
We see the young person both as a unique creative individual and as a caring cooperative member of a social group. We offer three aged based classes that provide children social opportunities and growth with peers at the same developmental stage. The purpose of our program is to support and encourage the child’s natural growth in these directions:
- A love of learning
- Positive attitudes toward self
- Expressing feelings directly and constructively
- Identifying and communicating needs
- Taking responsibility for one’s own feelings, actions and choices
- Respecting the rights of others
- Joining in group play, problem solving and conflict resolution
- Respecting/appreciating environment

Tues & Thurs : 8:15am-10:45am
Tuition is $4300 per year. (payments can be broken down into 10 equal monthly installments of $430)
Class Size is 14-16 children
The Ladybug program is designed to offer very young children a gentle, simple introduction to the school experience. Much of the fall revolves around mastering the challenges of separating from parents and care providers. Children also begin to familiarize themselves with peers, routines, and how to organize oneself in a classroom full of exciting materials and opportunities. Whatever the style of separation and however long it takes, the children gain a sense of trust in themselves and in the adults. The structure of the day is deliberately simple: children enjoy an hour of “open choice”, where they are free to tour the activities in the room: permanent play materials such as blocks, pretend food or the climbing structure, and rotating projects in the art, play dough, sensory and manipulative areas. Teachers guide the children through a brief clean-up time, a group music and movement time and a shared snack. The last 30 minutes of the day are spent outside or in the movement room, depending on weather. Throughout the day, teachers facilitate learning experiences and look for spontaneous moments to teach concepts, ideas, language, social skills, self-regulation, values and more. The teacher-child relationship forms the core of the Ladybug program, as children acclimate to an educational setting and develop the key skill of trusting new adults to help them. As children grow up and into the program, favorite materials and peers begin to play a larger role. Traditionally classic nursery rhymes are introduced and dramatized. Teachers remain at the center of the action, but children begin engaging in simple, physical play with each other. By spring, many children are sharing imaginative play scenarios together. Throughout, teachers encourage the children to explore, discover and enjoy.
Ladybugs
Tues & Thurs : 8:15am-10:45am
Tuition is $4300 per year. (payments can be broken down into 10 equal monthly installments of $430)
Class Size is 14-16 children
The Ladybug program is designed to offer very young children a gentle, simple introduction to the school experience. Much of the fall revolves around mastering the challenges of separating from parents and care providers. Children also begin to familiarize themselves with peers, routines, and how to organize oneself in a classroom full of exciting materials and opportunities. Whatever the style of separation and however long it takes, the children gain a sense of trust in themselves and in the adults. The structure of the day is deliberately simple: children enjoy an hour of “open choice”, where they are free to tour the activities in the room: permanent play materials such as blocks, pretend food or the climbing structure, and rotating projects in the art, play dough, sensory and manipulative areas. Teachers guide the children through a brief clean-up time, a group music and movement time and a shared snack. The last 30 minutes of the day are spent outside or in the movement room, depending on weather. Throughout the day, teachers facilitate learning experiences and look for spontaneous moments to teach concepts, ideas, language, social skills, self-regulation, values and more. The teacher-child relationship forms the core of the Ladybug program, as children acclimate to an educational setting and develop the key skill of trusting new adults to help them. As children grow up and into the program, favorite materials and peers begin to play a larger role. Traditionally classic nursery rhymes are introduced and dramatized. Teachers remain at the center of the action, but children begin engaging in simple, physical play with each other. By spring, many children are sharing imaginative play scenarios together. Throughout, teachers encourage the children to explore, discover and enjoy.

Crickets
Monday, Wednesday and Friday: 8:15am-11:15am
Tuition is $5550 per year. (payments can be broken down into 10 equal monthly installments of $555)
Class Size is 14-18 children
The Cricket class meets on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Our staff and small class size remain the same. As children are ready for new challenges, we add more structure to the program. We begin our day with name-writing work and a general greeting time. It is during this time that the children begin to plan their play for the day. We have an opening music circle full of fun songs and games where we learn about beat, rhythm and melody. We look at our daily calendar and talk about special projects that they will be called to work on throughout the morning. Age appropriate life skills are practiced throughout the day. At clean-up time, children help with the sweeping and table washing. At snack time, children pour their own water, pass their own snack and handle refills among themselves. Growing older isn’t all about increased structure and responsibility. It’s also about the increased pleasure you can get out of life with your greater mastery. Often children in the Cricket class can sustain long periods of interactive play. As the year goes on, elaborate play scenarios evolve, supported and extended by the teachers. These play scenarios represent children’s increased understanding of and knowledge about the world. In the Cricket class, themes emerge and you may find the children immersed in the study of folk tales, families and the natural world around us. Children test themselves and each other more socially. The dynamic tension over objects of the two and a half, or three year old give way to complex verbal and physical negotiation. Teachers help children through these rocky waters, modeling and offering appropriate responses and bringing children to an understanding of positive social relationships. Our conflict resolution approach focuses on helping children develop a basic core of ideas and mutually respectful language options to use to solve a variety of problems.
