Joanie Giraudo has over 30 years of experience teaching young children.  She has an AA Degree in Child Development from De Anza College and a BA Degree in Human Development from Pacific Oaks College.   She is a certified parent coach and enjoys creating a family friendly environment.   We believe that our location is unique to the area and we look forward to building a loving, creative, safe environment for young children to discover, learn and grow.  

Our mixed age indoor and outdoor classroom provides an opportunity for young children to imagine, create and participate.  We focus on the whole child:  social, emotional, physical and cognitive development.  These guided play experiences provide children many opportunities to practice skills that will last a life time.  A mixed age group preschool program allows for each child to feel safe and secure while allowing for a child to practice not only being a leader but also motivating younger children.  This environment promotes more opportunities for all areas of development.  Each child has a greater chance to have their problems solved by observation or direct intervention.  Mixed age groups provide children a realistic view of the world.  This also allows children with continuity of relationships that deepen over time and provide children the opportunity to reap the benefits that accrue.  

Our guided play approach  is supported by several well known play based child psychologists such as Piaget, Vygotsky,Bruner and Erikson.  We believe that a community rich in play creates a central role in the process of "making meaning."  Preschool age children engage in all stages of play:  solitary, parallel, imitative, associative and cooperative.  We believe that each child will develop at his/her own pace. We gently guide them thru each stage while supporting and encouraging their creativity.  Our process oriented art philosophy is child directed and celebrates the experience of discovery.  We provide theme based materials and allow each child to be open ended in terms of engaging with the materials.  This allows the child to learn how to use the material before they create more elaborate artwork.