Our schools’ doors opened in 1968 with the desire to experience first-hand all of the marvelous thrills and excitement that exists in a child’s world. Our founders recognized the tremendous amount of learning that takes place over the course of a child’s developmental years and endeavored to provide programs that would offer the essential support and promote emotional, physical, and social growth. We believe that we have an opportunity to influence much of what will happen to the children as they go through elementary school, middle school, and then on to adult life. It is our goal to provide an environment that encourages maximum development for children, as positive experiences during the early years lead to much greater success in the future.
Over all the years of operation, we have maintained a philosophy that encourages what we call a “semi- structured program.” Semi-structured means, to us, that we have a program put together by teachers and others that sets out specific goals each day, week and month for every child enrolled. The children are “led to” not “made to” take part in these activities. We feel that this semi-structured situation allows for specific growth and individual freedom.
One of the important differences in our philosophy has been the fact that we’ve been committed to a particular kind of adult in our school environment. We are proud that our carefully chosen adults truly care about children. We could spend hours and hours going through books writing lesson plans, buying equipment, setting up the preschool; however, the most important factor in any school situation is the adult. It is exceedingly important that when each child enters the school environment, he or she finds an adult who really, truly likes him or her.
It is our hope that each child will leave at the end of the day feeling better about himself or herself equipped with the knowledge that they can accomplish tasks that they couldn’t do when the day began. If we achieve this goal, we add tremendously to the resources that each child takes with him or her as they move up the educational ladder. It is our continued hope that we will be able to provide an environment that stimulates positive feelings as well as a sound curriculum for each child.