Monday, Wednesday and Friday: 8:15am-11:15am
Tuition is $5550 per year. (payments can be broken down into 10 equal monthly installments of $555)
Class Size is 14-18 children
The Cricket class meets on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Our staff and small class size remain the same. As children are ready for new challenges, we add more structure to the program. We begin our day with name-writing work and a general greeting time. It is during this time that the children begin to plan their play for the day. We have an opening music circle full of fun songs and games where we learn about beat, rhythm and melody. We look at our daily calendar and talk about special projects that they will be called to work on throughout the morning. Age appropriate life skills are practiced throughout the day. At clean-up time, children help with the sweeping and table washing. At snack time, children pour their own water, pass their own snack and handle refills among themselves. Growing older isn’t all about increased structure and responsibility. It’s also about the increased pleasure you can get out of life with your greater mastery. Often children in the Cricket class can sustain long periods of interactive play. As the year goes on, elaborate play scenarios evolve, supported and extended by the teachers. These play scenarios represent children’s increased understanding of and knowledge about the world. In the Cricket class, themes emerge and you may find the children immersed in the study of folk tales, families and the natural world around us. Children test themselves and each other more socially. The dynamic tension over objects of the two and a half, or three year old give way to complex verbal and physical negotiation. Teachers help children through these rocky waters, modeling and offering appropriate responses and bringing children to an understanding of positive social relationships. Our conflict resolution approach focuses on helping children develop a basic core of ideas and mutually respectful language options to use to solve a variety of problems.

Honeybees
Monday-Thursday : 12:15pm-3:15pm
Tuition is $6500 per year. (payments can be broken down into 10 equal monthly installments of $650)
Class Size is 18-19 children
Our Honeybee program is a Pre-Kindergarten as well as a Kindergarten/Kindergarten enrichment program. The Honeybee class is the culmination of classroom community building and layered learning. Here, students are ready to take on more in-depth exploration of their interests and ideas. The emergent curriculum (subject matter of high interest to the children) is implemented in an integrated manner through class discussions, partner or small team projects, thematic play, and free choice activities that allow for individual or group work. Students develop theories, and build upon them as they gain new knowledge. The teachers design and implement further activities or offer new materials to extend the theories. Through these in-depth studies, the children make the connections between various threads of the curriculum and realize that all of the curriculum areas are part of everyday life.
Life and learning involve integration of social, emotional, cognitive and spiritual experiences. Young children are capable, competent and naturally try to make sense of the world around them. When they see something new, they make a theory and then build knowledge much like scientists, building on what they know to get to what they don’t know. Working, playing and learning this way, our Honeybees get support, guidance, modeling and practice in becoming creative thinkers, problem solvers, group members, and most importantly life-long learners who engage eagerly in new learning.
As we take our cues from the children’s interests and develop our classroom themes, the subject area of our standard curriculum remains fresh, reflecting both arresting material and classic Pre-Kindergarten/Kindergarten skills such as:
Literacy – reading, writing, poetry anthologies and oral recitations, storytelling of classic myths, legends and tales from around the world, experienced both as listener and as storyteller.
Social Studies – citizenship, character education (with emphasis on kindness, inclusiveness, and communication skills) families (both human and animal), world culture research culminating in ‘formal’ oral reports (which include the presenter responding to questions from the listeners as well as in asking for constructive feedback), identification of continents and oceans and map reading.
Math – pattern recognition and creation, understanding and application of numbers, estimating, predicting, geometric figures, spatial relationships, measuring, graphing, interpretation of data and reasoning skills.
Science and Nature Studies – Our natural park like setting serves as a perfect laboratory for discovery. We study the environment, life sciences, physical sciences, the Earth and our universe.
