Carol feels fortunate to be constantly furthering her education through her husband’s work at Stanford, their connection and service to the local schools where their children attended, and her own keen interest in research that is shedding so much light on early brain development and how we can best educate our children.

Why did you decide to start your own school?
Because there is so much need for high quality preschools and I want children and people from different walks of life to have a chance to meet and share over important work.

What is your favorite children’s song?
I have so many, but the one that is in my head at the moment is, “2,4,6,8.  Meet me at the garden gate.  If I’m late, don’t wait.  2,4,6,8.”  Or:  ”Just SING! Sing a song!  Make it simple, to last your whole life long.  Don’t worry that it’s not good enough for anyone else but me, just sing.  Sing a song….”

What is your favorite children’s author?
Again, too many to name!  At the moment, I’m loving Mem Fox.  Especially, “Harriet, You Drive Me Wild!”

What’s your favorite school memory?
Tough one…the great teachers I had:  Biology with Mr. McCarthy.  Anthropology with Mrs. Kleppner (who is still teaching at the high school I attended in Massachusetts, and started a preschool at the high school so the students could do a practicum for their AP Psych class!)

What is your favorite movie?
Not sure.  The one I’ve seen the most often is probably, “The Sound of Music.”  Also “The Bodyguard” because we watched some of it being filmed at Fallen Leaf Lake where we lived at the time!  Oh!  And “The Year of Living Dangerously” about Indonesia.

What are your favorite hobbies?
Gardening, reading, cooking for friends and family, enjoying a good dinner with friends, wine, and great conversation or games.  Walking and hiking.  Traveling to new and off-the-beaten-track places (are there any in that category these days?).  Dancing to a great band.

Which of the 5 basic play materials (sand, water, clay, paint or blocks) best describes you and why?
I will answer this with a quote from a “fortune” I received on my first visit to Asia.  Our first stop was Japan, and while there we visited an important temple (the name of which I can’t remember).  Each of us received a different, beautifully folded paper.

On mine was the following: “Such is the force of water that it will with gently pressure shape itself to every vessel, and yet pierce the very rock.”

Below that, the words were explained: “Water meekly follows the contours of any vessel it is poured into, yet it can also pierce stone itself.  Let your heart be as patient and strong.”

I continue to try to live out this saying/fortune or advice.

We’ll post a video of some of the Q&A session soon, but here are a couple of interesting points (paraphrased) in case you missed it:

Q1: How does your program compare to a daycare?
A1: Daycares address the logistical needs of working parents, but teacher quality can vary widely. At the upper end of the spectrum, there are childcare programs at Google and Genentech that are pretty amazing – but they’re not available unless you work there, and even then there may be a long wait list. It’s also missing the heterogeneous component.

Q2: How will you maintain a heterogeneous school community?
A2: We have some team members that are already working with local underserved communities that can help with outreach and support. Our location will also be easily accessible to both high- and low-income families.

Q3: Will there be a co-op component?
A3: With the understanding that many working parents have busy schedules, we can be flexible in the required hours, either by partial “buy-out” or targeted parent education classes. But I am convinced that the partnership between parents and teachers is critical. At a co-op where you have worked together and gotten to know each other, you are forming a community going forward in your childrens’ lives. It’s an amazing gift to be friends with someone you’ve known since preschool.

Q4: With so much pressure to be academic these days, how does a play-based program address parents’ concerns?
A4: Communication is key – we can show parents how their children are learning. It’s play, but kids are constantly learning, constantly being engaged. Instead of being taught at, we pick up on their interests and introduce  new concepts and skills through various types of play.

Q5: How does a multi-age classroom work?
A5: It’s another aspect of the heterogeneous component. There’s so much segmenting these days – 3′s 4′s 5′s programs – and I think children are really disadvantaged as a result. Their lives are not going to made up of people in just their own age groups – they will be dealing with people of all ages. We can provide social experience during this critical age period which will help them adapt to differences. Remember when a bunch of neighborhood kids play baseball together – when 2yo Johnny comes up to bat, everyone scoots closer infield and the pitcher floats the ball to him. Kids won’t do that unless they have the experience of different ability levels to be able to include everyone.

Q6: What about the difference in ability levels?
A6: I believe in inclusiveness. You’ll see that older kids can mentor younger kids and take on more responsibility. This is especially valuable for an older child who might not be a leader yet among his own peer group, but can build leadership skills by helping younger children. And the program should be adaptive and change – preschool lessons should not be repeated every single year. One quarter it might be rocket ships, another it might be horses. We take the students’ interests, which are constantly changing, and introduce developmentally appropriate concepts. The process of exploring new concepts together can be shared by all ages.

Thanks again to the 100+ friends who attended and all your support!!

We were blessed with overcast skies.  Carol presented while grown-up guests enjoyed Caribbean food (hey, we had to get SOME summer in), and young guests played in the yard.  Great to catch up with friends.  And the sight of 50 kids, having fun, entertaining themselves (for the most part)…beautiful.

Not only did we get great feedback on our presentation and website, we also got REAL DONATIONS!!  Thank you so much for your generosity!!

All in all, a wonderful way to start the summer.

Special thanks to the following individuals:

-Carol T. (set-up), Chris T. (set-up), Diana M. (set-up), Michelle H. (planning), Teresa D. (clean-up), Angelica D. (facepainting, clean-up), Steve T. (dry ice fun), Marcia L. (photos),  Kealai L. (video), Alissa C. (photos), Richard A. (providing tents), Tom C. (setting up tents), Daphne T. (facepainting), Jennifer H. (ponies)

What we didn’t plan for, however, was the rain. When was the last time it rained in June?! Who could have known. The forecast for tomorrow afternoon is 51-69 degrees, with “a couple of thunderstorms”:

“It turns out that all that time spent playing make-believe actually helped children develop a critical cognitive skill called executive function. Executive function has a number of different elements, but a central one is the ability to self-regulate. Kids with good self-regulation are able to control their emotions and behavior, resist impulses, and exert self-control and discipline.

