Waterford’s Early Childhood Program is child-centered, developmentally responsive, and incorporates an emergent curriculum through which child-led questions shape ideas and learning. Our rich preschool curriculum ignites a passion for the arts through engagement in music, visual art, movement, and dance. Students become young mathematicians, readers, musicians, artists, dancers, and scientists. Friendships are strengthened through cooperation, play, and communication with peers and teachers.

During this critical window of opportunity, we help students develop habits of mind, including the ability to regulate emotions, sustain attention, plan, recall information, and to be flexible and adaptable. We view strong parent/teacher partnerships as essential, and value collaboration so that parents feel at ease and informed about their child’s learning.

Children enter the world with tremendous capacity to care, learn, and grow—they are strong, curious, and able to construct learning experiences when provided with a rich learning environment. Children need time and space to flourish, and when children feel safe and valued, they can begin the serious work of play as a means to create understanding about the world in which they live.

Our Early Childhood Program uses an Outdoor Classroom, completed by research-based Nature Explorations. This space captures a young child’s curiosity to allow for developmentally appropriate and creative moments. See an overhead map of the Outdoor Classroom below or see more about the space, here. 

Beginning in our early childhood program, Waterford’s mission is to stimulate intellect, ignite passion, and shape character. Our preschool is informed by the foundational belief that children enter the world with the tremendous capacity to care, learn, and grow. They are strong, curious, and able to construct meaning when provided with a rich learning environment. Each day, our inquiry-based, hands-on and shared learning approach allows our young learners find greater voice, choice, and engagement, and able to begin the serious work of play. Always valuing the whole child—cognitive, emotional, physical, and social—we delight in providing a program that inspires learning, cultivates responsibility and caring, and sparks curiosity.