Enrollment for the 2011-2012 Friends School House is open to families of children ages 3 -- 5
Friends School House in session from September - May 8:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Before School Care 7:30 a.m. - 8:30 a.m.
After School Care 3:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
They offer a variety of scheduling options
to help children ease in the transition from home to school and provide flexibility
for busy families. Their schedule is designed
to offer both flexibility to parents and consistency for the child.
Please see http://www.statecollegefriendsschool.org/ for more information about the Friends School House
Come eat at Hoss's in State College on Wednesday, January 19th to help earn money for the Co-op!! You must present one car/coupon per family/receipt. To recieve a coupon, yu may get in contact with one of the current Co-op Families. You may also email Lisa at Lisars31@yahoo.com with questions reguarding this fundraiser.
Get a head start on your holiday shopping, enjoy a day out without hte kids, or recuperate form Thanksgiving! Let the parents of the Cooperative Playschool care for your children while you enjoy some much deserved free time! Your children will be cared for in the Cooperative Playschool facility filled with unique and educational toys.
Drop your child off anytime between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Price is $5 per child per hour. We will round up to the nearest hour. The maximum amount any family will be charged is $50. Please pack a lunch for your child. A light snack will be provided.
Advanced Registration is required. Please send an email with the names and ages of your children to: NicoleEileen@hotmail.com or call (814) 238-3922.
The Cooperative Playschool is located off of East Prospect Avenue. There is ample parking for safe loading and unloading of your children. Plase look for the balloons on our sign!
Dear Co-op Families,
I am so excited to be writing this email to you! As you know, the hiring committee has been working this summer to find a new teacher for our school. We hit on a few stumbling blocks with our licensing and certification needs, but now we know those stumbling blocks were meant to be. Efforts paid off and we feel like we hit a home run!!
Enter Karen Oatley, a veteran preschool teacher from Nevada AND Susan Rambeau a newly certified preschool teacher from Loretto. Yes, the hiring committee has hired not one, but two wonderful teachers. As we went through the hiring process, we came to realize that our school runs best with 2 teachers, and that it is worth the financial challenges to give our children the best playschool experience possible.
Fate is such a beautiful thing. Karen was first introduced to our school last summer, when we were trying to fill an open teacher position that was eventually filled by Mindy. She inquired about the job and felt like it would be a perfect fit. Her biggest decision wasn't to apply for the position, but to determine if State College was in her future. Karen lived in Reno Nevada and was pondering a move to State College to be closer to her grandchildren. Long story short, she stayed in Nevada and remained teaching at her school. But this summer, the need to be with her family and see her grandchildren grow was very clear and she moved to State College. She retired and didn't know for sure that she wanted a job again. But, I think we all know teachers like this... she just didn't feel complete, sitting around while her grandsons are in school! She needs to be with kids, so she made a call to us, not knowing we were hiring again this year... but as fate would have it, the hiring committee got the call 48 hours before the last day of interviews. We were able to work her into our interview schedule and the rest is history... Her experiences as lead teacher and director are the kind you notice just from talking to her. She KNOWS children. She knows what it means to know them individually, to reach them, to teach them, to be a part of their playful day of learning. Karen will be our Lead Teacher and we know you will be pleased once you get a chance to meet her.
Susan graduated this past May, and has already been working with children in a preschool setting for the past few years during winter and summer breaks. She believes in our play-based program, and in the power of community, respect and cooperation. She is excited to work and learn alongside Karen. Fate had a part in Susan's story as well. She had many opportunities to choose from and declined our original offer. But, after a night to reconsider her choice, she determined that our school was the right place for her and accepted the position.
We can't wait for you to meet these fabulous teachers. We believe they will make an incredible team and give our children a wonderful preschool year. Next Wednesday, September 1st, we will have a Meet The Teachers play date. It will start at 10:30 AM and it will be on the Coop Playground. We'll bring snacks, and you bring your kids! Karen will be there, and we are still waiting to see if Susan can get the morning off of her summer job. We'll ask that Karen and Susan have a small group activity for the kids to be a part, very similar to what we experienced at Circle Time. Then, the children can play and you will all have the chance to introduce you to our new teachers and get to know them.
With our efforts to find the perfect teachers, we are slightly behind on preparing the school for the first day. We'll have more information to share about the beginning of the school year and provide opportunities for you to get involved and help build our community and cooperative environment as we prepare our school for our children. We definitely need your help!
If you have any questions or would like additional information, please don't hesitate to contact Either Ona or Ed.
We could not have written a more perfect story (except this all happening in July instead of August :-) ), but it would not be possible without the efforts of the Alumni Families who volunteered to be part of the hiring committee. We'd like to give a special thanks to Pam Adams and Judi Glaze who committed their time and made the investment to ensure the best interest of school and our children was made. There were some long days and many, many email... but as you are soon to see, it all paid off. Thanks Pam and Judi!!
We look forward to seeing you on Wednesday as we begin this fantastic year!
Thanks to our parent volunteers and teachers for making this past weekend's events successful.
We attended the 4th Annual Mothers and More Preschool Fair where we met lots of great kids and parents who will be hopefully joining the Coop soon.
Another team was at the school, hosting an Open House with the teachers. Thanks to them, we'll soon be welcoming a new family for the Spring Semester, as well as (hopefully) finding some families for the fall.
And a MIGHTY thank you to ALL families for their help with Winter clean-up. The school looks great!
We're off to a great start on our year... I can't believe 2 months have gone by already!
I feel like I know most of this year's families already... but I'd still love to know more!
If you haven't already done so, please take the time to send Dayna your Family Profile and a family picture. Write whatever you want... just your names, or fill out Dayna's rockin' questionairre... whatever moves you.
These will be posted at the school, and the kids always love looking at each other's family pictures, and reading their family stories.
In the spirit of inspiring you all, I'll share our family profile, written last year:
Once upon a time, in a tiny village called Linden Hall, a Beautiful Lady named Kate and her Prince Charming, whose name is Tony,welcomed their baby daughter to the world. They named her Aubrey Emily Sanfilippo, because they liked the name, and because the Lady’s best friend was named Emily, too. They were very happy together, with their dog Benny and their cats Bill and Purple. Aubrey was a good baby with blue eyes and long legs. She was very smart and funny, and she loved to make music. But still, they felt their family was not yet complete. So a small time later, they welcomed another tiny daughter to the family. They named her JoAnn Evans Sanfilippo, after the Lady’s Grandma and Daddy. JoAnn was a good baby too, and her round cheeks and full lips made them all fall in love with her right away. JoAnn loved to make art and to sing, and she was also smart and funny (smart and funny seemed to be a family trait). Finally, they knew their family was complete. One day, the whole family came to visit a magical place called the Cooperative Playschool, and they knew right away that it was the perfect place for them to find more families to play, learn, and grow with. And they all lived happily ever after.
