Meet Miss Allison

Owner, Director, Mother, Teacher (and Chicken Farmer!)

Miss Allison wears many hats, and she wears them all with heart. Beach Babies began as a dream shared between Allison and her husband, Mark, while searching for the right childcare program for their daughter. Nearly two decades later, that dream has grown into a vibrant learning center, where Allison remains on-site every single day.

Whether she’s leading a classroom project, hanging out in the chicken coop, or creating unique, hands-on activities, Allison brings passion and creativity to everything she does. As a mother of three and lifelong educator, she treats every child like her own and has dedicated her life to fostering the growth of curious, kind, and adventurous learners.

Our Story

Beach Babies Learning Center began with one mother’s dream: to create a place where children feel safe, loved, and free to grow. In 2006, Allison McCarthy and her husband, Mark, brought that dream to life by building the center from the ground up with guidance from the CT Office of Early Childhood Licensing and inspiration from Montessori and Reggio theories of learning, and of course, their own vision for young children.

Beach Babies began as a family-run program and quickly became a home away from home for many others in the community. Allison and Mark’s children, Kiley, Will, and Jameson, grew up here, learning, exploring, and playing. That same vision still guides everything we do today. Allison works on-site every day alongside her incredible team, working towards Allison’s original belief that if every child goes home happy, healthy, and a little dirty, it was a great day!

One of our most loved features is our farm-to-table program. Children help plant, care for, and harvest our gardens, and they look after our flock of chickens. These hands-on experiences teach more than just science and nature; they nurture responsibility, cooperation, and pride. Few things are sweeter than the smiles when children bring home their fresh-picked vegetables and herbs to share with their families.

Our curriculum supports every part of a child’s growth— social, emotional, physical, linguistic, and cognitive— through early literacy, math, science, creative expression, health and safety, and social studies. But more than academics, Beach Babies is a community built on love and connection. It was created by a mother who wanted something more for her own kids, and it continues to be a place where every child is seen, heard, and celebrated for exactly who they are.