Our bilingual, Montessori & Reggio-Emilia inspired curriculum nurtures a love for learning
Filled with song, dance, stories, and language, each day at Tinycare starts with circle time, where children learn something new in community.
The rest of the day is full of joy and wonder, with free play, outdoor play, family style lunch, and more.
Our teachers are licensed child development experts
Our headteachers share child-centered, Montessori & Reggio-inspired lesson plans with you every week. Meet two of them here.
Joanna
I am a Head Teacher at SOMA Montessori Preschool. I am a Certified Montessori ECE Teacher and I earned my Primary Diploma from The Canadian Montessori Teachers Education Institute in 2008. I have over 15 years of experience working as a Lead Montessori guide in International Montessori Schools in Warsaw - Poland, Shanghai -China, and Hong Kong. I'm passionate about a holistic approach to education and child development. Working with children, I focus on meeting their individual needs, promote talents, interests, and uniqueness, help them to develop self-confidence, and grow eagerness to learn and explore.
Calvin
My name is Teacher Calvin and I’ve been teaching young children for roughly 10 years now- I have a Bachelors of Arts in Music Composition from UC Berkeley which I use daily in my lesson plans. My teaching journey started with volunteering and teaching Korean and ESL to elementary school students at my church when I was in high school. I then went on to pick up skills as I worked for various music nonprofits throughout the bay area. I’m currently the Mentor Teacher for Tinycare’s West Village as well as the Head Teacher for Eureka Valley Preschool. My curriculum is mainly focused around music/movement with an emphasis on social/emotional drawing inspiration from Montessori theology. In my free time I enjoy composing my own music and staying active and outdoors.
Curriculum & pedagogy
Inspired by the Montessori, Reggio Emilia, and Waldorf philosophies, our bilingual curriculum focuses on developing the whole child — mind, body, heart, and spirit.
We incorporate positive discipline and leading research, including from the Harvard Center on the Developing Child.
Daily schedule at a Tinycare
Small class sizes (4-8) and ratios allow us to balance structure with personalization in our daily flow. Infant schedules are entirely individualized to each infant.
8:00 - 8:30 drop-off + free play
8:30 - 10:30 morning work time
9:15 - 9:30 circle time
10:30 - 11:00 snack time
11:00 - 11:30 project time
11:30 - 12:30 outdoor play
12:30 - 1:00 family style lunch
1:00 - 2:30 naptime
2:30 - 3:00 afternoon snack
3:00 - 4:30 afternoon work
4:30 - 5:30 outside time
5:30 - 6:00 pickup + free play
Bilingual Spanish & Mandarin programs available
Research shows that bilingual instruction during the early critical period for language has a myriad of brain benefits for children.
Each Tinycare offers three levels of bilingual instruction:
Exposure: ~20%
Bilingual: ~50%
Full immersion: ~100%
Our classrooms are beautiful homes away from home
“The environment is the third teacher” — Loris Malaguzzi, Founder of Reggio Emilia
Each Tinycare is holistically designed to meet children where they are at developmentally. A few principles we design around:
nature themed: designed to be calming and welcoming.
light, ventilation, and temperature: we moderate the extremes, including heat and stale air and aerosols with HEPA filters and fans.
non-toxic materials: instead of plastics and loud beeping toys.
Outdoor play is a key part of every day
Every day, and multiple times a day if the weather permits, our children get a chance to run and explore in a park & playground and engage in messy play and gross motor activity.
This picture is from a park right across the street from our SOMA Toddler & SOMA Montessori Preschool programs.
Enrollment - as easy as one, two, three
1. Join a 30 Minute Group Infosession
2. Submit a 5 Minute Enrollment Application if space is available, or a Waitlist Application if not.
3. A member from our Enrollment team will reach out with confirmation of your application.