The Nurtury
Preschool in Sherman Oaks, CA 91423
The Nurtury was incorporated in 1974 to facilitate the emotional development of Preschool children from fatherless homes. It was founded and originally staffed by men. It was quickly discovered that children from both single and two parent families benefited from daily interaction with male teachers. The Nurtury remains proactive in our efforts to provide nurturing male teachers.
Today our mission has three distinct areas of focus:
The Nurtury’s mission to families with Preschool children
The Nurtury is dedicated to providing a child-centered full-day program that develops a healthy self-concept, a creative imagination and a social awareness in each child, while also meeting the needs of parents for quality care, community and education in child development.
The Nurtury’s mission to educators
The Nurtury is active in the effort to provide “worthy wages” for early childhood educators. We provide our staff with the resources to do their job well, and opportunities to continue their professional development. The Nurtury partners with the State of California, Los Angeles Valley College, and Mission College to develop and support mentor teachers. Mentor teachers receive extra training and a stipend from the state for supervising and mentoring student teachers. We encourage our educators to be involved in the ongoing development of The Nurtury philosophy and policies.
The Nurtury’s mission to the community
The Nurtury strives to be a model of quality childcare for working parents. We partner with Los Angeles Valley College in their Infant Toddler Institute. We maintain ties with many local educational institutions and provide opportunities for student teachers from many local educational institutions and provide opportunities for student teachers from these institutions to be involved in Nurtury programs.
- Child Ages:
- 2 years - 5 years
- Licenses & Accreditations:
- California Department of Social Services: Community Care Licensing Division
- Preschool:
- Yes
- Hours of Operation:
- 7:00 AM - 6:00 PM
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We at The Nurtury recognize that many young children are from single-parent families or families in which both parents work. As a result, many Preschool children are cared for outside of the home. We believe it is important to provide children in full time care with a warm home-like setting where each child can discover his or her own unique individuality.
Children learn through play; therefore, we feel that learning should be enjoyable. We believe the most important goals for young children are the development of a healthy self-concept, a creative imagination and a social awareness. In order to accomplish these goals, we believe that a Preschool should be child centered where the teachers are facilitators of learning rather than directors of lessons. It is our feeling that children learn most succesSFully in an environment where they can look at, touch, poke and squeeze the real world. It is important to provide various age-appropriate materials and activities that the children can choose from.
It is clear to us that there are many skills to be acquired by young children. While they develop manipulative and language skills they also learn how to integrate into a social group. To help them master these skills, we believe it is necessary to integrate social, emotional, physical, imaginative, and cognitive learning experiences into the everyday routine.
We also believe that one of the greatest challenges and responsibilities of educators is to provide young children with an inclusive curriculum and environment. We do this by providing books and materials that support inclusion and by a commitment to a diverse student body and staff. Research has shown that children develop biases against people from ethnic backgrounds and cultures other than their own and against people with abilities different from their own when they are very young. We agree that these biases based on gender, race, disabilities, or social class create serious obstacles to all young childrens healthy development. Therefore, we feel that a Preschool is the place to embrace diversity and empower the children to challenge prejudice and stereotypes.
We feel that it is important for children to master basic self-help skills and learn to be self-reliant. Children accomplish this most readily by functioning in a fairly flexible environment, with a few firm and clear limits. While we believe in certain rules for basic physical and emotional safety considerations, children need time and space to test their own impulse control, independence and problem-solving skills.
At The Nurtury, we believe that parents and teachers working together as a team is the best combination for success in the development of the child. It is our feeling that both parents and teacher must be involved and communicate together to ensure that we are consistent between home and school. Then when it is in a safe and consistent environment, balanced with both love and limits, is where the child flourishes.
