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The Outdoor In-home Daycare
Our core beliefs
We Play Outside started with a realization that the academic pressures on preschool aged children has exponentially risen, making preschool have elementary school level expectations. Data collection, standardized tests, and a focus on concepts beyond grade level have ramped up the stress on students and teachers alike. At We Play Outside, we let kids be kids for a few more years before starting Kindergarten. We provide the space and the opportunity for movement and high quality play-based learning that wiggly, active, imaginative bodies crave.
We focus on lifelong skills to build a solid foundation for academic learning, in a fun hands-on way. We teach practical skills such as getting dressed, cleaning up after self, toilet training, feeding oneself. We also put an emphasis on social emotional learning. Every child has big feelings. We model and teach how to recognise and regulate those emotions in an age appropriate, prosocial way. We teach kids how to be a friend, how to share, how to notice other's emotions. We build resiliency by boosting kids' confidence that they can do hard things.
Our Staff
Ms. Lauren Kirkland
Owner, Director, Lead Teacher
Ms. Lauren strives to build everything she does on a foundation of fun, creativity, and zest. Her degree in Therapeutic Recreation and Management has enhanced the tools she needs to be an influence of good. She loves workingwith children in a variety of settings, including an equine therapy barn, Granite School District preschool classrooms, and anywhere she adventures with her own two lively children.
Ms. Samantha Lopez
Co-Teacher
Ms. Sam, as the kids lovingly call her, is a highly adept childcare professional. She is practiced in all the skills needed to keep a program running smoothly and safely. She is fluent in Spanish, and provides bilingual learning experiences to the children under her care, including her own son.
Sir Gusarufius Kirklangus
Dog
Gus, as he is called by his friends, is a spirited member of We Play Outside. Gus loves to frolic with children, chase balls, and get scritchy scratches. Gus the lovable lab has been professionally trained, and follows all commands such as sit, laydown, stay, wait, and "place."