Open your hands/ if you want to be held. / Sit down in this circle.
~ Rumi
Philosophy
Community
In your relationships with teachers, with children, and with the larger Children First community, we hope you will…
Develop empathy, and an ability to listen to and identify with others.
Show others kindness, compassion, courtesy and respect.
Ask for help when you need it.
Build mutually enriching, joyful and enduring friendships.
Fall in love at least once.
Feel a sense of belonging — of connection, caring and shared history.
Collaborate in work, play and learning.
Practice being both a leader and a follower.
Learn to resolve conflicts so that everybody wins; engage in lively, respectful discourse with both adults and children; and move beyond conflict to work towards a shared goal.
Develop an appreciation for diversity, a commitment to fairness, and a robust capacity for inclusion.
Share responsibility for the care of our classroom and community.
Come to see all the people in your community as teachers, and learn more about their work, their stories, their expertise, their passions, and their cultural traditions.
It is in the laps and conversations, the side-by-side work and play, and the shared bouts of silliness and sadness that a child learns that he or she is somebody important.
Jim Greenman
Well! This is Children First! It's a real school, and it's mine."
~ Reed, age 5, introducing Children First to a visitor
Children First is a non-profit preschool where parents and teachers cooperate to provide care and education of uncompromising quality for young children.