an alternative to traditional schooling
At Sprouts, our pedagogy draws on our years of childcare experience, our educational backgrounds at the University of Illinois in Early Childhood Education, and is influenced by our studies in multiple impressive child development and early education theories, including Montessori, Waldorf, and Reggio.
At Sprouts, we play.
We provide space to explore and investigate through uninterrupted time for play.
We structure the school to encourage imaginations through independence and without interference from adults.
We create environments that are safe spaces for children to try new things, take risks, make mistakes, and solve problems.
We help children learn to make attempts at challenges and then ask for help if they need it.
We teach children to respect living things through observation without disturbances and to discuss all nature in positive terms.
We help children discover that we are all artists and allow them to grow confidence in their own artistic journey.
play time at Sprouts
At Sprouts, play is the most important activity. Children do their best exploring, discovering, thinking, planning, and relationship-building through extended, uninterrupted, free play time.
risky play
Children develop essential skills by engaging in risky play. They will encounter and take small risks, building confidence in their physical skills. They will learn to understand their limitations, challenge themselves, and develop grit and resilience through their failures.
Risky play might include:
- climbing up and down structures and jumping to and from many heights and places.
- Running, spinning, and moving at different speeds and in many directions
- rough-housing and physically engaging in play with others.
messy play
Children develop essential skills through messy play. They develop tolerance and joy in new sensory experiences and engage their imaginations and experiment with new things.
Children are allowed to mix and combine toys and loose parts of all kinds in all sorts of new ways.
we regularly play in and with:
- dirt, mud, sand and mulch
- water tables and sprinklers
- paint, glue, and glitter
- nature bits & pieces: flower petals, grasses, leaves, seeds
outdoor play
Outdoor play creates opportunities for another specific set of essential skills. Children develop a fondness and appreciation for the nature that we see every day. They learn to entertain themselves with only items found outside and their imaginations. They learn to appreciate all types of weather, the excitement of a warm summer shower and the beauty of fresh snow.
sprouts kids are outside playing in:
- summer heat up to 100 degrees
- winter chill down to 10 degrees
- rain, snow, wind and fog – as long as it isn’t dangerous
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