HOW WE’RE DIFFERENT

• Little Wonders is a PARENT EDUCATION center. Our classes introduce parents to the expected stages of child growth and development and help them discover their own parenting style. Parents also learn how to promote the social-emotional development of their child through play. Please note that although our facility is organized like a typical nursery school, we are not a nursery school, preschool, or day care.
  

• Most classes meet once per week, and parents attend with their children. Unlike many parent-participation programs, which have parents working in the classroom one day a week with drop-off one or two days a week, parents are always on-site at Little Wonders. Classes meet for for 1.5 to two hours once or twice per week. (See our Schedule and Descriptions page for details.) This smaller time commitment makes it easier for working parents to participate and enjoy the support of our amazing community. Families interested in attending multiple classes may wish to read our FAQ.
  

• Evening engagements are kept to a minimum. Many parent-participation programs schedule separate parent education classes at night, once or twice a month. At Little Wonders, parent education occurs during class, which keeps evening commitments to a minimum. The only mandatory evening activities are a class-specific orientation at the start of the school year, the Individual Class Parent Education Evening in the fall, and the All School Meeting in late winter.
  

• Little Wonders has a LIGHT CO-OP REQUIREMENT, and in some classes, none at all. While your active participation is necessary for the smooth operation of our program, it should never be a burden. For our Standard Classes, the typical job involves a 15- to 20-hour time commitment, while those enrolled in our Baby Play classes have approximately a 5-hour time commitment. Our Summer and virtual Preschool/Elementary Support classes do not have a job requirement at all. Jobs with a smaller time commitment may involve a Partial Buyout. Positions on the Board, or jobs that begin before registration, will require larger time commitments but come with other benefits. A limited number of Full Buyouts are also available. For details, please see our Co-op Jobs page.
  

• We provide EARLY SUPPORT for parents and children as young as 3 months old, continuing until preschool. Many parent and child programs focus on the newborn or preschool-age child, with few programs for those challenging years in-between. Little Wonders’ Baby Play and older babies and toddlers classes fill that gap, starting with babies 3 months of age in the former, and 9 months old in the latter.
  

• Our program encourages natural connections to a wider parent community. Most sources of parent support come in the form of drop-in sessions, where the participants vary from week to week, or informal play-dates without any facilitated discussion. While these types of gatherings lower the barrier to participation, they do not provide much opportunity to form lasting relationships with other parents. One of the joys of Little Wonders is meeting up with the same parents and children every week, sharing your joys and concerns, learning from both the teacher and your fellow parents, and watching everyone’s children grow and thrive. This familiarity with one another naturally leads to a sense of community and belonging, and even the development of invaluable life-long friendships.