**Please note that our licensing application is currently in progress

Preschool classes are offered for children 3 to 5 years of age. Students must turn 3 by September 1st of the school year in question, and be fully independent with toileting.

Extensive research has shown that play-based programs are the most developmentally-appropriate for young children. Open-ended environments that support children’s agency allow them to experiment with schemas they are learning, work at their own pace, and effectively explore new skill sets.

All of the educational frameworks we admire value children’s agency and focus on child-led learning. These include nature-based pedagogies such as Waldorf and Forest school models, Reggio Emilia and Visual Thinking Strategies.

Our curriculum is always in flux, as we plan activities based on student interests, implement these plans, observe students, and reflect on their engagement and growth. This is commonly referred to as the Curriculum Planning cycle. For example, the month of April might be a time to focus on systems of growth. Throughout the month, student would be exposed to many different activities relating to this content area that engage multiple disciplines and areas of development:

· Social & Emotional Learning

· Cognitive (learning, thinking, problem-solving)

· Physical Development, Fine & Gross Motor Skills

· Language Development & Literacy

· Emergent Math

· Nature Discovery/Science

Teachers may share stories relating to growth, offer play invitations, puppet shows or themed activities within each classroom center. Students working in the Nature Museum area might find roots from a plant, or leaves of different bushes and brush. Students in the Art area may find fine motor activities like different leaf-shape silhouettes and foam materials to cut with, or any number of open-ended materials ripe for experimenting with. In this way, the monthly learning objectives are woven into each day to provide many points of access and exploration.

Our classroom is your classroom. We love working with families, and have created our program with parent participation in mind. Families are responsible for four (4) volunteer shifts in the classroom through the year. While you are welcome to volunteer for more shifts, we kept our volunteer requirement low to keep our program accessible.

We are constantly observing our students, and we are as hungry to learn more about their interests as they are! Through teacher support and observations, we will identify areas of development where children are working comfortably, as well as realms where they may need run into challenges and need additional support.

Parent-teacher conferences are held mid-year.

Questions about which vaccinations California requires to attend Preschool classes? Learn more here.

We are thrilled to offer needs-based scholarships due to the generosity of the Dale and Edna Walsh Foundation and the help of our fiscal sponsor, Arts Connection Network San Bernardino. We enthusiastically offer robust scholarship funding. More details can be found in the Scholarships tab below.

SCHEDULE

Class sessions are held Monday through Thursday, from 9am-12pm and 12pm to 3pm. We are not yet holding classes on Wednesday afternoons. All observed holidays and classes can be found on our Google Calendar.

Children aged 3-4 may attend one session per day, for example 9-12 OR 12-3. Children aged 4 & up may attend any number of sessions.

COST

Class fees are $66 per session.

For a child attending Mon, Tue, Wed and Thurs mornings from 9-12, this amounts to $264 per week.

Our desire is to keep classes affordable and accessible for our students whenever & however possible. We are prioritizing students whose families make less than 350% of the 2024 Federal Poverty Level (FPL) for their family size. You can check your eligibility here. Children three years of age must be attending 4 sessions per week to receive funding, and 4-5 year olds must be attending 7 sessions per week to receive funding.

If you are unsure if you qualify, please do not hesitate to ask. Our foremost goal is to support you to the best of our capacity.

Scholarships are awarded on a rolling basis after acceptance.