From the moment I saw the CCNS yard and interacted with their incredible teachers, I knew this is where my daughter would thrive and my family would find the supportive community we were looking for! A giant sand pit with a climbing pretend ship and water spigot, a bike path, a mud kitchen, a supervised “wood shop”, a mini garden, a mini puppet theater, a big play structure, and animals (chickens, bunnies, and guinea pigs)…these are all features of the outdoor play space that are then enhanced with rotating extra outdoor toys that are chosen by the parent volunteers and teachers each day. In addition to all of those choices of things to do, there is also a seemingly endless repertoire of different creative projects and sensory invitations to play that they setup (ex. ice painting, water beads, cardboard box forts, etc…). In non-covid times the indoor play space has costumes, a mini kitchen, diverse dolls, an art space, a toy room, and more. All of this to say- it is the absolute optimal environment for our child to do what we want most for her right now- to be a kid and PLAY!! We have been with the school for a year now, completing the 2’s program, and are eagerly awaiting the school year to start again for the 3’s program. For our daughter- the quality of play, activities, creativity, 1:1 support and overall opportunities for pursuing her own interests are everything (and more!) than we could have hoped for. For my husband and I, the ongoing guidance from teachers and monthly trainings from coordinated guest speakers about parenting and child development have been hugely helpful and empowering for us. And the wonderful friendships we have found we know will last long after all of our children have moved on from the school. The school clearly cares not only about providing the best support possible to the children, but also giving genuine care and kindness to families. If you are nervous about the volunteering aspect of a co-op, my encouragement would be that it is through regular volunteering that we are able to form meaningful relationships with the teachers, get to know others in the preschool community and find our deep friendships with other families. If we were not working together to help care for each others kids and keep the school thriving, we would not share the same bonds! Our family has been looking to relocate out of California but we are choosing to stay here for the time being to allow our daughter to stay at CCNS until she ages out. We just can’t say enough nice things about this magical place and we are so thankful we found it!

We enrolled our daughter in Cupertino Co-Op Nursery School this fall and we've been so happy with the teachers and the community at that school. The school is a wonderful location with a huge backyard play area that has bikes and chickens and bunnies and tire swings and lots more. Inside there is a play house, art studio, and a game room. Our daughter comes home with a new and different piece of art that she's made almost every day. It's a parent run co-op, which means all of the parents are very involved (they run the school!) and it's really great getting to know a community of other parents with children the same age. The parents work during the school days along with the teachers, which means there are lots of adults supervising the children, and it also means the adults get to relive a bit of their own preschool experience. I had forgotten how much fun a marble maze is, or all the different things that you can do with hula hoops!