.jpg/:/rs=w:1209,h:411)
Mount Baker Preschool | Waldorf Cooperative
Enrollment for the 2025-2026 school year opens in February. Inquire directly about mid-year enrollments.
Our Philosophy
The Whole Child
Our emphasis at Mount Baker Preschool is on the whole child: Body, Mind, and Soul. We are committed to developing our students' creative, nurturing, and cognitive capabilities through:
- Love and warmth
- Free, imaginative play
- Care for the environment and awareness of our interaction with the world around us
- Gratitude, reverence, and wonder
The Waldorf Curriculum
As a cooperative, the teachers design and implement the curriculum, and parents work to support them in creating an environment where our children are free to learn, explore, and play safely. We believe young children learn best when they play freely and explore.
The classroom is intended to resemble a home with an emphasis on natural materials, the smells of grains cooking in the kitchen, and a large communal table for sharing meals.
Our day flows with a predictable rhythm and alternates between periods of free play (outdoor and indoor) and coming together to share a meal, join in circle time, or gather at the art table for a quiet project. Working parents and teachers provide a general structure, model empathy, assist with transitions, aid in conflict resolution, and provide a nurturing environment.
Activities
We take daily walks, tend our pea patch at Bradner Garden, and enjoy the many green spaces in our neighborhood. Children are encouraged to climb, jump, swing, run, dig, and explore.
When we gather as a class, we enjoy circle time with songs, games and poetry, oral storytelling, and puppetry. Independent indoor play includes drawing, painting, sewing, finger-knitting, and crafts.
We also enjoy seasonal celebrations as a community, including a pumpkin patch visit, a Halloween party, the annual lantern walk, the winter spiral, kite day, and a maypole dance.
Our Teachers
Carolyn
Carolyn Pugh enjoys nurturing preschool children with songs, stories, art, nature, and plenty of time for imaginative play. Her three daughters are all MBPS alumni, and she loves the unique cooperative model of the school and the community it provides. In 2019, Carolyn became the lead teacher at MBPS following seven cumulative years as a parent and assistant teacher. She has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in history and completed her Waldorf Early Childhood teacher training through Sound Circle Center. Outside of teaching, she enjoys family time, yoga, board games, birding, cooking, and sewing.
Enrollment
We offer a mixed-age program for children aged 3-5 years old. Families may choose from three, four, or five-day programs, which run from 9am – 1pm. Fridays are reserved for older children (4 or 5 years old). The school year follows the Seattle Public Schools calendar (September – June). Applicants should be 3 years old by August 31. September birthdays will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Our Preschool is a cooperative with two different models of participation:
Co-Op Classroom Model
Parents act as weekly classroom volunteers, take turns providing and preparing healthy snacks, hold a role outside the classroom to help manage the school (e.g. publicity, maintenance, enrollment), assist with fundraising efforts for our scholarship fund, and attend monthly parent meetings. Tuition is significantly reduced for co-op classroom model families.
Co-Op Preschool Model
Families in the preschool model pay a higher tuition rate and omit the weekly classroom volunteer commitment. Parents still hold a role outside the classroom to help manage the school, assist with fundraising efforts for our scholarship fund, and attend monthly parent meetings. There are a limited number of co-op preschool model spots available.