School Philosophy

At Growing Tree, we believe these are the years that prepare your child for a positive learning experience. We believe in the magic of childhood; and we believe all children deserve respect, consideration and unconditional acceptance. The differences children bring to school enrich each day and each of us. We need to be open to learning from them as well as helping them learn.

Parents are never wrong in their feelings about their child.

A priority in our programs is that children are happy.

We foster a non-denominational, bias-free curriculum and respect all families’ values on an equal basis.

We provide a balanced program: a mix of structured group time and individual free choice time. We think it is important for children to be able to participate in a variety of teacher initiated activities, as well as to explore and learn on their own.

The classrooms are organized to be both challenging and fun; choices within structure. When children are challenged, they learn to be confident in their abilities; and when children have fun, they learn that laughter is very important in the process of growing and learning.
Below is a link to an interesting study done recently at UC Berkeley comparing more structured preschool environments to play based preschool environments. Their findings confirm Growing Tree’s “Choices within Structure” philosophy on which we have based our curricula for the past 38 years. Especially in our Pre-K and Transitional Kindergarten  classes do we place an emphasis on listening skills and following directions, preparing our children to be successful and confident learners in elementary school. Local kindergarten teachers always remark that they can pick out our students right away because they are focused, can work independently, and are ready to learn!
http://news.berkeley.edu/2017/05/10/first-year-of-school/