Music and Movement – ‘steady beat’, pitch, tone matching and rhythm, creative movement and folk dances from around the world. We start each day with a music circle and lots of singing to help set a happy, upbeat tone for our time together.
Art – We create art to both support our studies and for pure aesthetic satisfaction. We learn about color, line, balance, form and various media.
The collaboration, cooperation, and readiness to take experiences to a deeper level underscore our belief these children can work toward competency, with guidance and modeling, in an environment of mutual respect. Our Honeybees celebrate their milestones weekly through poetry recitations, monthly in our class birthday circles, and in our more formalized oral presentations of world culture, our community worker presentation and finally through the exciting and complex dances we share at both our Winter Celebration and our Spring Art Festival.
The Honeybee year culminates with our highly anticipated “Spend the Night” at school and finally our beautiful and rich graduation ceremony. The children leave the Garden feeling a true sense of ownership of their experience here. The school is a part of them, and they are a part of the school!
We regularly hear from elementary school teachers and administrators that they can identify our Honeybee graduates by their strong communication and friendship skills as well as their ability to see themselves as empowered problem solvers and by their love of learning.
Monday-Thursday : 12:15pm-3:15pm
Tuition is $6500 per year. (payments can be broken down into 10 equal monthly installments of $650)
Class Size is 18-19 children
Our Honeybee program is a Pre-Kindergarten as well as a Kindergarten Enrichment program. The Honeybee class is the culmination of classroom community building and layered learning.
Here, students are ready to take on more in-depth exploration of their interests and ideas. The emergent curriculum (subject matter of high interest to the children) is implemented in an integrated manner through class discussions, partner or small team projects, thematic play, and free choice activities that allow for individual or group work. Students develop theories, and build upon them as they gain new knowledge. The teachers design and implement further activities or offer new materials to extend the theories. Through these in-depth studies, the children make the connections between various threads of the curriculum and realize that all of the curriculum areas are part of everyday life.
Life and learning involve integration of social, emotional, cognitive and spiritual experiences. Young children are capable, competent and naturally try to make sense of the world around them. When they see something new, they make a theory and then build knowledge much like scientists, building on what they know to get to what they don’t know.
Working, playing and learning this way, our Honeybees get support, guidance, modeling and practice in becoming creative thinkers, problem solvers, group members, and most importantly life-long learners who engage eagerly in new learning.
As we take our cues from the children’s interests and develop our classroom themes, the subject area of our standard curriculum remains fresh, reflecting both arresting material and classic Pre-Kindergarten/Kindergarten skills such as:
Literacy – reading, writing, poetry anthologies and oral recitations, storytelling of classic myths, legends and tales from around the world, experienced both as listener and as storyteller.
Social Studies – citizenship, character education (with emphasis on kindness, inclusiveness, and communication skills) families (both human and animal), world culture research culminating in ‘formal’ oral reports (which include the presenter responding to questions from the listeners as well as in asking for constructive feedback), identification of continents and oceans and map reading.
Math – pattern recognition and creation, understanding and application of numbers, estimating, predicting, geometric figures, spatial relationships, measuring, graphing, interpretation of data and reasoning skills.
Science and Nature Studies – Our natural park like setting serves as a perfect laboratory for discovery. We study the environment, life sciences, physical sciences, the Earth and our universe.
Music and Movement – ‘steady beat’, pitch, tone matching and rhythm, creative movement and folk dances from around the world. We start each day with a music circle and lots of singing to help set a happy, upbeat tone for our time together.
Art – We create art to both support our studies and for pure aesthetic satisfaction. We learn about color, line, balance, form and various media.
The collaboration, cooperation, and readiness to take experiences to a deeper level underscore our belief these children can work toward competency, with guidance and modeling, in an environment of mutual respect. Our Honeybees celebrate their milestones weekly through poetry recitations, monthly in our class birthday circles, and in our more formalized oral presentations of world culture, our community worker presentation and finally through the exciting and complex dances we share at both our Winter Celebration and our Spring Art Festival.
The Honeybee year culminates with our Roundup night on campus, with a cowpoke barbecue, s’mores around the firepit, and a treasure hunt in our beloved creek and finally our beautiful and rich graduation ceremony. The children leave the Garden feeling a true sense of ownership of their experience here. The school is a part of them, and they are a part of the school!
We regularly hear from elementary school teachers and administrators that they can identify our Honeybee graduates by their strong communication and friendship skills as well as their ability to see themselves as empowered problem solvers and by their love of learning.
