SO YOU WANT TO KNOW

What Is Cooperative
Preschool?

A cooperative preschool is a group of families who hire trained teachers and work with them to provide a quality preschool experience for their children. The cooperative preschool is owned, maintained, and administered by the families on a non-profit, non-sectarian basis.

Cooperative preschools provide a developmentally appropriate learning environment that meets social, emotional, physical, and intellectual needs of young children. Children and parents learn together through play in positive, nurturing surroundings.

Under the guidance of a qualified teacher, parents assist in the classroom on a rotating schedule. Parents participate in all aspects of the children’s activities. Participating in the classroom increases your objectivity about your own child and his/her relationship with peers. Co-op preschool strengthens the parent/child bond by sharing time together in the classroom.

The direct involvement of parents in the preschool education of their children in unique to cooperative preschool. Parents gain insight into child development through classroom participation and parent education meetings. Cooperative preschool allows families to develop new friendships and a support network within the co-op community. 

What Experts Say

It is becoming increasingly clear through research on the brain as well as in other areas of study, that childhood needs play. Play acts as a forward feed mechanism into courageous, creative, rigorous thinking in adulthood.- Tina Bruce, Professor, London Metropolitan University
Play is the highest form of research.- Albert Einstein
Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity.- Kay Redfield Jamison, Contemporary American Professor of Psychiatry
Play is thinking time for young children. It is language time. Problem-solving time. It is memory time, planning time, investigating time. It is organization of ideas time, when the young child uses their mind and body and social skills and all their powers in response to the stimuli they have met.- James L. Hymes, Jr., Child Development Specialist, Author
Play allows children to use their creativity while developing their imagination, dexterity, and physical, cognitive, and emotional strength. Play is important to healthy brain development.- PEDIATRICS Vol. 119 No. 1 January 2007, pp. 182-191
When schools and families work together, children have a much better chance for success, not just in school, but throughout life.- Henderson & Berla, 1996, p. 1