A small center where somebody knows your child.
Licensed early learning for babies through Pre-K, on a written day you can read before you ever walk in. Four rooms, a curriculum that carries a child the whole way through, and meals cooked in the building.
- AgesSix weeks to five years
- OpenMonday to Friday, 7:00 AM to 5:30 PM
- WhereGreat River, minutes from East Islip
- Licensed byNYS OCFS
Every room publishes its actual day.
Not a brochure sentence about a nurturing environment. The real schedule, block by block, from arrival to pick-up: when they eat, when they sleep, when they go outside, and how often a two-year-old gets taken to the bathroom.
We put it on the website because it is the question every parent is really asking and almost nobody answers in writing. Read it before you visit, and then come and check that it is true.
A Tuesday in Toddlers
- 8:30amMorning meeting
- 9:50amMusic and movement
- 10:15amOutside time
- 11:10amLunch
- 11:45amRest
- 3:00pmOutside time, again
- 4:05pmMusic and movement
Six weeks to kindergarten, without changing centers
A child moves up when they are ready for the next room rather than on their birthday, and the curriculum carries the whole way through, so the ground is never pulled out from under them.
Infants
Unhurried, one-to-one care on your baby’s own rhythm, with the day written down and sent home.
What their day looks like
Toddlers
Room to move, words for big feelings, and a routine predictable enough to lean on.
What their day looks like
Preschool
The year a child learns how to be part of a classroom, and how to learn.
What their day looks like
Pre-K
A full year aimed squarely at kindergarten, without turning five-year-olds into students too early.
What their day looks like
Two things, done properly, for years
A curriculum, and a way of being with a child who is having a hard time. Most centers have the first. The second is what you can feel the moment you walk into a room.
Frog Street
A research-based curriculum that runs the whole way from the infant room to Pre-K, so a child is not starting again every September.
Conscious Discipline
Dr. Becky Bailey’s framework, which starts with the adult. Connection before correction, a named feeling, and a calm grown-up. Nobody sits in a corner.
Brain Smart Start
A short, deliberate routine that settles a room before anything is asked of it. A regulated child can learn. An overwhelmed one cannot.
Cooked in this building, that morning.
Breakfast, lunch and two snacks are catered by Lessing’s and prepared fresh in the kitchen downstairs. They are included in tuition, not billed on top, and nothing comes out of a lunchbox you had to pack at 6am.
Teachers sit and eat with the children rather than supervising from the side, which is where most of the table manners, the conversation and the willingness to try something new actually come from.
What mealtimes are like
The questions you were going to ask on the phone
Answered in writing, so you can decide whether we are worth the trip before you spend an afternoon on it.
How old does my child have to be?
We take babies from six weeks old and children up to five, in four rooms: Infants, Toddlers, Preschool and Pre-K. A child moves up when they are ready for the next room, not on their birthday.
Do you have a space right now?
It depends on the room and the month. Infant spaces are the tightest and usually need the most notice. Tell us your child's age and roughly when you need to start and we will tell you honestly whether we can take you, put you on the list, or point you somewhere else.
How do I enroll?
Visit first. Come and see the rooms, meet the teachers your child would actually be with, and ask everything. After the visit there is paperwork to read and complete, a registration fee to pay, and then we agree a start date. The space is held once the forms and fee are in.
Can I come and look around before I decide?
Yes, and we would rather you did. You are welcome to bring your child, which also tells us something useful about how they settle. Call ahead so somebody who can answer your questions properly is free when you arrive.
Families come to us from East Islip, Great River, Islip Terrace, Oakdale, Islip, Bay Shore, Sayville, Bohemia, West Sayville, Brightwaters and the rest of the Islip townships. Getting here from East Islip
Come and see the rooms
The only way to really judge a center is to stand in it. Tell us your child’s age and roughly when you need to start, and we will find you a time.