WAUSAU – Monk Botanical Gardens will expand its Sprouts Garden Preschool in the 2023-2024 school year with offerings that include a full-day class for 4- to 5 year-olds, and before and after-school care options.
Enrollment opens for members on Feb. 1 with open enrollment starting Feb. 8. Members will receive registration information via email.
Families will be notified of class (or waitlist) placement on March 15. Students should enroll in a class based on their age on Sept. 1 and must be 3 years old (sunflower and clover classes) or 4 years old (alfalfa and Brussels classes) by Sept. 1 to enroll. Students must be fully toilet trained to enroll. Also new this year, the program will use a sliding scale based on income to determine the tuition rate for each family. Additional tuition assistance is also available to ensure the preschool is accessible to all families in our community.
Sprouts Garden Preschool has nature at the heart of the program, with teaching based on high-quality early childhood education and environmental education practices. Students spend over 80 percent of their time outdoors throughout the seasons with any indoor time taking place in the yurt classroom. Academic skills such as pattern recognition, letters, numbers and colors emerge from outdoor learning experiences like counting birds on the pond, looking for matching colors of flowers and bugs, tracking animal prints in the snow, and journaling about nature observations. Positive social interaction and respect for others are heightened and reinforced by outdoor exploration and play.
To learn more about Sprouts Garden Preschool, view the Sprouts Family Handbook, or enroll during open enrollment, visit monkgardens.org/education/sprouts-garden-preschool/.
To learn more about gardens membership, visit monkgardens.org/support/membership/.
You can also contact Monk Botanical Gardens with questions at [email protected] or 715-261-6309.
