Our Mission
Our mission is to provide an early childhood program that embodies a play-based and developmentally appropriate method of educating the child through their head, heart, and hands.
Our vision is of a thriving, well-supported, inclusive school that cultivates each child’s capacity to think clearly, feel compassionately, and act purposefully in the world.
Our Philosophy
None of us can predict what information our children will need to know twenty years from now, but we do know that, to be successful, they will need the ability to think and solve problems. The education we offer is based on an understanding that the key to developing problem solving skills for the 21st century is an active imagination and a commitment to pursuing one’s purpose in life.
Intellectual flexibility, independent judgment, and moral courage is essential to our children’s success as creative and responsible human beings. To nurture these characteristics, our curriculum carefully balances academic, artistic, and practical activities to stimulate the imagination and prepare students for life. Rather than relying on rote memorization of standardized information, we seek to engage the whole child in the learning process.
Our teachers understand that children pass through distinct stages of development and that both the subject matter and manner in which it is taught need to be specific to the age of a growing child. Our teachings are Waldorf-inspired and based upon the research from Rudolf Steiner and many other child development researchers and practitioners, including David Elkind, Howard Gardner, and Jean Piaget. We believe that education should be based on developmental research, not the theories and pocketbooks of politicians and toy companies.
We live in an era of “too much, too fast, too soon” and longitudinal studies are showing the effects this is having on our children and our future. There needs to be a change for our children and we are starting to make that change. We hope you will join us in helping give children the education they deserve.t's something exciting your business offers? Say it here.
Our Story
RRock Rose began in 2006 as a small study group of parents and teachers committed to helping their children develop. Recognizing the need to reach more children, the group became a nonprofit parent-child program in Escondido and a parent co-op kindergarten in Ramona. Wanting a more permanent location, we located a building in Fallbrook with a room and outside play area — The Hilltop Center.
We opened our doors in 2009 for our first preschool and parent-child classes in The Friendly Village. During the summer of 2013, we moved our location to The Creekside Plaza in Fallbrook. This new location gave the children more outdoor space and a charming place to call their school. At this time, we began to incorporate more LifeWays elements into the program and shifted from a preschool to a combined preschool and kindergarten for children aged 2 - 6 years old.
We planted a garden and modified aspects of outdoor kindergarten programs to build a program, creating a rhythm of long outside days and long inside days. We also extended our day to include preparing lunch and having naps at school. In the fall of 2021 we started an outdoor nature camp program, Gum Tree Nature Camp, where we spend the entire day outdoors in public parks, or on private lands on farms, gardens or far afield hikes.
Our mission is to provide an early childhood program that embodies a play-based and developmentally appropriate method of educating the child through their head, heart, and hands. Our vision is of a thriving, well-supported, inclusive program that cultivates each child’s capacity to think clearly, feel compassionately, and act purposefully in the world.