Please read the introduction to our school completely, information about school tours can be found at the end of our post. We appreciate the opportunity to share a detailed picture of our school with you and look forward to speaking with those who think our school will be a good fit for their family values!
Country Day Little School offers a Waldorf inspired, play based program with a substantial outdoors component, focused on practical work, a seasonally based curriculum, social emotional education, sensorimotor development and independent play. We enroll children ages 2-6, and provide a low student-to-teacher ratio in a mixed-age setting, where children play and learn together at their developmental edge in a caring and homelike environment. In this mixed-age context, we provide small group pull-out for our youngest students, 2 years, to work on self-care skills and build relationships with direct peers and primary teachers. Our older children learn patience and care of their younger friends, while modeling cooperative and creative play and skillful practical work. On the other end of the child's Country Day experience, we offer a Transitional Kindergarten program for our eldest students to engage in pre-academic activities that build skills to support them in the transition to kindergarten.
The children's time at Country Day unfolds year after year as they take up our curriculum, embracing it from each developmental stage. From circle-time to tidy-away time, from working in the garden to painting, our activities grow the child's strong sense of self and capacities as a learner, while challenging the social/emotional, physical and cognitive development of each individual. Our students learn and grow in a manner that meets their developmental needs and capacities, awakening them to the learning and doing in life, and ennobling their character.
At Country Day, learning takes place in the context of play, creative teacher-led activities, daily rhythms, practical work, and imitation, rather than the introduction of academic subjects. Pre-school-aged children absorb and learn so much through exploring their physical environment in both structured and unstructured activities, and through imitation, they take in their teachers’ and classmates’ activities and attitudes and explore the possibilities of who they themselves are becoming. The teachers’ purposeful activity in the gardens and classroom is imitated by the children, who display a similar purposefulness in both their work and their play. Because of the importance of the environment for the growing child, we place great emphasis on maintaining beautiful and child-friendly classrooms and gardens. Our tools and toys are made of natural materials that engage the children in sense experiences that they can relate to the world around them. Our playthings are simple enough that the child’s own imagination is awakened to use them in many different ways. Exercising creative play in the preschool years has been proven to help the child develop not only socially and in fine and large motor skills, but also emotionally and cognitively. Play provides important neurological processes that will build social/emotional capacities and support future cognitive endeavors - it is among the most important developmental processes of childhood, and one we give full attention and time to at Country Day.
Each day includes an outdoor morning and indoor afternoon of work and play, homemade organic meals (garden to table), naptime, circle time, stories, songs, movement games, and arts and crafts, providing seasons filled with joyful social, physical, and developmentally attuned activities. Out in the garden, the children explore their senses and fine and large motor capacities as they build a relationship with themselves, their community, and the natural world. They play in the sandboxes and garden beds, they climb, run, and jump, they push carts, care for the bunny and chickens, grow veggies in the gardens, and engage in dynamic creative play and purposeful care of our environment. Inside the children build structures, tell puppet shows, create character play scenarios, bake bread, help prepare meals and snacks, and engage in seasonal crafts and artistic activities. The classrooms and gardens are full of playthings that challenge and inspire the children’s imaginations, allowing for a truly rich play experience. During both inside and outside play, the children may use play materials in any reasonable way they wish as they join together with their playmates, largely uninterrupted by adult concerns or distractions.
in their teaching and caring for the children, the teachers are engaged in useful, practical tasks that maintain the classrooms and gardens, or prepare for activities of the day or upcoming events. The children are nurtured and educated by the purposeful adult models around them. At times they choose to drift out of play and join the teachers in the chores, finding opportunities for learning in many tasks from peeling vegetables, to folding laundry, to raking leaves or helping set the table. Teachers may also use these chore activities as natural opportunities for a child’s emotional, physical, or cognitive learning needs to be met and so bring them out of play and into work.
Throughout the day the children are supported in being kind to one another, cooperation and sharing are encouraged over competition; concern for others and appreciation for all is emphasized. We strive to create a warm atmosphere that is supportive of each child as an individual. In this way, we give our students the environmental and relational security they need in preschool in order to maintain the emotional and social stability that is needed for learning and growing to take place. Our teachers build strong and informed relationships with our students and families, and work closely at differentiating instruction to meet the learning needs of each individual child in the context of the group.
One of the most important aspects of Country Day is building continuity between home and school. Our parent community is attentive and engaged in their children's educational program, and involved in our school events. The teachers and parents meet for parent-teacher conferences and communicate openly and frequently about a child's learning at school and home. Parents are welcome to visit and volunteer in the classroom and gardens. Every six weeks or so, the teachers send home detailed student reflections offering a glimpse into their child's day, sharing about new learning, joys, challenges and playmates. At the end of each year the teachers provide a detailed written account of each child's school year.
Please visit our instagram page @countrydaylittleschool to see photos of daily school life and learn more about our perspective and values. If after reading about our school, you would like to apply to Country Day, we would be delighted to meet you. We will respond to your tour request with an information packet about our program, along with a School Tour Form, to be returned to us with a $100 visit fee. This fee is applied to your tuition upon enrollment. Our school tours are arranged to give parents an opportunity to observe the children and teachers in the gardens/classroom and meet with the director. By arranging our tours in this way we are able to ensure that those who visit are seriously interested in our school.
******** Country Day also offers Parent Consulting, supporting their journey to becoming the parent they want to be. Over the years, parents have appreciated the guidance offered to families of infants through elementary school, balancing work and home life in busy
Silicon Valley.*******.