Play’s The Thing

Three local preschool programs offer one-of-a-kind ways for children to learn through play.
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Choosing a preschool can be a rather daunting task. It is, after all, the foundation of your child’s entire educational experience; a scholastic steeping stone that marks the start of a decades-long journey to educational enlightenment.

No pressure or anything.

The thing is, there are no “wrong” choices when it comes to selecting a preschool for your child. It’s really about what you’re looking for in a school, and what you value the most. Cincinnati is full of traditional preschools; star-receiving, top-rate institutions that offer a solid start to your child’s education. These are the places where your child will have a well-balanced diet of instruction and imaginative play, a short recess and a snack, and lots of craft times and sing-a-longs.

However, for those looking for a different kind of experience for their child, one that focuses on student-led learning, outdoor instruction, and less traditional “unschooling” methods, Cincinnati offers a rather robust menu of options. From the Waldorf School, which appropriates Rudolf Steiner’s philosophy of developing the whole human being, to the Cincinnati Nature Center’s outdoor-forward Nature School, there are some truly remarkable unschooling options in Cincinnati.

An Experimental Approach: 

The Arlitt Development Center
In the last few years, STEAM-based education has exploded, with the understanding that math, science, and language arts are all inextricable parts of the educational equation. This is something The Arlitt Child Development Center, one of the oldest university-based laboratory preschools in the country, has long known.

Mary Beth Wright, academic researcher and director of the Arlitt Child Development Center at the University of Cincinnati, says laboratory-based education seeks to uphold a three-part mission dedicated to high-level teaching (training), research, and outreach, including professional development and advocacy. “Founded in 1925 as the University of Cincinnati Nursery School, [Arlitt’s] child development center is sustained in part by an endowment from Dr. Ada Hart Arlitt, who was the first teacher at the school.”

Wright explains that while the program serves many families from within the UC community, it is open to children and families across the city. Because of this, Arlitt is one of the most diverse preschools in the country. “It’s not unusual to have more than 10 languages spoken across the center,” says Wright.

Of course, UC is an acclaimed research school, and The Arlitt Center fits into this educational culture. Wright explains that the Center serves as an early childhood education practicum site for students from many programs at UC, a research center for faculty and students, and an observation and teacher training resource center for the community. “Our teachers are highly trained, dedicated professionals who consistently engage with child development theory and progressive practitioner and interdisciplinary research,” she says.

The research backs up this approach, too. At Arlitt, play-based learning is king, as it’s not only more effective, but also more fun. Wright offers this example, “It is much more appropriate and effective for children to learn about quantity by determining how many saucers and cups they need for their pretend tea party, than by counting the number of bears on a worksheet.”

At the end of the day, preschool is often children’s first experience in a group care setting—and it needs to be a positive one. “We want to create positive experiences that build a love of school and learning,” says Wright. “This is the time children develop important social and emotional skills such as sharing, turn taking, and problem solving. They begin to take on the perspective of others and build empathy needed to create a strong, caring community—foundational 21st century learning skills that are vital for well-being and later school success.”

In short, a society that values children and develops empathetic, skilled citizens is necessary for a sustainable and more peaceful world, and these are the cornerstones of laboratory-based education.

A Well-Rounded Education:

Cincinnati Waldorf School
An education that truly embraces the whole child, Waldorf education is based on the educational philosophy of Rudolf Steiner. There are hundreds of Waldorf schools all over the world, and this is one of the fastest growing educational movements worldwide. In the Queen City, the Cincinnati Waldorf School has been the region’s only Waldorf School for the last 50 years.

Karen Crick, enrollment director of the Cincinnati Waldorf School, explains that its Early Childhood Programs aim to provide children with a warm and nurturing environment to ensure that their early school experience is joyful and engaging—a solid foundation for a life-long love of learning. Filled with toys, games, storytelling, poetry, singing, and puppetry, Waldorf classrooms are lively and colorful places.

What happens outside the classroom is just as critical, Crick adds. “Daily outdoor play, seasonal festivities, and nature walks foster a meaningful connection with the world outside and lay the foundation for future scientific studies.”

Waldorf education aims to inspire life-long learning in all students and enable them to fully develop their own unique capacities. To that end, Crick explains that Waldorf education is highly individualized and experiential: “Music, dance and theater, writing, literature, legends, and myths are not simply subjects to be read about and tested. They are experienced.” It’s through these experiences that Waldorf students “cultivate their intellectual, emotional, physical, and spiritual capacities to be individuals certain of their paths and to be of service to the world,” says Crick.

At the end of the day, however, Waldorf preschool is a celebration of childhood. “Parents should be sure that young children will be in a school environment that honors childhood,” says Crick. “The traditional education system in the U.S. has become more and more test oriented [over the years]. Students are asked to memorize information, regurgitate it on a test, and then move on to the next thing. Experiential education allows students the opportunity to learn by doing and experiencing, thus allowing for a deeper understanding of concepts.”

A Wild Education:

Nature School At The Cincinnati Nature Center
If the whole-child philosophy of Waldorf schooling and science-supported methods of laboratory-based learning had a hippie uncle, it would be Nature School at the Cincinnati Nature Center (CNC). This unschool-school at the CNC has two enriching and engaging nature schools for preschool and children in kindergarten through second grade, and it’s truly an educational iconoclast in Cincinnati.

With instruction happening largely outdoors, the CNC’s Nature Preschool initiates a life-long, meaningful relationship with the natural world in a high-quality early childhood environment. It’s a fully licensed, nine-month preschool offering morning or afternoon classes for 3- to 5-year-olds, and the program has won numerous accolades including the coveted Five-Star Rating from Step Up to Quality.

In the pandemic, micro-schools (also known as “learning pods”) began to pop up, offering an appealing alternative to families who desired a small and more personalized experience for their children. The Cincinnati Nature Center responded in kind, offering up its own alternative “learning pod” for children in grades K–2. Students are enrolled in their own district as homeschoolers and attend the Nature School program for the majority of their education, with parents supplementing at home as needed.

This half-and-half approach appealed to Cincinnati parents Katie and Jack Contri, who sought out alternative schooling options following the pandemic. After long periods cooped up at home and being extra reliant on technology, it was time for a change. “We certainly love the low-tech environment and the emphasis on learning outdoors, as it is most definitely needed in this day and age,” says Katie.

The couple was familiar with the CNC’s extracurricular programing, having enrolled their children in activities such as the Saturday Nature Squad and summer camp. Opting into the CNC’s Nature School was a big step, but one the couple was excited to take. “We were drawn to the structure of the school day, with curricular time in the Montessori classroom, focusing on lots of different areas of learning, including practical life and hands-on activities, and the other half of the day spent outdoors, hiking, with learning experiences throughout the stunning property of the Nature Center,” says Katie, who adds that the couple was also impressed with the teachers and volunteers, “who are all very qualified and compassionate individuals.”

Katie has seen her daughter truly transform while at the CNC’s K–2 Nature School. “Our daughter loves that she learned to tie her shoe and loves helping others with it, caring for the hamster, the math materials, and exploring outdoors. She is thriving there.”

Still Searching?

The bottom line is this: if you’re keen on having your child learn to do by doing in a dynamic, supportive, and fun environment that’s as focused on education as it is emotional intelligence and self-awareness, consider one of these unschooling options in Cincinnati. Because while each of these options has its own unique tenets, the throughline connecting all of these untraditional schooling styles is the belief that hands-on, play-based, whole-child learning is paramount. Developing compassion, initiative, resilience, creativity, balance, problem-solving, and independent thinking—this is exactly what our world needs most right now.

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