Child CARE
Our Mission
Conserving childhood through acceptance, education, and empowerment of children and families.
Who we are
Play Frontier aims to remove the barriers of cost and availability by forming a nonprofit childcare center (Frontier Center for Child Development).
In practice, this looks like children being agents of their learning through observing, questioning, and discovery, alongside supportive adults. At Play Frontier, art and nature are the primary lenses through which children learn — not enrichment add-ons, but core methodology. Grounded in place-based pedagogy and inspired by Reggio Emilia, our early learners build literacy, math, and social-emotional skills through sustained studio practice, visual arts, ceramics, nature-based inquiry, and outdoor observation in the natural world that surrounds our campus.
At our nature/play-based school we utilize an emergent curriculum
An emergent curriculum fits especially well because the environment itself provides endless things for children to investigate.
A puddle can become a lesson about:
water → mud → measurement → weather → worms → plants → ecosystems → storytelling → art.
A fallen tree might lead to:
bugs → decomposition → habitats → counting rings → measuring → woodworking → forest ecology.
The curriculum can essentially grow from the children's real experiences.
At Play Frontier, our curriculum emerges from children’s curiosity. Teachers observe what children are wondering about, then thoughtfully build experiences, questions, materials, and opportunities for deeper learning around those interests. Children’s questions become the starting point for exploration, while teachers intentionally support literacy, math, science, creativity, problem-solving, and social-emotional development along the way.
30%
of children 0-5 years old live at or below the federal poverty level in Skamania County
$14,844
Average cost of child care per year in Washington State
535
Number of children 0-5 years old who live in Skamania county as of 2021
Get Involved
Seeking Play Pioneers! Volunteers, grown-ups, and play enthusiasts wanted to share their passions and skills with young children. Donations are also vital to our growth, and greatly appreciated!
