Botanic Garden Children's Center

Botanic Gardens Children’s Center is an inclusive community which values uniqueness among our children and diversity in families and staff members. Our families come from all over the world, enriching our classrooms and our community. It’s not uncommon to hear four or five languages spoken in the same classroom. Recent BGCC families have come from China, Israel, India, Germany, Greece, Italy, Korea, Spain and other parts of the world. Each individual member of our community enriches the whole.

We believe that a rich early childhood experience combines the best of classical education and current research in the field. In our classrooms you will see materials from the Montessori tradition, children teaching and learning from each other in the spirit of Vygotsky, and documentation inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach. At the heart of our program is Piaget’s philosophy that through play, children are best able to make new skills and concepts their own. Our teachers discover what the children are captivated by and develop a well-planned curriculum around what is most meaningful. You may hear this described as an “emergent approach”. Each teaching team has a strong grasp on the skills and concepts that the children are developmentally ready to explore. With this knowledge, and through careful observation of the children’s individual learning styles, they construct a multi-faceted curriculum to foster each area of development.