4 Day Nursery

Dear Current and Prospective Nursery Families,


The faculty and board at WIWS have approved a change to the nursery program.  Beginning with the 2011-2012 school year, the Butterfly Nursery will now be a 4 day, Monday to Thursday class.  All students in the Butterfly nursery will receive 4 day contracts and attend 4 days a week.


What does this change mean?  It is likely that a number of current nursery students will remain in the Butterfly classroom next year.  I will adjust the curriculum to meet the children where they are.  For many of my previous 8 years of teaching nursery children, I have had classes that combined older 2 year olds, 3 year olds, and young 4 year olds, and I feel confident in my ability to create a program that nourishes children of diverse ages.


The Butterfly Nursery will continue to welcome children as young as 2 and a half.  We will also continue to welcome children who turn 4 after June 1 of the school year (that is, children with birthdays after June 1, 2007, for the 2011-2012 school year).  We have had such a robust enrollment of 2 and 3 year olds in the past 2 years that we have had to place young 4 year olds in the Sunflower or Golden Forest classrooms to make space for 2 year olds.  While we may still have a healthy interest from families of 2 year olds, our kindergartens are almost full for next school year, and we want to do our best make sure we have space for new families to our school with 5 and 6 year olds.  Because the mix of early childhood families as a whole changes from year to year, we adjust our classes to best serve the community of students and family as a whole.


When we finalize our class lists in early August, we will take into consideration my conversations with current nursery families about wishes for next year.  As with every year, we try to ensure that children have peers.  We avoid placing, for example, one young 4 year old in a classroom with all 6 year olds--or a young 4 year old in a class of all young 3 year olds.  We also take into consideration your family's history with our school teacher--that is, if your child has older siblings who have been with Kim or Dyanne for before, it is more likely your child will be in that class.  Please contact me with concerns or questions as soon as possible.


Prospective and current nursery families (indeed, all early childhood families) should know that enrollment for all early childhood classes is robust.  It  is likely that all 3 early childhood classes could be full with a wait list at some point earlier or later in the summer.  Please return contracts or applications to reserve your child's spot.


I will continue to offer 2 parent & child classes next year on Fridays.  In addition to a 9 to 11am class, I will also offer an 11:30am to 1:30pm class.  In Baltimore this 2nd class time served a number of families well:  infants and young toddlers who still take a morning nap; children of any age who take a slightly later afternoon nap; slightly older children who fare better with a smaller and younger group.



With warmth of light,


William Geoffrey Dolde