What is a Co-op?

Parents are the primary educators of young children.  A Co-op allows parents the unique opportunity to share in their children's early school experiences and to take an active role in their education.  It also enables each child to develop independence, while maintaining a sense of security. The Co-op values a close relationship with our parents, the community and area school systems. We acknowledge that active parent participation helps broaden the developmental process of young children.

Our Philosophy

Our program, based on research and developmentally appropriate practices, is designed to meet the learning and developmental needs of preschool children. We believe that children do best when families seek out quality early learning opportunities and experiences for them and play an active role in their education.

We recognize parents and families as the first and most important teacher in a child’s life and value the individuality of each family. Children’s learning is continuous and occurs in all settings and the experiences children bring from home are valued and built upon in our school setting. Families, schools, and communities all have significant roles to play in terms of what opportunities are available to children and how well a child is able to take advantage of those opportunities. The establishment and maintenance of positive reciprocal relationships among these settings for the purpose of coordination and continuity of services serves to benefit children.

At the Aurora Co-op Preschool, expectations for children are guided by our staff’s knowledge of the processes and sequences of young children’s learning and development and the optimal conditions under which children develop to their fullest potential. Early childhood education is largely child-centered education. Children are born ready to learn. The preservation of children’s natural curiosity and motivation to learn are enhanced and enriched through sensory-rich experiences, play, exploration, and language rich environments. Play is a very important and special part of childhood. Hands-on activities create natural, authentic contexts for learning that allow children to feel a sense of mastery as they develop a more complex understanding of their world. This philosophy follows with Piaget's ideals that children should be actively engaged in their world and various environments. 

The preschool years are a time of significant growth, but young children learn in ways and at rates different from older children. Young children’s development and learning is rapid, uneven, and episodic. The wide range of skills, competencies and achievements children exhibit are the result of the complex mix of the ability to learn and past learning opportunities and experiences. The domains of children’s development are highly interrelated and learning within any one domain of development affects learning in the other domains.

Young children develop in an environment of influential relationships. They flourish when adult interactions provide security, nurturance, guidance and positive encouragement. Student learning - individually, within a small group, and during a whole class activity - is supported by caring professional teachers in our classrooms. A natural and joyful concentration is the result when students are truly engaged in a wide variety of challenging and interesting activities that are appealing, appropriate, and can be adapted for individual developmental patterns.

Development and learning are inextricably tied to the health and well being of children. At the Aurora Co-op Preschool, we strive to ensure that children are provided healthy and safe physical and interpersonal environments that support positive outcomes.

Our Director

Mary Ann Aardema

Mary Ann has served as director of the Aurora Co-op Preschool since 2002.  She feels that the best preschool curriculum, as a complement to children's natural drive to explore, discover, and learn, is a vivid sensory experience where interactions and the environment provide many opportunities for all children to learn and to be successful as they extend and build on their current knowledge and natural curiosity. According to Mary Ann, current research supports the school's developmentally appropriate activities and practices. Our NAEYC accreditation is the most positive endorsement a program can receive. It means that our program has joined one of the most elite learning organizations in the nation!

NAEYC Accredited

Our program is proud to have earned NAEYC Accreditation - the mark of quality for early childhood education programs.

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) created its accreditation program in 1985 to set professional standards for early childhood education and to help families identify high-quality child care and early educations programs. To earn NAEYC's accreditation, a program conducts a self-study to determine how well it meets the standards. The program is observed by independent, professional validators and then reviewed by a national panel who determines whether the program is awarded accreditation.Standards are continually being reviewed by NAEYC and programs report annually and make changes to keep up with the current standards.

Our curriculum is consistent with the guidelines of the NAEYC. Children learn through structured play and activities which are designed to encourage their physical, social and emotional and cognitive development. Our low teacher to child ratio also fosters a sense of competence and initiative in children.

Please visit their website for valuable additional information www.naeyc.org

The majority of our membership is from returning members or referrals. We think that speaks volumes about our program.