Though this is far from accurate—at least, if you ask a Walnut Creek parent these days—you would think My spanish village preschoolers are a penny a dozen. Every playground, Facebook group, and coffee shop line is humming with activity: what is occurring at Sprout Grove Preschool? Every parent apparently finds themselves immediately fixated.
Emma, mother of two and experienced snack-pack artist, told me: “It’s the first time I sent my daughter down and left with zero remorse. I went home and rested actually. Now, that is major news if you know toddler mothers.
Sprout Grove is not some huge, lifeless franchise with plastic toys piled wall to wall. Rather, imagine wildflower gardens. Ladybugs slink across thick narrative books. Any morning you will see someone creating mud pies. Alternatively, the kids were sure the moon needed more visitors, so they built a huge cardboard rocket in the corner.
Teachers are not only yelling “share your toys!” They ask what made a child’s morning difficult, pull up little chairs, and get on eye level. They make puppets; occasionally the puppets even prevail in the argument. Nobody is particularly cool. For a whole week, one teacher nicknamed herself Captain Crunch and wore a headgear fashioned from a cereal box just because the kids thought it funny.
Outside education? Total first focus. Children search for gigantic leaves, play in puddles, and create stick forts large enough for four instead of being caged up. Teachers sort everyone out, get materials, and host a chalk-art festival in the covered play area when rain falls. One dad I spoke with reported that months later his son’s “rainy day art” still hangs on the refrigerator.
Lunch resembles a picnic more than a restaurant. Other mothers said, “supervised with the watchfulness of a hawk,” the children help cut strawberries or peel oranges. And every birthday has its own ritual—think crazy hats, dance parties, and more glitter stickers than a Lisa Frank collector’s hoard.
Parents value communication greatly. Daily updates do not flow like cold form emails. Staff instead incorporate punchlines from snack time and stories from the sandpit. Sometimes you even find pictures of your child flaunting a fresh paper crown or squeezing a sponge.
Why then does the reputation of Sprout Grove continue to soar? It may be the laughing floating through open windows. Perhaps it is the contented anarchy. Alternatively the initial shaky friendships built around shared crayons and secret handshakes. If you hear a Walnut Creek parent praising their child, you will know why people are lined up for a spot—not only because of a waiting list. Long after you pick up your preschooler at the end of the day, this place stays with you.