Aauw Nursery School

Our Philosophy

We have spent 60 years developing and refining our goals for children, fostering curiosity, independence, and excitement in generations of two, three, four and five year olds. As we move forward, we will continue to maintain our fundamental values as we prepare our children for a changing world.

We wish to nurture children so that they will develop to their full potential. We do this by providing opportunities for the growth of their intellectual, social-emotional, language, physical and creative development. This is implemented by a staff of educated, innovative and experienced teachers who build a program on the base of a firm understanding of child development.

We know that children learn most meaningfully through direct experience. Arousal of curiosity leads to search, search leads to discovery, and discovery leads to knowledge. Concepts strongly rooted in direct experience give meaning to a child's life. We encourage an atmosphere where children can enter in self-initiated, creative play under the teacher’s guidance. Research shows that creative play, that which explores and invents, is the most valuable learning method available to the preschool child. Skills developed from this creative play prepare children for future academic and work endeavors.

Each child needs the chance to grow and develop as an individual at his or her own pace and in their own way. Our teachers understand where children are in their development and expand lessons from there. Interest in activities originates with the children but the opportunities to explore these interests in content and in depth are provided by the teachers. Materials are provided to encourage the children to experiment, question, reason, observe, investigate, negotiate, seek, discover and construct knowledge themselves.

The teachers create an atmosphere of comfort and security where children’s needs are met with warm acceptance, understanding, and encouragement. Together, with our developmentally appropriate classroom space, equipment and materials, we provide an appealing, safe, challenging environment for young children.

Finally, we intend to teach our young children to live life with meaning, joy, purpose, satisfaction and fulfillment, realizing that children will develop firm educational roots by enjoying and succeeding in preschool. These first experiences influence the way children feel about themselves, other people and the world around them.