Dennis and Carmen Rosselli and their 2-year-old daughter, Michelle, are students at Little Hands, a parent-child cooperative pre-school in Belmont. Michelle attends pre-school two afternoons per week along with one of her parents. Her parents are students in a Sequoia Adult School parenting class co-sponsored by Little Hands and the Adult School.

According to her parents, Michelle loves pre-school and frequently tells them, “I want to go Little Hands.” At Little Hands, she learns by observing and playing with the other children while her parents learn by observing and participating in activities with Michelle, the other children and parents.

Dennis, who is an ESL teacher at the Sequoia Adult School, says, “The Little Hands experience is especially valuable to me as an older parent who was not used to relating to children.” At Little Hands he learns by seeing how other parents interact with their children and gets valuable clues about child management, such as how to encourage creativity in play, redirect or calm an upset child.
Dennis and Carmen both feel the networking among the Little Hands’ parents provides them with valuable insights, information about interesting places to take Michelle and about other pre-schools in the area. In addition, their fellow parents are always willing to help one another outside of class.

Reading is fun when
you do it with Dad

The Sequoia Adult School partners with seven parent-child cooperative nursery schools in San Mateo County. In these cooperatives, teachers, children and parents work together to build a successful learning experience. Each child benefits from being in a rich, active environment that stimulates social-emotional development, physical skills, competence, independence, creativity, imagination, and self-esteem. The children grow as they make friends with classmates and build trusting relationships with other adults.
The parents participate in the daily operation of each school and benefit by sharing in their child’s preschool experiences. They learn about parenting styles from other parents and from participating in the Sequoia Adult School’s parenting education classes.
The parent-child cooperatives affiliated with our Adult School include:

• Carlmont Parents Nursery School (Belmont)
• Family Connections (Menlo Park and East Palo Alto)
• Little Hands (Belmont)
• Menlo-Atherton Cooperative Nursery School (Menlo Park)
• Open Gate Nursery School (Redwood City)
• Redwood Parents Nursery School (Redwood City)
• Sequoia Parents Nursery School (San Carlos)

Each parent cooperative offers unique educational experiences, so families can find a school that best meets their needs. These cooperative nursery schools range from Little Hands in Belmont, a unique pre-school program for the very young child aged 8 to 33 months, to Family Connections in Menlo Park and East Palo Alto. Family Connections is a tuition-free parent participation preschool for low-income families with children aged newborn to 5 years old and includes a bilingual (Spanish/English) program.

Click here for more information on the individual parent-child cooperatives and our Parent Education Program.