My name is Mia, and I am the owner of Avondale Preschool, a home-based day care and preschool, licensed by the state of Washington (License #119584). We are a small group, consisting of myself and a maximum of six students, ages 2 to 5. My goal is to provide an exceptional and unique educational experience to the children in my care. I blend the Montessori method with a hands-on approach to learning that includes frequent field trips and many opportunities for in-depth learning. I want your child to reap the benefits of individualized attention and care giver flexibility that he or she would get from a nanny or stay-at-home parent. At the same time, I want to give him or her the opportunity to teach and learn from his peers, gain valuable social skills that will help in elementary school and beyond, and make life-long friends.

Avondale Preschool uses a Montessori-based curriculum in the morning, followed by an afternoon curriculum of teacher initiated learning and discovering. Each month will bring a new topic which we will explore in depth through in-class experiments, activities, presentations, art projects, special visitors, and weekly field trips.

Twice per week, we have a 30 minute Spanish lesson, usually accompanying the month's theme. Outside play time occurs once in the morning, and once in the afternoon, weather permitting. When the weather is uncooperative, we will often go to an indoor play area so that the children still get the chance to develop gross motor skills and get some exercise. We have weekly piano lessons for the older children and pre-music activities for the younger ones. Music, movement, and dance are also incorporated throughout the curriculum. Yoga-type stretching and meditation are part of our morning and afternoon routines. We also offer karate lessons for older children (ages 4 and 5) through Evergreen Karate in Bothell.

I am so pleased that you are considering our wonderful community of young explorers. I started this program because I was frustrated by the lack of availability of quality care for young children in the area. I worked as a lead teacher in both toddler and preschool classrooms for a large corporate daycare and was truly disappointed to find that corporate child care policies promote profit above the emotional well-being of the children. Teachers are worn-out and feel bound by pointless and unquestioned corporate policy, administrators are promoted and given pay raises based solely on profit margins, and children are treated as a commodity. This was not my idea of how early childhood education should be!

I decided to open Avondale Preschool to provide my own two children with an environment where they could benefit from collaboration with other children their own ages, and establish friendships with peers, and I also wanted to truly benefit a select few other children by providing them with a preschool opportunity that is truly unique, and one which I would be thrilled to have my own children participate in.


Children do not need to be told how to act, they need to be shown how to live.