Philosophy

Three main components comprise Artisan Childcare Center's philosophy: quality childcare, arts programming, and our specialized "green" initiative.

Quality Childcare: 

Artisan Childcare Center offers children aged six weeks through six years a safe and supportive environment in which they can ask questions and explore the vast world they share with their fellow students, families, and teachers. Our curriculum provides an enriching educational program-one that sets the foundation for success in all future educational endeavors.

Our team of early-childhood teachers supports the growth of every student by personalizing the curriculum to best meet the child's individual developmental needs. By using the superior education each teacher has received prior to coming to Artisan, innovative and intuitive themes are developed and implemented both inside and outside the classroom.

Classroom environments are designed with the child in mind, featuring specially sized furniture that allows children to easily move about the spaces. A wide assortment of leaning materials and toys collected in each room encourages the children to find confidence in their social and developmental abilities while continually sparking curiosity and expanding their comfort zones. A life-long love for education is thus built through this combination of social interaction and engaging educational materials.

 

Arts Programming:

Studying the arts is a central part of life at Artisan Childcare Center, but exposing children to the value of visual and performing arts instruction is not just about learning to play an instrument or picking up a paint brush. Artisan's core mission firmly believes that early-childhood arts education plays a vital role in the growth of productive, intuitive, and well-adjusted children; music not only helps builds self-esteem, but also improves academic performance, greatly enhances literacy skills, and spurs critical brain development.

In fact, research shows that children who have been exposed to music beginning at an early age have greater memory capacity, longer attention spans, and are predisposed to the rigorous demands of academia. For further information related to the long-term effects of music and arts education on childhood development, click through some of these resources:

 

 

Art is absolutely vital to the families and communities served by Artisan, and represents the cross-cultural exchanges and diverse values that are held in such high regard throughout Greater Boston. Ours is a vibrant metropolitan area that encourages exploration of the arts: From Symphony Hall to the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, our community is surrounded by incredibly fortunate opportunities to be active participants and knowledgeable audiences for the arts.

Our children will make up the potential audiences for the 2040 season of the Boston Philharmonic and will be prospective members of the Museum of Fine Arts later in life. Without this audience, these world-class institutions and organizations will die out. Families and leaning centers today must nurture an appreciation for the arts, and in order to do that we must all think outside the box set by public school curricula that continue to cut or under-serve arts programs. Artisan is committed to fostering a love of learning-across all disciplines-which can only be done by finding creative ways to engage our children and shape their perspectives. How can we best achieve this? Through the arts!

"Green" Initiative:

"We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect."
-Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac

In addition to our strong early-childhood curricula and arts program, Artisan also educates children about what it means to be "green" in today's society. At the Curtis House, painstaking care was put into renovating the historic building with respect for its unique historical character and features. Under the contemporary flooring, we have found and restored the building's original wide-plank pine flooring. The windows and heating system have been updated to include the latest in energy-efficient technologies. Single-stream recycling at all facilities allows us to recycle glass, plastics, paper, cardboard, and metal by using one consolidated receptacle.

Artisan's facilities have plenty of outdoor play space to foster a sense of exploration — whether that's seeking out new plants and flowers on the property, building castles in our large sandbox, or ascending to the observation deck in our safe, sturdy play structure. At our Woburn location, there is also a vegetable garden where children can help plant, grow, and harvest their own snacks for use during the school day!

Our students are active participants in maintaining our green facility; by taking part in recycling initiatives on a daily basis and learning about how they can positively impact our physical environment. At Artisan, we believe that teaching children to be the future stewards of their environment cultivates an acute sense of responsibility and mutual respect for the earth that will follow them into their future educational and social pursuits.