Philosophy

Building life-long, joyful learners by protecting childhood as a place of wonder and delight, through strength-based, holistic, developmentally appropriate, indoor and outdoor learning.

Little Garden Preschool is a place where your child can collect fresh eggs, paint with watercolors, and float acorn boats down the stream all in one day.

•At Little Garden we value childhood as a sacred and critical part of life.  We believe childhood should be honored and protected. Like Plato, we hold  to the belief that each child comes with his or her own gifts and that the role of the adults in his/her life is to nurture and cultivate those gifts. We believe that school should be stimulating and joyful. We are committed to providing a safe and loving environment where children can have meaningful experiences with others and  learn reverence for the world around them. We use a strengths-based approach and focus on the development of the whole child.  Our areas of emphasis include social and emotional development, including problem solving, resilience, self-regulation, and personal independence; as well as physical and cognitive development such as, coordination, language, memory, and appropriate academic skills. We believe these objectives are best obtained through music, rhyme, storytelling, fine and gross motor activities including hikes and stream play, dramatic play, cooking, science exploration, art, and meaningful experiences with literature and nature. We reverence meaningful play experiences as the supreme tool in facilitating children’s development and learning.

•We cherish parents and primary caregivers as the experts on their children. At Little Garden our goal is to work synergistically with the families in our program. We are mindful that healthy families are the cornerstone of a successful society, and we want to play a supportive role in that success.

•When you choose Little Garden, we understand that you are entrusting us to care for the most precious thing in your world. As such, we commit to having a staff that is warm, well-trained, and worthy of imitation.