How 1Core made The Little Mud Puddles Learning Center a Success!
My dream of opening a Quality Childcare Center began on June 9, 1986. My vision was for all children to receive the highest quality early education that would prepare them for kindergarten and lay strong foundations for the love of learning in their educational journey. We are proud of igniting the love of learning for 40 years.
Posted on:
July 31, 2025
The Little Mud Puddles mission is to provide a safe, clean, loving supportive environment that promotes education, diversity, and learning through play. The Little Mud Puddles Learning Center creates a unique setting where children, ages 2-5, discover their own individualism to set a successful foundation for the next stage in their lives. We value our family’s culture; English is our primary language at our school, but we support the home language in many ways, and we promote keeping their home language strong. We believe that the process of doing an activity is a key component for children to learn. We respect children for their unique, individual qualities while establishing and maintaining a love for learning. We are committed to Quality to include making a strong supportive connection with our families, so that we share a mutual respect and understanding with the wellbeing and development to help their child succeed by combining the strengths of family and school. The Little Mud Puddles is a participant of Alameda County Quality Counts which serves families that speak several languages. Currently, we have over 75 percent of our children who are (Multilingual learners).
In 1985 while our school was being built, I decided to belong to a state organization in California (Professional Association for Childhood Education), where I would meet other childcare professionals and educators which gave me many resources and opportunities to help me run my childcare center more efficiently. It wasn’t until 20 years later when I was introduced to Simon Ho, who was the founder of OnCare, now 1Core solutions that I received the best Center management System which has continued to keep The Little Mud Puddles successful by providing continued services to the growing industry of Early Care for Education.
What made 1Core solutions stand out more than other center management systems was that 1Core was the first Childcare Family management system that was cloud-based, which gave me such a safe feeling knowing that I would not lose any information that was inputted regarding children, staff, tuition, or any other information. I loved the flexibility of using 1Core; it gave me an option to work from my home office or anywhere in the world. What made it even better was that The Little Mud Puddles website was created around the needs and services for my family and program which made it easier to access. For example, families can go online and make tuition payments so that they do not have to write a check and my team of staff members can go on our website and click and get the information that they need. This option keeps everything current, and payments paid on time. What made it even nicer was that we can e-mail and text our families when we need to communicate. This keeps our connection consistent with our families and staff and keeps our children safe when there is an emergency.
When I have colleagues ask me why I have been successful, especially during the pass few years in being in business. I always share with them that this is changing times and as a business owner you need to be flexible and adaptable with what is currently going on with the childcare industry, especially with communication and outreach with our families. I share with them that I give credit to 1Core management solution for providing me with a simplify center management way of saving me time so that I can give more time to our children, families, staff, and my program.
Thank you 1Core Team for making this possible for me.
1Core Solution is a comprehensive childcare management platform built to support the daily needs of childcare centers and early education providers. With tools for online billing, parent engagement, admissions, attendance, lesson planning, and staff management, 1Core brings your center’s operations into one centralized, easy-to-use system. Designed with both educators and administrators in mind, 1Core helps reduce manual tasks, improve communication, and enhance the experience for families and staff alike. Backed by dependable support and strong data security, 1Core gives you the freedom to focus less on paperwork and more on creating meaningful moments with the children in your care.
Darlene Johnston
Director/Founder | The Little Mud Puddles
Darlene Johnston is the President, Founder, and Director of The Little Mud Puddles Learning Center in Fremont, California, with over four decades of experience in early childhood education.
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