About
Hilltop Preschool offers play-based learning where children take part in unstructured play, run barefoot, build forts, bake mud pies, create with loose parts, and enjoy water play. Children also have the chance to eat fennel straight from the vegetable garden in the beautiful play yard at the preschool’s facility.
• Ages: 2–6 years old
Founded in 1957, Hilltop Preschool has provided a warm, enriching environment for hundreds of families for over 50 years. Hilltop Preschool is a non-profit parent participation cooperative preschool where both parents and children learn and play together, and a volunteer board of parents handles the administration of the school. Under the guidance of qualified early childhood educators and qualified teachers, parents assist in the classroom and participate in the children's educational program, and the parent educational program carried throughout the year is a central part of the co-operative experience. The preschool is described as a kindergarten alternative with a play-based, Reggio-inspired curriculum that addresses children's social and emotional development and encourages children to become self-motivated problem solvers with an abiding curiosity about the world, supported by a community of warm, loving, caring parents.
The program’s philosophy states that early childhood education begins with an environment of love, warmth, acceptance, and understanding that each child is a unique individual. The Reggio Emilia Approach at Hilltop Preschool is described as being based on respect, responsibility, and community through exploration and discovery in a supportive and enriching environment, using a self-guided curriculum based on the interests of the children. Hilltop Preschool states that it offers a developmentally and age-appropriate program where children are given freedom within a structured environment to explore, create, and interact with adults and other children.
Parent testimonials describe Hilltop Preschool as a community that has impacted their parenting, their children, and their family, with teachers who use play-based learning and a nurturing approach, prioritize social and emotional development and problem solving, and go above and beyond for the children. Parents also describe Hilltop Preschool as understanding the importance of unstructured play and as a place where children run barefoot, build forts, bake mud pies, create with loose parts, get soaked from water play, and eat fennel straight from the vegetable garden.
Last updated July 4, 2026.
• Ages: 2–6 years old
Founded in 1957, Hilltop Preschool has provided a warm, enriching environment for hundreds of families for over 50 years. Hilltop Preschool is a non-profit parent participation cooperative preschool where both parents and children learn and play together, and a volunteer board of parents handles the administration of the school. Under the guidance of qualified early childhood educators and qualified teachers, parents assist in the classroom and participate in the children's educational program, and the parent educational program carried throughout the year is a central part of the co-operative experience. The preschool is described as a kindergarten alternative with a play-based, Reggio-inspired curriculum that addresses children's social and emotional development and encourages children to become self-motivated problem solvers with an abiding curiosity about the world, supported by a community of warm, loving, caring parents.
The program’s philosophy states that early childhood education begins with an environment of love, warmth, acceptance, and understanding that each child is a unique individual. The Reggio Emilia Approach at Hilltop Preschool is described as being based on respect, responsibility, and community through exploration and discovery in a supportive and enriching environment, using a self-guided curriculum based on the interests of the children. Hilltop Preschool states that it offers a developmentally and age-appropriate program where children are given freedom within a structured environment to explore, create, and interact with adults and other children.
Parent testimonials describe Hilltop Preschool as a community that has impacted their parenting, their children, and their family, with teachers who use play-based learning and a nurturing approach, prioritize social and emotional development and problem solving, and go above and beyond for the children. Parents also describe Hilltop Preschool as understanding the importance of unstructured play and as a place where children run barefoot, build forts, bake mud pies, create with loose parts, get soaked from water play, and eat fennel straight from the vegetable garden.
Last updated July 4, 2026.
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