The Child Day Schools

The Child Day Schools offers hands-on STEM activities in science, math, and technology, along with Project Webs on topics such as “What can we build?” and “What can we learn about families?”. Children take part in Handwriting Without Tears, Found Art projects, dramatic play, painting, music, movement, and purposeful play. The program also includes life skills such as helping each other and being responsible, learning how to make friends, and conflict resolution, as well as art, music, and movement activities.

• Ages: 1–12 years old

Programs at The Child Day Schools include a HighScope research-based curriculum and a Project Web curriculum, with carefully planned classroom environments and low teacher-child ratios. Each age group has age-appropriate activities, such as nurturing, supportive exploration, speech promotion, large motor activities, and parallel play for toddlers 12–24 months in Moraga and San Ramon. Young Preschool (Two’s) activities focus on language, exploring simple concepts, beginning interactive play, and toilet training. Preschool (Three’s) activities include expanding language, self-help skills, fun Project Webs, introduction to letters, counting, shapes, and friendship. Pre-Kindergarten activities include expanding vocabulary, letters and phonetics, printing, numbers, exploring, logical reasoning, and empathy. Junior Kindergarten includes daily phonetics, pre-reading, printing, math, science, problem solving, and self-reliance. Kindergarten includes a full-day integrated core program with STEM, phonetics, printing, beginning reading, math, science with experimenting and hypothesizing, social studies, and self-reliance. School-age programs in Pleasanton and San Ramon include fun projects, arts and crafts, cooking, field trips, expanded life skills, empathy, team building, and homework time.

The Child Day Schools states a mission as “a humanistic organization dedicated to providing dynamic, age–appropriate programs for children while actively supporting teachers, families, and the community.” Programs reflect the standards of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and value and follow NAEYC’s Accreditation Standards. The organization notes that environments are similar to Montessori and promote children’s explorations, with an emphasis on dramatic play, social interactions, and creativity, and developmentally appropriate activities promoting skills for kindergarten. The Child Day Schools serves families in communities across the East Bay, and each campus is geared to the needs of the community it serves.

The Child Day Schools has been operating since 1976, with the Lafayette school opening in 1976, the San Ramon school in 1983, the Moraga school in 1989, the Antioch school in 1990, the Pleasanton school in 1997, and the Hidden Canyon school on the San Ramon site in 1999, with 2021 marking the 45th anniversary. The leadership team includes Executive Director/Owner R. Ann Whitehead, who holds an M.S. in Educational Psychology with a focus on early childhood education, along with a Financial Administrator, Program Coordinator, campus directors for Lafayette, Moraga, Pleasanton, and San Ramon, a Maintenance Manager, and Technical Support/Employment Case Manager. Teachers are described as well-trained and nurturing, and as caring about children’s interests and individual needs. The program notes that it uses social media such as Facebook for less formal communication with families, and that website images are copyrighted and not for outside use, with website cookies that may be customized according to the user’s preferences.

Last updated April 1, 2026.