Our Vision

 The vision behind The Neighborhood is to bring cognitive, language and literacy, social and emotional, creative arts, and mathematical learning outdoors. While there will be an indoor space for center time, much of the day will be exploring outside in fields, hiking trails, making structures and fairy homes in our outdoor classroom in the woods, exploring nearby brooks, and visiting the local chicken coop. Many children are not able to get their energy out and work on large muscle/motor skills in the traditional preschool setting with limited outside time. This is an opportunity to work on those gross motor skills before refining the smaller, fine motor skills needed for writing later on. Nature-based learning also happens outside in all weather (with the exception of extreme weather that causes concern for safety). Many preschools keep children in for rain, snow or colder weather. Our belief is there is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing. We work with students to understand what gear is appropriate for all kinds of weather to keep ourselves comfortable in order to continue exploring outside. This helps teach adaptability and problem solving, which are huge life skills that children need.