A Child's Garden of Thyme

When I was a young working mother, I was lucky. I lived in Ithaca NY, where my mother ran a Waldorf kindergarten. I could not have afforded day care, especially child care based on Waldorf principals if it had not been for my mother. She took my son in at the tender age of 6 months, and he remained a regular participant of her kindergarten until he was ready for first grade. I, meanwhile, benefitted from the secure knowledge that my child was receiving age-appropriate care, was not being asked to "learn" academic skills that he was unprepared for, and was being given a firm foundation for learning once he was of grade school age. It wasn't just that my mother ran the kindergarten - it was that it it was a Waldorf kindergarten. Having spent some time in so-called "learning" centers and Head Start classrooms, I knew that the only way I could give my son  true head start was to allow him to play and discover, to protect him from media influences, to provide him with natural materials and simple toys, to give him a rhythmic home life that included story telling, puppetry, costumes for improvisational, spur of the moment acting, and a great deal of love.

I now live in North County San Diego. My son is grown, so I am no longer in need of exceptional, wholistic, affordable child care. But if I were looking for such a place, where would I go?

There is a lovely little place in Oceanside called A Child's Garden of Thyme, run by a beautiful, intelligent, capable and deeply caring person named Bianca Lara. Dedicated to the Waldorf principals of child care and an anthroposophic view of child development, Bianca has grown a true children's garden, where children and families can experience the joy of awakening and growing, of discovering and loving without the pressures from a technological world that would hurry them along. The unique, garden-based program features a natural, home-like environment for children to experience the world at their own pace and learn through their senses. 

A Child's Garden of Thyme is a truly mixed-age pre-school experience for children from birth to five years. The program is flexible to meet the child care needs of each family. Instead of staffing this program with a teacher and an assistant, Bianca works with a second teacher to provide a 1-5 teacher-to-child ratio. Both teachers have Waldorf and LifeWays training and experience. Since the children are able to stay at A Child's Garden of Thyme for several years, there is an “extended family” feeling to the program. The children spend much of their time outdoors in the wonderfully mild Southern California climate. The garden itself  is landscaped in largely edible, scented, and drought-tolerant plants and trees, providing plenty of opportunities for creative sand, dirt, and water play, and is home to many birds and bugs. 

Healthy, organic, freshly prepared sit-down meals and snacks are served family style to promote healthy, adventurous eating. The children are fully engaged in the preparation of the food from gardening, to cooking from scratch, composting, vermiculture, baking, and eating consciously.  In addition to the joys of discovery and food preparation, the children at A Child's Garden of Thyme enjoy an atmosphere of fun, laughter, poetry, puppetry, song, seasonal activities and surprises!


So where would I send my son, had I to do it all over again here in North County San Diego? No question - I would enroll him in A child's Garden of Thyme, where I could feel that my values were honored, and where I would know that my child would have not only wonderful, creative teachers, but a 2nd (and 3rd) mama to look out for him in the early years of his life.