Philosophy

Welcome to the Cooperative Children's Center!

Offering quality daycare and preschool for children 12 months to 6 years!

We are a parent-owned NAEYC accredited Seattle child care center located just north of the University of Washington. Our mission is to provide a safe and creative environment that fosters our children’s social, emotional, cognitive, and physical growth, and instills in our children a respect for self, respect for others, and a joy for learning. Please explore our website, which has many resources detailing our learning philosophy, techniques, and values.

Our History

Our Co-op was organized in 1972 as an alternative to the established for-profit early childcare and preschool programs available at the time. The cooperative system we offer has the advantage of INVOLVING PARENTS with the twin benefits of improved child-parent-teacher relationships and the development of more parental confidence in parenting skills. We offer a quality program with time for free play, games, self-help and social skills, creative expression and field trips. This approach is known as Emergent Curriculum and it is a key element of the co-op. We also have a positive approach towards discipline, stressing ways to enable the children to learn to control their own behavior. As our name suggests, the key to our program is COOPERATION! This involves a parental commitment that goes beyond what is required by most other early childhood centers and consequently, provides a superior program.

We are still a private, parent owned, non-profit child care and preschool center where parents play a major role in the program and the classroom. Parents participate weekly by working in their child's classroom, attend semi-annual all classroom meetings, make up the majority of our board, and account for the majority of voting members of the cooperative. Parents vote on budgets, create policies, spearhead fundraising and so much more. Welcome to the Co-op Home Page!