The Smart Start Puzzles Center

The earliest years of childhood are critical. Experiences during this time literally shape the structure of the brain. Because today’s children are tomorrow’s leaders, parents, and workers, everyone has a stake in making sure that all children have the experiences they need to thrive. Smart Start PUZZLES Center brings together the people involved in a young child’s development – families, teachers, caregivers and community members to ensure that every child has all they need for healthy growth and development. With our collective support, children have the best chance to succeed physically, socially and academically throughout life.

As the local Smart Start agency, Smart Start of New Hanover County envisions every child entering school with the health, family support and early education necessary to succeed. To fulfill this vision our agency provides critical services to thousands of young children and their families in New Hanover County. The Smart Start PUZZLES Center is a centralized service relating all parts of the child care delivery system - families, employers and employees, early care and education and school-age child care professionals, advocates, schools, business and policy makers. It offers New Hanover County a wide array of resources and support:

  • Helping parents find child care
  • Supporting families in raising healthy children
  • Building the supply of child care
  • Improving the quality of child care
  • Bridging child care and education
  • Documenting child care needs and trends
  • Engaging new partners

Families and Community Organizations

Child Care Referrals

PUZZLES provides information about choosing quality care, local child care businesses, and licensing requirements. Counselors provide these services by phone and in other ways to meet individual family needs and preferences such as location, care for infants and toddlers, hours of operation, and care for children with special needs.

Community Referrals

PUZZLES staff assists parents of children in navigating and accessing a variety of community services. General information is also available about topics such as child health and development, early intervention for special needs, child care subsidy, access to health insurance and much more.

Family Resource Room

PUZZLES offers a large selection of books, videos, magazines, and other resources for families and professionals. For a small yearly fee, theme-based kits with educational toys and materials, baby slings and wraps, and an assortment of other items are available for loan. This assortment of other items includes an infant massage kit, potty training books and doll, a baby food mill and recipes, passes to the Children’s Museum of Wilmington.

Child Care Professionals

Child Care Provider Resource Room

PUZZLES provides resources to child care providers to enhance classroom instruction. These include curriculum guides, videos, laminating supplies and equipment, a die cut machine, a computer work station, classroom theme boxes with educational toys and materials, and small outdoor equipment.

Technical Assistance and Training

Experienced, knowledgeable staff offer child care providers convenient, practical and affordable trainings and resources that meet their diverse needs, including workshops such as

  • First Aid and CPR
  • Playground Safety
  • Quality Interactions
  • Curriculum Planning

Professional development opportunities such as individualized consultations, site-based technical assistance, and practice assessments using the Environment Rating Scales help to keep professionals in touch with the latest information.

Data Collection

A strong, quality child care infrastructure is important to a thriving economy. Through data collection and analysis, PUZZLES assists the child care business by sharing up-to-date information such as openings and other services with parents seeking child care. Information is shared with local, state, and national policy makers about child care trends in our county.

Call your local Puzzles Center at:

  • Bladen County - 910-642-8189
  • Brunswick County – 910-755-3362
  • Columbus County - 910-642-8189
  • Duplin County – 910-296-2000
  • New Hanover County - 910-815-3731
  • Pender County- 910-259-9978
  • Sampson County – 910-592-9399