Learning happens through play.
Children don’t need a curriculum to learn — they need an environment that invites them to explore, materials that respond to their ideas, and adults who pay attention. That’s what we build, every day, at Roots.
Children are already learning.
Walk into a room of two-year-olds and you’ll see scientists testing gravity by dropping things off a table, linguists building vocabulary by demanding to know what every object is called, and engineers trying to fit a square block into a round hole until physics gives in or they do.
None of that is taught. It’s already happening. Our job isn’t to push learning into children — it’s to set up environments where the learning that’s already in them has somewhere to go.
That belief shapes everything else: how we arrange rooms, what materials we put out, how teachers talk to children, and what kinds of activities we plan. None of it is accidental.
“Children are capable and willing to learn. They learn through active participation within an environment created of people and materials.”— Our guiding principle
Four directions, all at once.
A child doesn’t learn in one mode at a time. They learn through their hands, their voices, their bodies, and their friendships — often in the same five minutes.
Through their hands.
Open-ended materials are the heart of what we do. Paint, clay, sensory bins, blocks, fabric scraps, water, sand, recyclables — things that don’t tell a child what to do with them, but invite them to find out.
A child stirring water with a spoon isn’t just stirring water. They’re learning cause and effect, building grip strength, practicing focus, and building the foundation for every future “I can figure this out” they’ll ever have.
- Art & messy play every day
- Sensory bins for younger children
- Building toys, dramatic play, loose parts
Through their voices.
Language develops in conversation, not flashcards. Our teachers narrate the day, ask real questions, listen for real answers, and trust children to use words they’ve never heard before and try them on.
Story time is daily. Music is daily. Singing is daily. So is the slow, patient work of helping a frustrated toddler find words for “I don’t want to share that yet” instead of grabbing.
- Daily story time with rich, varied books
- Music, songs, fingerplays, rhymes
- Teachers who explain, not just direct
Through their bodies.
Children think with their whole body. Big movement — running, climbing, jumping, dancing — isn’t a break from learning. It’s how the brain organizes itself.
We’re outdoors every day weather allows, and our indoor spaces are designed for movement, not stillness. The two-year-old who climbs to the top of the structure today is the same child who’ll have the confidence to try the math problem tomorrow.
- Daily outdoor play, weather permitting
- Climbing, running, dancing, balance
- Fine motor work — cutting, lacing, pouring
Through their friendships.
You can’t teach a child to share, take turns, or work through a disagreement by telling them about it. They learn by trying, failing, watching, and trying again — with patient, kind adults nearby to help name what’s happening.
The hardest, most important skills your child will learn at Roots aren’t academic. They’re the social and emotional skills that make academic learning — and a happy life — possible.
- Small groups so every child is known
- Teachers who coach, not just correct
- Mixed-age moments where younger learns from older
The choices behind the choices.
Lots of centers say “play-based” and “child-centered.” Here’s what those words actually look like, in practice, at Roots.
Teachers who stay.
The biggest signal of a good early childhood program isn’t the curriculum — it’s whether teachers stick around. Our staff retention is high because we hire carefully, pay fairly, and support continuing education. Your child won’t have a new teacher every six months.
Small group sizes.
We keep group sizes lower than the state minimum so every child gets seen, heard, and known. A teacher who can only count heads isn’t a teacher — they’re a babysitter. Our ratios make real relationships possible.
An environment that teaches.
Walk into any of our rooms and you’ll see materials at child height, deliberate organization, real tools (not toy versions), and spaces that invite focus instead of chaos. The room itself is a teacher — and it’s set up carefully every single morning.
Communication that’s real.
You’ll get daily updates about your child — not just whether they ate and slept, but what made them laugh, what they figured out, who they played with, what they’re working through. The kind of communication that keeps you connected to your child’s day even when you’re not there.
Come watch it happen for yourself.
The hardest thing about choosing a child care center is knowing what really goes on once you walk away. Schedule a tour and see what a morning at Roots actually looks like — not what we say it looks like.