Preschool
The focus for our youngest students in our four-year-old program is on learning through play. We believe that by allowing children to explore their world through creative play, their natural sense of curiosity and wonder will lead them to learn in developmentally meaningful ways. By guiding young children in participating as responsible members of a classroom, we introduce them to the social skills they will need to succeed in school and beyond. We know from our own years of experience, as well as from volumes of documented evidence, that young children need a nurturing environment that emphasizes hands-on play and carefully supervised social interactions. An over-emphasis on academics at this stage is developmentally inappropriate and results in stress and frustration for children. Engaging children so that they love coming to school and are eager to learn is the surest path to long-term academic, and lifetime, success.

Ours is a full-day program that runs from 8:30 a.m. until 3 p.m.  Families may choose among a 3-, 4-, or 5 day program; the 3-day program runs from Tuesday through Thursday, and the 4-day program offers a choice of Monday through Thursday or Tuesday through Friday.  Spaces in the 3- and 4-day program are limited, so please do be sure to have an application submitted before the end of February if you are interested in one of those schedules.

Children receive instruction in Spanish, the arts, and physical education in addition to their regular classroom activities, in ways that harmonize with those activities.

Books we recommend to parents of preschoolers:

The Hurried Child: Growing Up Too Fast Too Soon (3rd edition) by David Elkind

The Power of Play: How Spontaneous, Imaginative Activities Lead to Happier, Healthier Children by David Elkind

Under Deadman’s Skin: Discovering the Meaning of Children’s Violent Play by Jane Katch

They Don't Like Me: Lessons on Bullying and Teasing from a Preschool Classroom by Jane Katch

Bad Guys Don't Have Birthdays: Fantasy Play at Four by Vivian Gussin Paley

You Can't Say You Can't Play by Vivian Gussin Paley

The Boy Who Would Be a Helicopter by Vivian Gussin Paley and Robert Coles