Jennifer Horner has always been surrounded by children.
While working at Indianola Academy as a third grade teacher and eventually the elementary librarian, Horner taught and directed young minds.
These days, she’s taking even younger minds and helping guide, direct and care for them as director of the Indianola First Methodist Church Day School.
The Indianola native, IA and MDCC alum, graduated from Delta State University and attained her master’s in education from DSU as well.
“I went to IA from kindergarten through my senior year and I actually went back and I've been teaching at Indianola Academy for the past 20 years. I wore a lot of hats. I taught kindergarten for 12 years and then was the elementary librarian for eight,” she said. “Then six months ago, I took over as the daycare director here at Indianola First Methodist. I feel like all that experience I've been able to take with me. The transition from educator to the director of the daycare has just gone so smoothly and just beautifully. I was administrator of the accelerated reader program, and just working with children and parents and staff, there's really nothing more valuable than experience and loving what you do.”
Being a teacher for two decades, she had hundreds of students, many of whom she still gets to see as they are coming back around with their own children.
“I do absolutely have children that I taught in kindergarten and now I have their children. And it's just a really cool circle. My kiddos at IA, they still come visit me. They know that I will love them and support them forever. And they still visit. They come by the house and I go visit them. But it's really been cool to have a whole new set of children to just fall in love with and I love getting to know all of these children.”
She explained her days are never alike.
“Every day is different, and it's one of those things where anytime you're working with children, there's a thousand moving parts. It just takes a balance between having everything work together almost like a puzzle daily.”
The daycare has a staff of 20 and takes care of 50 children. The daycare constantly has a waiting list but Horner is always taking applications.
“We purposely over-staff so that our rooms have a low child-to-staff ratio. This helps support the importance we put on the safety and security of our children,” she said. “One of our biggest things is safety. I'm making sure that the child, your child, is safe and has a loving, caring environment. It's okay if you get irritated at me. I have a rule where if people just knock on the door, we don't just open the door. Our system works through key fobs. Every parent has a key fob. Every staff member has a key fob that works during certain times of the day. I 100% understand if a parent forgets their key fob. But for the safety of the children, if someone knocks on the door we don’t just go open it. There's a little doorbell that they can ring, and when they ring the doorbell, it starts recording. And after I see them and recognize them, I say, ‘Absolutely, I'm coming to let you in.’”
And Horner is quick to mention that her staff makes the daycare what it is. Caitlyn Duthu serves as co-director.
“We are a team and it’s really worked well,” Horner said. “One thing I love about my job is that it’s a Christian environment. I love that we are located in a church. The other day we were walking down the hall and a two-year-old turned and said, ‘that’s where Jesus lives’ and she pointed to the sanctuary. Daycare is where children truly start learning those special skills – social and emotional development. To be able to foster that is really awesome.”
When she’s not at the daycare taking care of kids, she can be found at home with her own “kids” or fishing with her UPS delivery guy husband, Matt Horner.
“I don’t have children. I have lots of children at the daycare that I get to love on and then send back home with mom and dad at the end of the day. I’m a big animal activist and have worked with the local animal shelter dropping off food. But I have a bunny, Benjamin, Felix my dog, and I have a cat and a chicken. When I get off, I’m very much a homebody and I love on all my animals.”
“My husband is a big fisherman and I love to go fishing with him,” she said. “I also love to read and we take one big trip a year. But I really just enjoy coming home and enjoying the comforts of being a homebody.”
