Affiliation

White Center Co-op Preschool is one of five preschools in West Seattle that are affiliated with South Seattle College. The college provides professional parent educators to each class to provide support and education to parents, ongoing training and support for classroom teachers, and consultation to the Board around running the preschool. Each preschool class is represented at a Parent Advisory Council that offers scholarships, handles registration, assists with marketing.

Organization

Each preschool is an independent non-profit 501c3 organization and is governed by a Board elected from the Co-op membership. The preschool hires their teachers and makes budgeting decisions.

Curriculum Philosophy

The SSC Co-op Preschool curriculum is play based. We believe a child’s play is their work and learning happens best when children use their bodies, their senses, their hearts, and their minds to discover the world. Facilitated play lays the foundation for architecture of the brain that will support academic success.

Through play in small and large groups children encounter real social situations and learn to regulate their emotions and solve problems. In imaginative play children put themselves in a variety of settings where they can experiment with new behaviors, learn to collaborate with each other, and negotiate conflict.

This learning doesn’t happen automatically or only through unstructured play time. Our high adult to child ratio means that adults are always available to facilitate the social-emotional learning that will help children succeed.

Our curriculum is aligned with WaKIDS, Washington State Kindergarten Entrance Guidelines, and supports family connection, whole child assessment for individualized learning, supporting smooth transition into Kindergarten.

Parent Education Curriculum

The SSC Parent Education Program is an integral part of Co-op membership. All of our instructors are skilled in the Adlerian Positive Discipline guidance philosophy that encourages parents to be both kind and firm, to take into account what each child brings to the world, to use tools that are effective for the long term, to raise children who are capable contributors to home, school and the larger community.

Parents in our program learn skills to use with their own children at home and with children in the classroom. They develop a network of friends that often stay with them over the years past preschool.

For more information visit  www.WestSeattlePreschools.org

Email: [email protected]