About Michael Lane Preschool
Our Mission
Michael Lane Preschool is dedicated to building a community of trust among children, parents and staff in order to gently, yet securely place our preschoolers on the road to becoming self-motivated learners.
Our Philosophy
Nestled in the beautiful hills of Lafayette, Michael Lane Preschool provides an inviting, secure and supportive preschool environment for children to grow and develop through supervised play. Our child-centered program is built on a foundation of trust between teachers, children and the educational community for children, parents and caregivers. Each child is accepted and valued as a unique individual that is encouraged to develop at their own pace. We promote each child’s social, physical, and cognitive growth while sharing the wonder of learning through an emergent curriculum of play activities. We believe when children share positive experiences with other children they grow and develop both socially and academically.
We are licensed by the California State Department of Social Services #073403896, and fully conform to all state laws regulating childcare and school facilities. This school admits students of any race, color, religion, national or ethnic origin.
Our Program and Preschool Community Goals
To Provide a warm, child centered, nurturing atmosphere where children can expand their knowledge and understanding of their community, the environment, and the world with a feeling of security and trust.
To provide a developmentally appropriate and educationally sound curriculum that enables children to explore and experiment within their environment. By expanding their knowledge and interests we promote their growth and development socially, emotionally and intellectually while helping them develop positive attitudes towards themselves and their abilities, other children and future learning.
To make routine activities available to the children each day to encourage independence and self-help.
To establish thoughtful and consistent limits to help children learn self-regulation.
To accept and respect each family regardless of structure, culture, language, customs or beliefs.
To provide parents with a support system to help them navigate their parenting journey by helping find answers to their questions and solutions to the needs of their children.
To include and engage families in building a strong community of acceptance, understanding and support for the children, families and staff.
Our Guidance Policy
At Michael Lane Preschool it is our desire to encourage the children to become responsible for their own behavior. Our philosophy and approach is to work with the children to help them develop appropriate self-regulation.
When a child’s behavior is such that it requires some form of guidance and adult intervention we advocate talking with the child or children involved, helping them to see what the problem is and helping them to see what appropriate choices would be and or action to take if necessary (problem-solving) to resolve the situation. Occasionally a child may need to be removed from an activity for a brief period of time and/or diverted to another supervised area of play. Close supervision by the Director, and staff anticipating difficult situations, and providing appropriate diversions are approaches that we use with the children. Under no circumstances is a child ever punished physically or emotionally at Michael Lane Preschool.