Ashley’s Garden Preschool Overview

If you’re looking for a true preschool that focuses on each child and the fundamentals of learning, you have come to the right place! Learn, Laugh & Grow!

Childhood is a special time of exploration, growth and adventure as new ideas are encountered and explored. These are the precious years of learning that lay the foundation for the future. We now know that educational readiness involves more than the knowledge of a few skills or behavior patterns.

Years of research into child development and early learning show that educational readiness depends on many interrelated developmental domains: motor development and physical well-being; social and emotional development; language development; approaches to learning; and general knowledge. Big words, but the common denominator through all these domains can simply be stated as ‘fun and playful activity’ because children learn best through play and movement. Play implies participation and active involvement, and playful conditions depend on an emotionally safe environment that promotes a willingness to attempt, to try something new, to explore, to be wrong and to be able to make a mistake.

We believe success is learned and can, therefore, be taught. We also know that teaching success naturally emerges when a child is engaged in activity and play that build in a progressive manner, allowing the child small successes along the way that build one upon the other. This allows the confidence of the child to grow and develop, which in turn promotes a greater willingness to try something new.

Research has demonstrated that preschool gymnastics, which is based in movement and coordination, enhances brain development through new neural networks in the brain, making it a perfect fit in preschool. We also know that the brain physically develops in large measure based on a child’s environment and activity. Play and fun should be important elements of all preschool programs.

Preschool curriculum should offer multiple activities to stimulate both the body and the mind through movement (rolling, climbing, spinning, jumping, cross crawls, etc.) which help organize and facilitate the flow of information within the brain and lay the foundation for the development of “higher learning”.

Research has shown that movement and the stimulation of the vestibular system in early childhood actually helps prepare and develop the brain for what we term “higher learning” (focus, concentration, problem solving, speech, language, reading, writing, and social-emotional maturity). John J. Ratey, MD, had this to say about movement and brain development, “Mounting evidence show that movement is crucial to every other brain function, including memory, emotion, language, and learning…Our “higher” brain functions have evolved from movement and still depend on it.”

And to paraphrase Einstein, imagination is more important than knowledge because knowledge addresses what we already know, while imagination leads to what we don’t know so that we may eventually know it.

Ashley’s Garden is a private, preparatory preschool specializing in 3 to 5 year olds. We believe our students get the best of the best! Not only do they receive a well-rounded educational experience, they also receive the benefits of weekly gymnastics, swim and dance, which we now know are extremely important to brain development and the process of learning.