Common Questions

This program is designed for children 36 months through 5 years old. The benefits of having mixed ages is that the children can learn from one another, having opportunities to be both leader and learner. This format is similar to children being raised in family groups where siblings are different ages, a learning platform that has been serving humankind well for centuries! I will accept no more than five students at a time, maximizing supervision, individualized instruction and lesson planning, and social learning experiences.

The child must be at least 36 months by the time they start school, but may join at any time I have openings during the year.

Potty training is preferred, but not required. Sometimes children are more motivated to use the potty when they see their friends doing it, and the preschool experience can supplement the potty training efforts put forth in the home.

My program is privately operated in my home, and is currently not handicap-accessible. The child must be able to climb stairs to enter my preschool.

$40 weekly tuition pays for two part-time, preschool experiences per week.

*Sometimes, your child will be sick, on vacation, or otherwise unable to attend school, but payment is still required.

1. You are paying for my time and expertise. During school hours, my complete attention is on the children helping them to develop motor, social, emotional, and cognitive skills. Before and after school hours, I invest my time in preparing lessons, purchasing and preparing materials, rotating toys, preparing food, cleaning, sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, and disinfecting. Additionally, I make notes of progress, maintain portfolios, update the Facebook Group page with current events, build art walls and bulletin boards to represent work, and write progress reports. This happens even if your child misses a day.

2. You are paying for materials, food, and home maintenance. For example, if bananas are part of the snack menu for the week, I cannot buy half a banana because your child won't be there, nor can I return bananas if I learn unexpectedly that your child will not be there.

3. You are paying to reserve your child's spot in the class. If your child will not attend regularly, then the spot should be given to a child who will attend and pay regularly.

Yes, our family enjoys a bird.

If your child is not potty trained, please send a small package of diapers/pull-ups and wipes.

Additionally, each child should bring one complete set of clothes that will stay at school in case of spills, toileting accidents, weather related activities, etc.

Snack will be provided, but if your child has special needs or preferences that differ from the menu, s/he will need to bring a snack from home.

Backpacks are helpful to carry home artwork, papers, lunch boxes, etc.

Please do not bring toys from home.

The lessons that I plan can be scaffolded to suit the needs of the individual learner within the same lesson. I will provide an example to illustrate this idea.

Lesson: Provide each child with a small box of rice. Hidden inside the rice are letters. Each child must sift through the rice with their fingers to find the letters.

Beginner- identify the letters that they are finding and help the child line up the letters to make "words" or help him/her sort the letters by matching features.

Intermediate- as the child finds letters, note that they are the letters in the child's name and ask if s/he can use the found letters to spell his/her name. Ask the child to name the letters as they are found.

Advanced- invite the child to identify the letter sounds, and possibly spell as many words as s/he can with the letters found in the rice.

Because I will not be working with more than six children, it will be easy to comment on the work of each child. The children at the table will have different levels of letter knowledge, and so they can watch and learn from one another in addition to what I may demonstrate, explain, or offer them.

Worksheets can be helpful for reinforcing specific, isolated skills, but are not useful in teaching or evaluating critical thinking skills, language development, problem solving, connecting experiences, applying new concepts, and more. My goal as a quality educator is to help your child's dendrites grow, branch, and connect! Instead of worksheets, you can expect me to create interesting activities to explore, problems to solve, and projects to complete. I will evaluate progress and check for understanding through conversation and photographs, keep a portfolio of the child's work, and send home a monthly progress report to parents.