Ashley's Garden Preschool

WE'VE EXPANDED AGAIN!

Ashley's Garden Preschool, a private independent preschool specializing in 3 to 5 year olds, offers an exceptional educational experience steeped in play and fun. Ashley's Garden offers a Montessori-based curriculum plus weekly lessons in gymnastics, swimming, dance and yoga.

Distinguished for its learning foundations, Ashley's Garden provides an exceptionally rich environment designed to promote the ease of learning. Free weekly lessons in swimming, gymnastics, yoga and dance/creative movement are included in our curriculum. Ashley's Garden has the advantage of being housed in Gym Magic KIDS, a center dedicated to children and their development.

Students in Ashley's Garden participate in science projects as well as recitals, both of which offer great foundations for learning and personal development. Students receive individualized learning plans plus participate in S'cool Moves (an integrative movement program designed to promote ease of learning) and Zoo-phonics (a multi-sensory phonics program which combines movement, music and sound for a playful, movement-based introduction to phonics).

Ashley's Garden offers the best integrative movement program for children in the state and has an exceptionally strong emphasis on play and movement as experts acknowledge children learn best through play. Research has documented the learning / movement connection and the importance of movement to brain organization and development. "The more closely we consider the elaborate interplay of brain and body, the more clearly one compelling theme emerges: Movement is essential to learning...Movement integrates and anchors new information and experience into our neural networks," states Dr. Carla Hannaford, noted neurobiologist.

Ashley's Garden works hard to keep up with current research on child development with special focus on brain development and school readiness. Curricula are updated with new games and material which promote 'executive function' in the brain that current research recommends. Please note that these are 'play-based', fun activities which build confidence while promoting executive functions such as self-regulation.

With over 10,000 sq. ft. of padded, indoor gymnastics space in the main gym and over 23,000 sq ft in the total facility, Ashley's students receive plenty of activity no matter the weather outside. Additionally, a private preschool gym with special preschool equipment is used to teach preschool gymnastics. Research has shown that preschool gymnastics develops new neural networks in the brain and supports brain organization. "Mounting evidence show that movement is crucial to every other brain function, including memory, emotion, language, and learning...Our "higher" brain functions have evolved from movement and still depend on it," says John J. Ratey, MD.

Year-round swim lessons are taught in-house in the Lily Pad Swim School which provides heated, indoor pools with teaching steps and tot docks for ease of teaching. Swimming provides another opportunity for integrative movement for brain development plus teaches the life-saving skill of floating and water safety that all children should be exposed to.

Dance and creative movement are offered weekly to Ashley's students. Music, rhymes and rhythms are important aspects of the program overall as they promote and support the foundations of learning.

Ashley's Garden Preschool is licensed in the state of New Mexico, #11644.