About Loving Space

We have selected from the philosophical ideas of many educators to create our own learning environment at Loving Space. From Bev Bos we have discovered that children learn best through exploration and experience.

Together we celebrate what childhood should be; a time to explore the world unhurried, surrounded by friends and encouraging grown ups in an environment filled with endless supplies and opportunities for creative play.

At Loving Space preschool our goal is to enhance children’s creativity, stimulate their curiosity and to simply tickle their fancies. At our kindergarten our goal is to create a structured classroom environment which eagerly awaits spontaneous learning and discovery. For more on our philosophy, here is the Loving Space Recipe:

We have selected from the philosophical ideas of many educators to create our own learning environment at Loving Space. From Bev Bos we have discovered that children learn best through exploration and experience.

From Rudolph Steiner we have embraced the importance of honoring and nurturing each developmental stage of a child’s growth.

From Maria Montessori we have found to trust a child’s innate desire for knowledge and to allow them to go at their own pace in learning.

From Reggio Emilia’s schools we are inspired to allow children to work on social skills directly with their peers.

We like to look at our environment like a pot of soup…many educational ideas make up the broth; the children with their different developmental stages and personalities bring in the spice; the projects and “kid work” are like veggies to chew on, and the school itself warmly contains it all.

Each day our soup may taste a little different depending on what the children’s interests are, which spontaneous event is just around the corner or which spice is in the air.

We invite you to come and try it.

“I started Loving Space in April of 1993, with the intention of providing children with a loving, healthy creative space to play. Hence the name. Over the last 15 years, that intention has grown into a passionate commitment to protect childhood. In our busy world where children are growing up too fast someone needs to stand up and say what about the children”? At Loving Space we are working hard every day to provide a place where children can do the absolutely necessary work of childhood…play: the freely chosen and pleasurable imagining, exploring, manipulating, experimenting, relating, laughing and risk-taking that constitutes real play.

In his book IN DEFENSE OF CHILDHOOD-protecting Kid’s Inner Wildness
Chris Mercogilano states, "it is through real play that children make some of their greatest discoveries: whom to trust, how to differentiate true from false and reality from fantasy, when they are ready for the next real challenging experience, where their boundaries end and the next person’s begin, and why things are the way they are.”

At Loving Space this is our goal. To provide children the space for real play.

Through the years I have spent working with children I have become a wife and parent, a more playful and trusting teacher, a better
listener and friend and part of an amazing community I am proud to call Loving Space.”

--Abby Franklin, Owner

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Contact the Preschool:
Phone: 360-676-1355
email: Abby Franklin abbyfranklin1@yahoo.com