Little Lamb Learning Center to Hold Going-Out-of-Business Sale

It'll be a mix of back-to-school deals and fond farewells as the Little Lamb Learning Center opens its doors for a final time with a going-out-of-business sale this week after 18 years of teaching preschool.

Games, teaching books, craft supplies and more expensive items such as a color copier and a wedge gymnastics mat will be available, said owner Sue Pederson, as she made final preparations Monday to rooms where class pictures and hand prints of former students still adorn the walls.

"It's just time, unfortunately," she said. "It's hard to be here today knowing that tomorrow I'm selling everything. Other than that I'm over it. It's moving on."

Sale hours will be 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday, Friday and Saturday at the preschool that's just north of the village area of Hartland at 3900 Hartland Rd. The school served children from two-and-a-half to 5 years old.

Pederson said she decided in May to close the preschool because of the stress from running a business — from increased governmental regulation to more overactive parents. The Hartland resident plans to continue to teach preschool for Hartland School District's community education program.

"I just need to scale back the stress,"  Pederson said.

The property also is up for sale and could easily become another preschool, she said, adding she's leaving tables and chairs. But it could be something else, she said, noted the building once was the photo studio of acclaimed Hartland photographer James Galbraith and his wife, she said. Prior to that, the site had been the Parshallville Sheep Farm, Pederson said.

"They were two artists and they designed this, so it's very unusual architecture," she said of the building.

Pederson said the decision to close wasn't easy as she stays in touch with many of her students who invite her to their graduation parties, but she discovered she loved the teaching more than the administrative demands. She said when she broke the news, parents were upset about the fate of the hand prints — which may not survive unless a new preschool moves in and keeps them. She said any former students or parents are welcome to stop by to photograph the and some already have.

"They left me their handprints and put their name there and I'm thinking about them all the time," she said.