We know that children’s capacity for self-regulation has diminished. A recent study replicated a study of self-regulation first done in the late 1940s, in which psychological researchers asked kids ages 3, 5 and 7 to do a number of exercises. One of those exercises included standing perfectly still without moving. The 3-year-olds couldn’t stand still at all, the 5-year-olds could do it for about three minutes, and the 7-year-olds could stand pretty much as long as the researchers asked. In 2001, researchers repeated this experiment. But, psychologist Elena Bodrova at Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning says, the results were very different.

“Today’s 5-year-olds were acting at the level of 3-year-olds 60 years ago, and today’s 7-year-olds were barely approaching the level of a 5-year-old 60 years ago,” Bodrova explains. “So the results were very sad.”

Sad because self-regulation is incredibly important. Poor executive function is associated with high dropout rates, drug use and crime. In fact, good executive function is a better predictor of success in school than a child’s IQ. Children who are able to manage their feelings and pay attention are better able to learn. As executive function researcher Laura Berk explains, “Self-regulation predicts effective development in virtually every domain.”"

But what if our Form 1023 application hasn’t been approved yet?  IRS Publication 4220 says on page 12:

“While an organization’s Form 1023 is waiting for approval from the IRS, the organization may operate as a tax-exempt organization…

…Although donors have no assurance that contributions are tax-deductible for federal income tax purposes until the application is approved, contributions made while an application is pending would qualify if the application is approved. However, if the application is disallowed, contributions would not qualify. Moreover, the organization would be liable for filing federal income tax returns unless its income is otherwise excluded from federal taxation.”

Also, because 501(c)(3) corporations can generally only give to other 501(c)(3) corporations, we’re going to need it to qualify for donations and grants from foundations and such.

Form 1023 is 30 pages long, and comes with 38 pages of instructions.  That’s for the IRS.  There is also Form 3500 for the California Franchise Tax Board.

We looked over it, thought about it…and have decided to revisit this exciting topic at a later date.

Any nonprofit, corporate, tax experts?

And then request an Employer Identification Number (EIN).  We chose to submit Form SS-4 online, and BAM, we got our EIN immediately upon completion.  Due to high volume, or perhaps IRS technical difficulties, the site crashed a few times.  But persistence pays off, and when it finally went through, it worked beautifully.

Hmm, but we don’t even have any employees…why would we need an EIN?

“This EIN is your permanent number and can be used immediately for most of your business needs, including opening a bank account, applying for business licenses, and filing a tax return by mail. However, no matter how you apply (phone, fax, mail, or online), it will take up to two weeks before your EIN becomes part of the IRS’ permanent records. You must wait until this occurs before you can file an electronic return, make an electronic payment, or pass an IRS Taxpayer Identification Number matching program.”

“Years of research has confirmed the value of play. In early childhood, play helps children develop skills they can not get in any other way. Babbling, for example, is a self-initiated form of play through which infants create the sounds they need to learn the language of their parents. Likewise, children teach themselves to crawl, stand, and walk through repetitious practice play. At the preschool level, children engage in dramatic play and learn who is a leader, who is a follower, who is outgoing, who is shy. They also learn to negotiate their own conflicts.

A 2007 report from the American Academy of Pediatrics documents that play promotes not only behavioral development but brain growth as well. The University of North Carolina’s Abecedarian Early Child Intervention program found that children who received an enriched, play-oriented parenting and early childhood program had significantly higher IQ’s at age five than did a comparable group of children who were not in the program (105 vs. 85 points).

A large body of research evidence also supports the value and importance of particular types of play. For example, Israeli psychologist Sara Smilansky’s classic studies of sociodramatic play, where two or more children participate in shared make believe, demonstrate the value of this play for academic, social, and emotional learning. “Sociodramatic play activates resources that stimulate social and intellectual growth in the child, which in turn affects the child’s success in school,” concludes Smilansky in a 1990 study that compared American and Israeli children. “For example, problem solving in most school subjects requires a great deal of make believe, visualizing how the Eskimos live, reading stories, imagining a story and writing it down, solving arithmetic problems, and determining what will come next.”

Other research illustrates the importance of physical play for children’s learning and development. Some of these studies have highlighted the importance of recess. Psychologist Anthony Pellegrini and his colleagues have found that elementary school children become increasingly inattentive in class when recess is delayed. Similarly, studies conducted in French and Canadian elementary schools over a period of four years found that regular physical activity had positive effects on academic performance. Spending one third of the school day in physical education, art, and music improved not only physical fitness, but attitudes toward learning and test scores. These findings echo those from one analysis of 200 studies on the effects of exercise on cognitive functioning, which also suggests that physical activity promotes learning.

In recent years, and most especially since the 2002 passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, we’ve seen educators, policy makers, and many parents embrace the idea that early academics leads to greater success in life. Yet several studies by Kathy Hirsch-Pasek and colleagues have compared the performance of children attending academic preschools with those attending play-oriented preschools. The results showed no advantage in reading and math achievement for children attending the academic preschools. But there was evidence that those children had higher levels of test anxiety, were less creative, and had more negative attitudes toward school than did the children attending the play preschools.

So if play is that important, why is it disappearing?”

If you mail in the form, it takes a few months to process; if you file it in person in Sacramento, it takes a few weeks.  We calculated that it was actually more cost effective for us to pay a courier service about $100, than to pay gas money and drive ourselves.