Child's Play

We are a parent-teacher cooperative school located on the East Side of Providence. With Toddler, Nursery and Preschool programs, our curriculum is structured around the philosophy that children learn best through play. Child's Play was founded in 1979 by a group of parents who wanted to participate in their children's early educational experience. Though times and families have changed, Child's Play has remained true to the spirit of a cooperative school and our guiding philosophy that children learn best through play. Our goal is to encourage children to grow at their own pace in a safe, supportive and enriching environment. Our teachers allow children to develop the social skills, emotional maturity, and concepts of the world appropriate at each developmental stage. By focusing on their creative play in the classroom, the teachers allow the children to suggest and discover the activities most suited to learning what they are ready to learn. Such open-ended play is augmented with more traditional "teaching" - demonstrating and explaining concepts - providing more structure and shifting more responsibility to the children as development allows. As a cooperative, we differ in many ways from other preschools. Parents and teachers work together to create a positive early educational experience for our children. Child's Play is a network of families, friends and teachers who are enriched through the active participation in making the school run. As a result, parental involvement is required of all enrolled families.