Cooperative Children's Center

Our Mission and Philosophy

At the Cooperative Children's Center, our mission is to provide a safe and creative environment that fosters the social, emotional, cognitive, and physical growth of our children. We believe that young children learn naturally and enthusiastically in an environment that offers a choice of activities created with children's needs in mind. Our program is designed to instill respect for self and others, and to develop a joy of learning through play.

Our Values

We uphold the following values in our program:

• Emergent Curriculum: We encourage learning activities to arise out of each child's interests, actions, or serendipitous events.
• Parent-Teacher-Child Community: We support teachers and families working closely in partnership to ensure continuity between home and school, and to offer opportunities for the enhancement of parenting skills.
• Anti-Bias: We value and nurture families with diverse lifestyles, cultures, and worldviews. We acknowledge and celebrate our differences and encourage our children and their families to recognize and actively challenge bias.
• Positive Guidance: We set the stage for positive, inspiring interaction with others through a respect for self and others, characterized by warmth, personal respect, individuality, positive support, and responsiveness.

Our Staff

Our staff is comprised of creative, talented, nurturing educators who are committed to working with children and their families. We believe in supporting a staff who understand child and family development and who recognize and meet the developmental and learning needs of children and families. We are committed to providing our staff with excellent benefits, paying them based on Washington state ECE wage scale, and supporting their continuing education.

Our Program Philosophy

Our program philosophy is based on child development theory. Our program and curriculum are planned and carried out based on a knowledge of how children grow and what can be expected - socially, emotionally, cognitively, and physically at each stage of development. Our program is age-appropriate, with teachers taking into consideration the normal sequences of growth typical of children within an age group when planning curriculum. We also recognize each child as a unique person with individual patterns of growth, individual preferences for activities, and having different family backgrounds.

Our Concept of Parent Involvement

At the co-op, we believe in building a community that ensures continuity between home and school, and offers opportunities to enhance parenting skills. Parents are welcome and encouraged to be at the center any time they are able. We value and nurture families with diverse lifestyles, cultures, and worldviews.

Our Approach to Learning

We do not impose learning upon the child, as it can be in a teacher-centered classroom. Child development theorists indicate that young children learn naturally and enthusiastically in an environment offering a choice of activities created with children's needs in mind. We focus on the child forming positive and enjoyable associations while acquiring new skills and incorporating new information.

Our Emphasis on Social-Emotional Development

We put an emphasis on social-emotional development because we feel it is a necessary foundation for all other learning. In this time of great social pressure on young children to meet performance expectations, we feel it is important to preserve the experience of early childhood. This experience is critical to the well-rounded development of the child and their ultimate success-developmentally, academically, and as an adult.