About
Children’s Community Center Preschool offers outdoor play, gardening, stories, songs, art, and exploring sensory play with oobleck. Children take part in an enrichment activity in the Back Yard, channel water through hand-dug rivers on the hilltop, and join in story time and botanical craft projects with various natural materials. The program also includes painting, drawing, sculpting, tinkering, building, pretending, and exploring nature, using materials such as blocks, tools, loose parts, and raw materials as invitations to be creative.
• Ages: 3–5 years old
Children’s Community Center is the oldest continually operating cooperative preschool in North America, with a history dating back to 1927. As a cooperative preschool, its mission is to create, for children and their families, a dynamic and diverse environment in which learning, empowerment and growth happen in the moment through play, creativity, connection, and community. The program follows a child-led model that follows each child’s curiosity and supports their needs and interests, with a play-based developmental philosophy and large blocks of unstructured time for children to follow their own ideas. Families play an active role in running the school and making decisions, and parents participate in the social and educational experience as part of a member-run cooperative preschool that includes a partnership between parents and a dedicated professional teaching staff and a strong parent education program. The community celebrates and cultivates diversity and encourages cultural awareness, understanding, and empathy, and conflict resolution is treated as a learning opportunity with teacher guidance. The preschool’s yards and gardens are extensions of the classroom, and children are free to move between areas, follow their curiosity, and explore at their own pace, with grown-ups not creating models or sample projects for art.
Parent reviews describe the school as “truly amazing” and “an amazing school and supportive community,” and say that “your kids will have a magical experience with lots of outdoor play, gardening, stories, songs and art plus you and your child will gain friendships that will become your long lasting community.” Other parents note that “the bonds you build with each family and their children are deep, supportive and last for years,” and that “the time commitment is well worth it for the community that is built.” One review describes the space as “a magical wonderland built for preschoolers, full of pathways for kids to explore, dry river beds and natural objects for kids to build with and move around,” and highlights that teachers “strike the amazing balance of guiding and adding to students discovery of the world through play and standing back to let students gain independence.” Another parent shares that participation in the co-op model “wasn’t only fun but a great learning experience” and that they valued processing what happened with parents and teachers during the children’s lunch.
Last updated May 11, 2026.
• Ages: 3–5 years old
Children’s Community Center is the oldest continually operating cooperative preschool in North America, with a history dating back to 1927. As a cooperative preschool, its mission is to create, for children and their families, a dynamic and diverse environment in which learning, empowerment and growth happen in the moment through play, creativity, connection, and community. The program follows a child-led model that follows each child’s curiosity and supports their needs and interests, with a play-based developmental philosophy and large blocks of unstructured time for children to follow their own ideas. Families play an active role in running the school and making decisions, and parents participate in the social and educational experience as part of a member-run cooperative preschool that includes a partnership between parents and a dedicated professional teaching staff and a strong parent education program. The community celebrates and cultivates diversity and encourages cultural awareness, understanding, and empathy, and conflict resolution is treated as a learning opportunity with teacher guidance. The preschool’s yards and gardens are extensions of the classroom, and children are free to move between areas, follow their curiosity, and explore at their own pace, with grown-ups not creating models or sample projects for art.
Parent reviews describe the school as “truly amazing” and “an amazing school and supportive community,” and say that “your kids will have a magical experience with lots of outdoor play, gardening, stories, songs and art plus you and your child will gain friendships that will become your long lasting community.” Other parents note that “the bonds you build with each family and their children are deep, supportive and last for years,” and that “the time commitment is well worth it for the community that is built.” One review describes the space as “a magical wonderland built for preschoolers, full of pathways for kids to explore, dry river beds and natural objects for kids to build with and move around,” and highlights that teachers “strike the amazing balance of guiding and adding to students discovery of the world through play and standing back to let students gain independence.” Another parent shares that participation in the co-op model “wasn’t only fun but a great learning experience” and that they valued processing what happened with parents and teachers during the children’s lunch.
Last updated May 11, 2026.
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