Owner, Director, Teacher

Trisha Dart is the proud owner and founder of Little Ones Learning Early Education. With nearly two decades of experience in early childhood education, Trisha has served in various roles including Lead Teacher, Assistant Teacher, and Natural Playground Coordinator. Her professional background includes working with children ages 1 to 5 at respected institutions such as Milestones Child Development Center and Aldersgate Center for Child Development.

Trisha holds two college degrees: one in Child Development and another in General Education. She remains committed to ongoing professional growth, completing an average of 35 hours of professional development training each year.

In addition to her work with Little Ones Learning, Trisha is actively involved in the early childhood education community. She serves on the Governing Board of the Michigan Association for the Education of Young Children (MiAEYC) and contributes her time and expertise to several committees, including the MiAEYC Advocacy Committee, the Mainspring Early Care Alliance Advisory Committee, The Michigan Childcare Provider Coalition, and the Western Childcare Region Coalition.

Outside of her professional life, Trisha enjoys spending time with her husband, Christopher, and their two daughters, Kora and Zola. Their household also includes two dogs, Shiloh and Max, and two cats, Callie and Tilly. In her free time, she loves reading fiction, camping, gardening, swimming, hosting game nights, and cheering on the Michigan Wolverines football team.

Substitute Teacher

Christine Mullennix, affectionately known as "Grandma" by the children, is the mother of Trisha Dart and a valued substitute at Little Ones Learning Early Education. Christine has been supporting the program since 2016, when she began filling in for Trisha during her pregnancy with her second child. Since then, she has continued to provide occasional support when needed.

Christine is married to her husband, Lee, and together they enjoy camping and exploring northern Michigan trails on their Yamaha side-by-side near Baldwin. They share their home with their dogs, Willow and Koa. In her free time, Christine enjoys completing jigsaw puzzles and engaging in a variety of crafting projects.

Children's Yoga Instructor and Licensed Master Social Worker

Zoe Gates comes to Little Ones Learning on a monthly basis to teach yoga. She owns Full Bloom Children's Yoga and Mindfulness. 

She is a Licensed Master Social Worker, a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional, and a children's yoga instructor. She lives in Grand Rapids, MI with her two incredible children; a five-year-old daughter and a two-year-old son and her husband. She worked in foster care as a children's therapist from 2011-2017. She earned her children's yoga certification in 2019.

"As a children's yoga teacher, it is my passion to share the value and joy of yoga and mindfulness with the younger generation. These classes provide kiddos an essential early start to understanding the body-mind-emotion connection. This is the foundation which will also develop healthy and necessary social and emotional skills along the way. "

You can contact her at: Fullbloom Children's Yoga and Mindfulness 

Music and Creative Movement Instructor (Certified Nurturing Pathways Instructor®) 

Regina Lum comes to Little Ones Learning on a monthly basis to teach a music and movement class. She owns Little Feet: Movement for Developing Minds. 

Hi there! My name is Regina Lum-Witkoske. I grew up taking ballet and piano lessons and the 15 years of dancing and playing music have helped me grow physically, social-emotionally and cognitively. I’ve gained confidence and a positive attitude, I’ve learned about teamwork, camaraderie, sense of belonging, self-motivation, resilience and perseverance. I didn’t understand how and why these activities helped me in those ways, I just knew that I want to be able to provide these opportunities to other children someday!

After graduating with a Bachelors in Business and Administration, majoring in Marketing and Management, I worked at different youth organizations that aligned with my dream of providing opportunities for young children to succeed. However, I was itching to work directly with children and parents! At the same time, I became a mom and in my search for activities to do with my daughter, I came across Nurturing Pathways, which connected the dots for me on how and why movement and music supports the physical, social-emotional and cognitive development of a child. So I decided to become a certified Creative Dance instructor through Nurturing Pathways and finally able to use my passion and training in dance!

NURTURING PATHWAYS®

Little Feet uses the Nurturing Pathways® curriculum which was developed in 2001 by Christine Roberts who combined her passion for dance with brain development and early childhood. After years of teaching dance and performing professionally, Christine wanted to turn her attention to the formative years that constitute a prime time for learning; infant up to school aged, mostly because of her son’s condition. Christine’s son Sam was left paralyzed and brain injured at 4 months old due to an adverse reaction to the whole cell Pertussis vaccine which immobilized his developing brain and body. Through learning about her son’s condition and intensive rehabilitation, she realized that the early years affect the brain-body connection and how critical they are for the rest of one’s life! So, with her experience as a dancer, teacher, and Sam’s rehabilitation, she created Nurturing Pathways!

You can contact her at: Little Feet: Movement for Developing Minds 

Husband

Christopher Dart is Trisha's Husband. He doesn't spend a lot of time in the classroom but the kiddos do get to know him. They call him Mr. Chris. Chris is an IT Director for the Kent Intermediate School District.