Q&A with PreK3 Teacher Yahna Tucker

1. Tell us about your family! 
I’m from Austin, Texas. My husband, Peyton, is originally from Searcy, but went to high school in Oregon. We met each other at Harding University and have been married for almost 14 years. We lived in Little Rock, then Searcy, then Fayetteville, then St. Louis and then back to Little Rock. We lived in St. Louis the longest – almost eight years – and had all of our child there. We have three daughters, Mattie is 7, Lucy is 4 and Finley just turned 3.

In St. Louis we went to a church that was about 300 people. We were really involved, and pretty much knew everyone by the time we left, mainly because I got permission to start a preschool there.

2. What is the story behind the preschool in St. Louis?
I wanted a place for my kids to go, and the nearest church of Christ preschool was half an hour away. So I asked our children’s minister if anyone had ever tried to start a preschool in the building.

I always tell people I feel like I climb over the top of a slide and peeked over it, and then God just kind of pushed me down. I don’t really remember how I got from asking that question, to one month later, standing and presenting a power point to the elders with the research I had done. We spent a year getting ready, a year actually operating, and then I found out that we were moving to Little Rock, so I asked one of my teachers to take over. It’s still going strong, and she’s done an incredible job!

3. Were you excited to move back to Little Rock?
The moment Peyton found out that we were moving back to Little Rock he emailed Chad to register our children at CAC. Christian education has always been a ministry we knew we wanted to be a part of and wanted our children to experience. That was a big part of wanting to move when we did, so they could start school here.

4. What is so important about Christian education?
We feel like Christian education gives more time to prepare our kids to face the world. As a parent, it’s so comforting to know that, even if I weren’t on staff here, that if my kids were involved in something that their teachers wouldn’t just blow it off and let them continue on whatever bad path they were on. Their teachers would let me know and we could work together as a team. Being a parent is scary, and I can’t really imagine not having the confidence of knowing my kids have Christian teachers.

5. What is something you intentionally focus on in the classroom?
I try to make every unit we do have some application for our relationship to God. One of my favorite units from this past year – and it took on so much more meaning as we went through it than I thought it would – was the Life Cycles unit. We did it right before Easter, which was just how the calendar fell, but now I’ve decided we have to do it this way every year. It was so impactful because when we talk about the resurrection we were able to draw connections with caterpillars turning into butterflies – we just kept tying back to the resurrection. The renewal of life was tied together throughout our whole spring unit, really. And it’s not like we set out with the intent to teach it like that, but because both teachers are Christians, it happened organically.

6. What are some of your hobbies? What does your family do for fun?
If I have free time I’m going to be reading. I also really love to be outside. We have a big screened-in back porch and we spend a lot of time out there. Both my husband and I played basketball, so we want our kids to have at least some knowledge of how to play!