Learning offers educational programs for children ages six weeks to five years old and emphasizes play-based learning, social and emotional development, parent education, and community involvement.
“Great parents are made, not born,” Jonnah encourages, “because you’re learning and gaining skills and educating yourself and finding out what’s best for you and your family.” Jonnah hopes to inspire parents to believe in themselves and to educate themselves on what they can do to have a more meaningful, connected relationship with their kids.
Jonnah tells about Launch Learning, “We’re being intentional with our connections with our children and our parents, helping to educate them and model for them the skills to help them build confidence and connection and impact the community in a positive way.”
To learn more and get involved, visit 321LAUNCH.org. Launch Learning welcomes community members to share their talents by helping to build a garden or a deck for the nature space, reading to kids, or partnering financially to provide scholarships for local children to be able to participate in Launch Learning programs.
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