What are the opening hours?

Monday 9am - 4pm Tuesday 9am - 4pm Wednesday 9am - 4pm Thursday 9am - 4pm Friday 9am - 4pm

The Neighborhood School

A progressive play-based preschool in the heart of Sherman Oaks. The extensive garden is an ongoing lab for science exploration.

Philosophy and Beliefs
The Neighborhood School is a developmental and progressive school that offers a caring and experiential environment for 2, 3, 4, and 5-year children and their families. We provide an environment in which children can grow to their fullest potential, socially, emotionally, physically, cognitively, and creatively. The school offers a child focused, play based curriculum that u

tilizes classroom activity areas/centers to provide a wide variety of developmentally appropriate experiences. The children’s self-directed play allows for social interaction at many levels and fosters the development of friendships, problem-solving skills and social and emotional growth. Our anti-bias curriculum embraces a rich variety of cultural experiences, traditions, customs, and family structures on a regular basis. It also helps develop a child’s sense of self, awareness of diversity and an appreciation of differences. In the classrooms, activities include block building, dramatic play, science investigations, puzzles, and playing with manipulative. Creative expression is encouraged through the exploration of music and movement, art projects and children’s literature The language, literacy and innumeracy rich program supports the growth of early reading, writing and math skills in keeping with the children’s different developmental rates and styles of learning. We embrace “emergent” curriculum as it arises out of children’s interests and questions and integrate the ideas presented in the classroom. In the yards, the climbing structures, sand and water, easels, bikes, and playhouses provide for vigorous play and the development of physical and social competence. Our philosophy and curriculum are founded on certain fundamental beliefs.
• Each child is a unique individual, with his/her own rate of development, temperament, personality, learning styles, strengths and weaknesses.
• We believe in the “unhurried child”. Each child must pass through the same stages of development, in the same order, but they must do so at their own rate. They must have time to complete each stage, experiencing a rich variety of developmentally appropriate opportunities.
• Children learn most effectively through relevant “hands on “ experiences. They must be given plenty of opportunity to explore, manipulate, and discover as well as observe, reflect, and question.
• A program should stimulate curiosity, enthusiasm, creativity and critical thinking.
• Children’s efforts as well as successes should be acknowledged and supported.
• At the preschool level, the process is of utmost importance, rather than the product.
• Attempting, sometimes failing, practicing, and mastering new skills will enable a child to develop competence and a positive self-concept.
• Children must gain independence, age appropriately, first through a thoughtful separation process and then through beginning to learn to take responsibility for their behavior, choices and impact on the class as a whole.
• Children must be allowed and encouraged to feel their full range of emotions. Be it happiness, sadness, anger, jealousy or fear, each emotion is a very important part of the child’s being.
• As children learn about their feelings, they can learn appropriate ways of expressing them. This self-awareness also leads to an awareness of the feelings of others and the development of empathy.
• With this environment, children will learn the socialization skills necessary to prepare them for kindergarten and society. Emphasis will be placed on mutual respect, compassion, cooperation, self-regulation and problem solving, to mention a few.
• Children must learn at an early age to celebrate the many differences and similarities among the people of the world. This must start in the school, the child’s world.
• The physical environment affects the behavior and development of both the children and adults in the school. A school must be clean, well organized, and thoughtfully prepared; the well-designed spaces should put the children into the role of thinker, explorer, inquirer, budding reader and writer, and awaken their curiosity and urge them to make sense of the world around them.

Operating as usual

Photos from The Neighborhood School's post

05/08/2024

Mason Bee Day at NHS
https://masonbeesforsale.com

11/22/2023

✨💛This year we organized a food drive. We discussed what a food drive is with the children, and all of the classes worked hard to decorate the box. Our community really stepped up and donated so many goods!! We will be donating all of this this week to Hope Gardens, a transitional living and permanent supportive housing facility for women and children.💛✨

11/20/2023

🍂🍁✨It is always a pleasure for us to welcome Ben Hale and The Eagle Spirit Dancers! Ben and his family have been coming to our Autumn gathering for over 20 years now. We’ve seen his family grow, and he’s seen our community grow and change over the years. It’s one of our very special and favorite traditions here at The Neighborhood School✨🍁🍂

10/09/2023

✨How do we teach math and science at Neighborhood School? We make it exciting! We believe that the best way to learn is by doing! Today we dissected a pumpkin and roasted the seeds!✨

10/09/2023

✨🎃It’s a Spooky and Goopy season at Neighborhood School!🎃✨

09/11/2023

✨some exciting things are happening around NHS!!!!✨

09/07/2023

✨🐢🫠✨there was a wild Maria on the loose the other day!! Her escape was brief, but full of excitement! No worries, she’s back in her home enjoying some fresh kale 🥬! ✨🐢🫠✨

08/23/2023

✨💫🌈getting messy with Tie Dye! One of our many exciting summer projects!!🌈💫✨

10/15/2022

NATURE COLOR HUNT 🍁 🌳 🌸
https://instagram.com/mbsactivityroom

05/09/2022

❔✨Why? What? How?✨❔

❔”Why did my child act this way?”
When we keep in mind that our children are tiny humans with brains that are not fully developed, we can understand that often our children will “misbehave”, act out”, whatever you want to call it because they were hungry, tired, impulsive, angry, or didn’t have the proper means/skills to communicate their feelings.

❔”What lesson do I want to teach in this moment?”
Remember- the goal of discipline is to teach. What lesson is needed? Manners? Impulse control? Importance of sharing? The list goes on?

❔”How can I best teach this lesson?”
Consider your child’s age and development. Did natural consequences already teach the lesson for you? Is there a loving way you can approach the lesson? Ideally we’re looking to avoid a harsh, one size fits all consequence.

10/15/2021

Fall planting- Radishes and Beets

10/15/2021

A little fall planting!
Radish seeds and Beets

Discipline.....the word that gets the bad rap.... — Katherine Casey Voltz, MA, LMFT #123533

03/19/2021

Struggling with discipline? Here are some tips to help make it a little less dramatic..

katherinecaseyvoltzmft.com/blog/2021/3/19/disciplinethe-word-that-gets-the-bad-rap

Discipline.....the word that gets the bad rap.... — Katherine Casey Voltz, MA, LMFT #123533 How to take control & manage behavior with Children without the drama.

Why Parenting With Discipline Raises More Resilient Children

01/28/2021

By understanding our parenting style, we are able to better understand the type of parent we are, and the impact that has on our child as well as the relationship we have with them, and the type of parent we want to be.

Why Parenting With Discipline Raises More Resilient Children The research is pretty clear. So what kind of parent are you?

01/22/2021

For those parents of teenagers out there, we got you covered 😉

You’re starting to hear “Whatever!!” “Whatever, Mom!!” Your once seemingly sweet child, suddenly seems angry, is huffing and puffing around the house, is maybe spending hours on end in their bedroom, and no longer wants to participate in family activities. Maybe their taste of music, clothing, and interests suddenly changed...and maybe you’re starting to get a little concerned. Is your child around 10 years old? If so, welcome to the teenage years..full of angst, rebellion, and exploitation of individuality. While it may seem different from when we were kids- perhaps we dyed our hair a different color or pierced our ear with a safety pin, all to the dismay to our parents, the message between the various generations remains the same: figuring out who we are outside of our families.

01/11/2021

Focus on the good ❤️

It’s only natural to call out negative or undesirable behaviors, but when doing so we are actually giving more attention to that behavior. Do you want a behavior to go away? Ignore it, and start giving attention to the positive behaviors...I promise they are there, even if some days they are harder to spot than others 😉

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