Welcome and thank you for your interest in Giocare! Initially, I started this program because of my son who has an October birthday. I wanted to enroll him into some kind of program when he was nearly 2 years old, but he didn’t meet the cut-off for any preschool program I checked. I knew he would go to prekindergarten in only 2 years and thought some kind of regular playgroup would be really good for him. I was intrigued by and enamored with the number of parent coop preschools in the neighborhood and started to check them out as their cut-offs were more flexible.
I am not only a mom, but am also an educator. I hold certificates in early childhood and special education and was an early childhood professor. Over the years, I had formed some specific ideas about what I thought was best for young children and while the parent co-ops I considered were great in many ways, the rotating of the space and rotation of teacher assistants that was prevalent at the time in parent co-ops was something that left me uneasy especially knowing my son. Professionally, I had always wanted to start a school and given the situation, it seemed like the perfect reason for it. Out of this Giocare was born starting in my home for the first six years and then moving to a commercial space in 2016. Drawing on what I felt were the most important elements, we created a space that would focus on play, offer lots of parent involvement, and have a solid early childhood pedagogy.
I often speak of this program as my “4th child” as it really feels like it. Giocare is not just a job, but the beautiful connection of two things I am extremely passionate about – my children and early childhood.