Our Approach

At Wimberley Children’s House, we take an approach to education that relies heavily on student choice, exploration, and hands-on learning with real tools and experiences.  Therefore, you can expect your child to come home messy-we regularly use art materials, gardening tools and equipment, water, and other messy things.

 

Additionally, we use our environment to explore the natural world and use “risky play”-activities that are challenging physically and have some risk involved. These include such things as jumping, climbing, or using tools such as rakes, shovels, carts, child-sized woodworking materials and tools, scissors, punchers, and other classroom tools, and food preparation tools.  Risky play can help children develop resilience, problem-solving skills, and a sense of belonging and is essential to our operation.

 

Sometimes, despite our best efforts to prevent any kind of accident or injury, a child may receive a scrape, cut, bruise, or other owie. This is a part of a healthy childhood and hopefully, some small injuries during exploration will help a child understand how to prevent larger injuries in the future. We will, of course, notify parents of any injuries that occur during our operational hours.

 

Additionally, we are an ad-free community.  This means that we ask children to come to school with clothing and equipment that does not include cartoon characters, movie references, or other logos that promote a particular brand.  We find those items to be distracting to children and adults and are best left for out-of school times.  The school has extra clothing on-hand if your child should inadvertently come wearing ads.

 

At WCH, we believe strongly in good nutrition and community meals. Therefore, we will provide all snacks and lunches at the school, with some preparation for the children as a part of their daily activities.  We ask that parents refrain from sending their child with lunchboxes or other snacks.  If you have concerns about your child’s dietary needs or our food program, please reach out to us.

 

Wimberley Children’s House wants to partner with our parents and community by offering learning opportunities in topics that help us grow and work together for the benefit of all.  We will offer at least a one-hour monthly learning opportunity to our community on topics like using Montessori practices in the home, child development, brain development, specific areas of the Montessori classroom, and others. We ask that each family commit to at least one hour monthly dedicated to learning with us-either live in person or through zoom, prerecorded talks or other events.

 

Wimberley Children’s House operates as a non-profit entity and may seek to obtain funding from various organizations to further our work and offer scholarships, work-trades and other assistance as we grow. Therefore, we would like to collect demographic data to help us understand our community and serve it.   

 

Finally, at WCH, we take traditional Montessori seriously. We prepare the classroom with a large variety of materials and opportunities, observe, and modify the environment based on our observations. Therefore, as a general rule, we will not prepare many whole-group lessons, units, crafts, and other things that are common in many preschool settings.  We will communicate with you regarding your child’s progress through our recordkeeping platform, Transparent Classroom.

 

If you have concerns or questions about any of these approach components, please do not hesitate to reach out.  Otherwise, please initial each area to confirm your agreement and consent with our approach.

 

• I agree with and consent to the school’s risky play approach.

• I agree with and consent to my child getting messy at school.

• I agree with and consent to send my child with ad-free clothes and other belongings.

• I agree with and consent to the school’s lunch and snack program.

• I agree with and consent to attend at least one monthly learning opportunity at the school.

• I agree with and consent to allowing the school to collect demographic information for purposes of seeking funding or other opportunities to better serve the community.

• I agree with and consent to the school’s approach of individualized learning and communication through Transparent Classroom.