YWCA Family Cooperative Preschool in Santa Monica, California offers a safe, nurturing, sensory-rich environment where parents share in their child’s first school experience outside of the home. Teachers, parents, and children can work, play, learn, and grow together as family and as a supportive community for each other. We believe that a creative, developmentally appropriate, child-directed learning environment, supported by family, can create a positive attitude towards future learning. Our program is child directed and play based with an emphasis on emergent curriculum. We believe that connecting with children allows us to learn what they are communicating through their behavior. Our role is to support their feelings and to help them gain tools to appropriately express themselves. Children free flow through our indoor and outdoor environments. Our 1 to 4 teacher to child ratio allows us to truly support each child’s emotional, physical and cognitive needs. "Building community while individually supporting the growing physical, social, emotional, and cognitive needs of children."