Discovery Schoolhouse provides full and part day, year-round, educational childcare to children two-years-nine-months through Kindergarten, as well as some after school care for children seven through nine. The program uses an interactive, child-centered, developmentally appropriate approach which assumes that children learn through active participation and discovery. The curriculum emphasizes child-initiated activities, problem solving, fostering independence, social skills, respecting cultural diversity, creativity, and individuality.

At Discovery Schoolhouse each child is respected as an individual and given maximum support for learning and development. The curriculum is designed to nurture the development of the whole child, addressing cognitive, intellectual, social, emotional, ethical, and physical needs.

The curriculum and classrooms at Discovery Schoolhouse are designed so that children have a wide variety of appropriate activities available to them. Teachers are active facilitators of children’s learning, constantly adjusting the curriculum to meet the needs and interests of each child. Teachers act as guides, helping children make choices, work out and discuss conflicts with their friends, answering and asking questions, modeling appropriate behavior, and monitoring children’s progress.

A basic philosophy of the school is that children learn best about the real world by using genuine materials and equipment whenever possible. Toy tools, make-believe ovens, and plastic shovels simply do not function as they should, and the child who uses only a plastic hammer at a pretend workbench only learns that hammers do not work, cannot hurt your finger, and do not need to be used carefully. Therefore at Discovery Schoolhouse children use real tools and equipment whenever possible, such as metal shovels, rakes, trowels, and hoes for gardening; real kitchen utensils such as potato peelers, apple corers, food mills, and metal tableware for cooking; and real carpentry tools such as hammers, saws, drills, screwdrivers, and files for woodworking. Of course, children are always carefully supervised, and teachers work with children so that they can learn the proper and safe handling of appropriate tools and materials.