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Our Philosophy
Our Play House offers children a unique preschool experience in a large, open, light-filled setting just outside Carrboro. We offer a low teacher-student ratio with experienced and dedicated teachers, and daily enrichment and exploration time.
Preschool Education
Children love to explore, investigate, discover, play, and through it all, they come out wiser and more confident in their understanding of the world.
We strive to create an environment where children feel comfortable and confident as learners, thus setting a foundation for an ongoing love of learning.
To honor children’s ability to learn from doing, we feel that their natural desire to explore and play should be strongly nurtured and encouraged. Experiential or "hands-on" learning is a valuable way for young children to discover the wonders of our world and to make sense of all the new things they discover each day.
We see the teacher’s role as a supporter of this important work, as well as a facilitator of continued exploration. The teacher helps children find new and interesting ways to investigate the world by offering a variety of hands-on activities and by offering the language and tools to use them.
A Day at Our Play House
A day at Our Play House allows for a large amount of flexibility in activities. Each child determines what she or he is interested in doing and learning that day.
We begin the day with free choice time, when children can move about the space, choosing activities and playmates. Art activities, manipulatives, and other hands-on activities and toys are available for use.
After free choice time, we have group exploration time, with teacher-planned activities including movement, games and songs. Following circle time we have snacks, which the children bring with them.
After our outside play, we come together again for group gathering. This is a quiet, short gathering where we reflect on the day and join together to say goodbye until next time.
Children attending half days will be picked up after gathering. Children staying for the full day will move on to lunch. Then they'll be guided to their own individual space for a rest/nap time. After that, the children will have a light snack and typically spend the rest of the day outside.
The activities on any given day and the themes for any given week are based on the children's interests and are strongly influenced by the seasons. The spring and summer months offer many outside opportunities, such as planting, digging, and water play, while the cooler months allow us to explore more inside activities such as cooking, arts and crafts, baking, and story writing.