PHILOSOPHY

CHCP offers a warm, friendly, supportive environment which is welcoming to both children and parents, an environment which encompasses a large amount of freedom and responsibility within the bounds of respect for others--an environment which is stimulating without being overwhelming.

We want the children to:

• learn through play
• have a successful early experience with school
• learn to expect school and learning to be fun
• develop self-esteem
• become socialized, positively, by making friends, learning to respect the rights of others, share, take turns, etc.,
• gain independence
• develop verbal, cognitive, large and small motor skills

We want the parents to:

• improve their parenting, leadership, and teaching skills
• participate in their children's education
• share ideas

Our curriculum is developmentally appropriate and anti-bias. We encourage diversity and integration of children with special needs.

CLASS SCHEDULE

DAILY ACTIVITY SCHEDULE

Two's Class

• Free Play
• Clean Up
• Story Snack
• Outside Play/Music

Three to Five's Class

• Children Arrive/Circle Time
• Planned Activities
• Clean up/Quiet Reading
• Stories/Dramatic Play
• Snack
• Outside Play
• Circle: movement & songs

SCHOOL YEAR CALENDAR

School holidays follow the Seattle Public School schedule.

HISTORY

Cooperative preschools were established in the Seattle Public Schools in 1940. In the Fall of 1952, the Stevens Cooperative Play Group merged with the Lowell Cooperative Preschool. The group met originally at Lowell School, then in 1959 moved to facilities provided by St. Mark's Cathedral, and in 1991 moved to their current location at St. Patrick's Catholic Church. Sometime after l959, responsibility for over-seeing cooperative preschools was transferred from the public school system to Seattle Central Community College, Family Life Department.

PARENT EDUCATION

The Capitol Hill Co-op is one of seven parent cooperative preschools affiliated with Seattle Central Community College. When you join a co-op you are enrolled at the preschool and become a student at the college. Your course is called Parent Education. You have all of the privileges of any other SCCC student, including student rates and discounts and the use of the libraries. Parent meetings, held once a month in the evening, provide your classroom instruction. Our Parent Educator is on the staff of the Early Childhood Education Program at SCCC and will be using a curriculum designed for our parent education course.