My hope is that, together with parents, I can help create a warm, happy, and exciting community-a place where children feel good about themselves and about each other, and a place where, above all things, the desire to learn and the spirit of childhood is truly respected. The spirit can be weakened or strengthened depending on outside influences. We, in our school community, can foster a sense of excitement and love of learning.
— Cocoa Drake, Director

Children are innately curious. They want to touch, smell, taste, see, and listen to everything. They want to talk, they want to imitate, they want to explore. And the more they learn, the more they want to learn. Because young children are so open to environmental influences, it is important to encourage this exploration so that they become active, rather than passive, learners.

At Haight Ashbury Community Nursery School, children are free to choose from a variety of creative projects indoors, or they may play outdoors-riding, climbing, digging, picking, splashing, and swinging. We believe that child-directed play, supported by a variety of interesting materials and obliging teachers, best fulfills the preschool-age child's developmental requirements-mental, emotional, physical, and social.

We are also committed to diversity, which encourages learning. From snacks to songs, projects to stories, throughout the day our children learn about their world from member families with wildly different cultural backgrounds-and common goals.

The Developmental Significance of Free Play
To learn more about the importance of child-directed play, read the article Play — Evolutionary, Universal & Essential written by one of our favorite child educators, Bev Bos. (excerpt here).Also, read the book The Power of Play by renowned child psychologist David Elkind (excerpt here).

Crisis in the Kindergarten: A New Report on the Disappearance of Play. New research shows that many kindergartens spend 2 to 3 hours per day instructing and testing children in literacy and math - with only 30 minutes per day or less for play. In some kindergartens there is no playtime at all. A great resource for learning about these issues and how to take action can be found at www.allianceforchildhood.org.

Benefits of Cooperative Nursery Schools
Find out why co-ops are an excellent choice for preschool-age children

Best Kept Secret: Cooperative Preschool Programs (pdf) by E. Kim Coontz
California Center for Cooperative Development
British Columbia Institute for Co-Operative Studies

Five Reasons Why You Should Consider a Cooperative Nursery School For Your Child

Cooperative nursey schools:

· build a community for your family that extends beyond after-school hours and vacations and into your child's school years. Co-op nursery school bonds last a lifetime.

· provide continuity and reassurance to child and parent as you make this early step together out of the homeand into the world. Parental involvement in the school makes the experience easier and he environment more nurturingfor all the children in the school.

· expand your awerness of children' varying temperments, behavior and needs. You will learn (or be reminded of) valuable lessons about childhood by interacting with other peoples children as well as your own. Your child will benefit from observing you interact with other children and fom their own interactionwith numerous caring adults in a safe and stimulating atmosphere. Schools also provide parental education activities.

· act as a stress valve and support group to stay-at-home and working parents, single parents, parents of children with special needs, parents with special needs, families in crisis, all of whom will experience feelings of isolation or desperation (or lack of perspective and humor) at some point during their children's preschool years.

· are low cost. Because parents are responsible for most of the work required to operate co-ops, they cost a fraction of what other preschools do. Scholarships are also available.

HACNS is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Our generous donors contribute a large part of the yearly operating budget. Please consider a fully tax deductible contribution to help the HACNS. Please buy Amazon items through our eStore program. All purchases will earn us 4% to 15% .

Money we raise allows us to: · Offer scholarships · Purchase supplies and equipment · Maintain the Grattan Playground

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