Spanish Immersion Daycare
La Escuela Arcoíris (The Rainbow Schoolhouse) provides exceptional Spanish immersion childcare for 1-6 year olds in the heart of Seattle’s Greenlake neighborhood
Now Enrolling
We are open year-round from 8am to 5:30pm, Monday through Friday. We have limited spots available for new students.
Please reach out at therainbowschoolhouse@gmail.com for enrollment or tour information.
About Us
Through our own growing bilingual family and the continued scarcity of high-quality childcare options in north Seattle post pandemic, we decided that we wanted to open a space for other like-minded families needing childcare options. We opened The Rainbow Schoolhouse in January, 2022 out of a personal and community desire for small, community-oriented home-care with a focus on diversity, independence, and creativity. We are continuously looking to make improvements and additions to make the perfect learning and playing environment.
Our Vision
At The Rainbow Schoolhouse our goals are to provide a place where children learn foundational academic and social-emotional skills to prepare them for kindergarten and beyond. We aim to provide children opportunities to participate in a wide range of activities where they can learn developmentally appropriate skills from their teachers and peers. We believe that children learn best through structured play and exposure to diversity.
Our Mission
It is the mission of The Rainbow Schoolhouse to provide exceptional Spanish immersion childcare for 1 – 6 years old and their families by creating a community through a warm, nurturing, loving and educational environment. Our focus is to provide and encourage educational experiences, promoting social-emotional, physical, cultural, and cognitive development through play and experiential learning.
Curriculum
Although we are technically a home daycare, we follow an intentionally created curriculum to ensure a whole-child based education, have specific learning areas, and follow a structured schedule that ensures for a wide range of learning opportunities for the children. Our curriculum is based on a mixture of educational philosophies for children, which emphasizes learning through play. We seek to promote social interaction, creative play, sensory exploration and the acquisition of early literacy and basic mathematical concepts.
In Our classroom we have a mixed class of children from 1 to 6 years of age. All children engage in the same activities, but each activity is differentiated based on abilities and goals for each individual child. Our Spanish speaking teachers have experience developing linguistic skills in young children. We believe that second language acquisition functions best when learned in the same way as their native langue, through play, songs, art, basic instruction, and being immersed throughout their school day.
Program Curriculum
The curriculum at The Rainbow Schoolhouse includes the following components throughout the day:
Emotional Development
Emotional skills allow children to identify and understand their feelings and to learn how to deal with conflict. Children learn appropriate behaviors to express feelings. They learn to discriminate between the expectations of home and school, and to modify their behaviors in accordance with those expectations, Children develop self-expression, self-control and responsibility for their actions.
Social Development
Social skills are those behaviors that enable the child to respond appropriately to children and adults inside and outside of the home. The children learn to respond to adults and to their peers with mutual enjoyment and accomplishment. They learn to approach and interact with other children, take part in group activities, and work alone when others are near, We encourage respect for others and self-help skills. In addition, we promote children’s ability to make positive, self-directed choices in relation to their environment and peers.
Oral Language Skills
Listening involves attending to and understanding spoken language, responding to verbal cues and directions, and enjoying stories, music, and poetry. Materials that promote language skills include books, songs, nature materials, and a wide range of interesting experiences (indoors and outdoors) that stimulate and foster vocabulary growth.
Physical Development
Motor skills, both small and large, are those skills that enable children to respond to, explore, manipulate, and control their environment through mastery of increasingly complex and coordinated movements. We provide this through use of gym and outdoor play,as well as manipulatives in the school.
Pre-Academic Development
Pre-Academic skills include skills in oral language, pre-math, pre-reading, perceptual discrimination, concept development, music, and skills with construction and art materials that will be rewarding to children during their preschool years and will promote their readiness for a successful primary school experience.
We post a weekly curriculum plan on the parent board as well as a daily recap of activities.
Philosophy
We have purposely created a mix of many different philosophies that we have pieced together to best meet our skills as well as the needs of the students. In our school students will experience aspects of Self-Directed Discovery (The Montessori Method), The Self-Directed-Developmental Approach (Reggio Emilia Pedagogy), and Play-based Learning (The Waldorf Approach). Katherine has studied, taken courses/trainings, and used these methods over the years and have created a unique style that kids love.
Creative Development – Every day students engage in group and individual activities that work towards building curious and passionate learners that reflect the passions and interests of the children. This is accomplished through music, dance, art, cooking, games, reading, circle time, community building activities, and more.
Independent Learners – We believe that independence and resilience are extremely important for our young ones. Students learn how to interact and resolve interpersonal conflicts in safe and caring ways. Students are encouraged to help out with age-appropriate tasks like cleaning up and organizing toys and materials, serving and clearing food, and taking care of their own bedding and personal belongings.
Purposeful Mealtimes – Mealtimes are a perfect opportunity to build community and learn from one another. We engage in family style breakfast, lunch, and snack times where the children and teachers engage in community time. Breakfast and snacks are provided by the school, but families provide their children’s lunches. We take allergies and dietary restrictions very seriously and will do everything we can to accommodate for all students.
CORE VALUES
Respect – We respect and care for each other as a supportive, loving, and fun family.
Education – We respect and embrace that all learners progress and learn differently through their unique interests and skills.
Creativity – We encourage creative, out of the box ideas.
Teamwork – We value the social-emotional bonds that are formed within our community.
Fun!!! – This goes without saying, but we try to have fun and seek joy in all that we do.
Daily Schedule
8:00: School Opens (Kids wash hands upon arrival)
8:00 – 9:00: Breakfast and morning activities
9:00: Breakfast ends
9:00 – 9:15: Clean up time/ bathroom and diaper changes
9:15- 9:30: Circle time
9:30- 10:30: Activities
10:30 – 10:45: Clean up time/ bathroom and diaper changes
10:45 – 11:45: Outside time
11:45-12:00: Hand washing / bathroom and diaper changes if needed/ lunch prep
12:00 – 12:45: Lunch
12:45- 1:00: Clean up from lunch/ bathroom and diaper changes/ nap prep
1:00 – 3:00: Nap time
3:00 – 3:45: Wake up time/ bathroom and diaper changes/ snack time
3:45- 5:00: Free play/ Outside time (weather permitting)
5:00- 5:15: Clean up time/ bathroom and diaper changes
5:15- 5:30: Book time or teacher-led games
5:30: School closes
Tuition
Tuition is $2,200 a month.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Do you offer part time care?
A: Unfortunately, we only offer full time care.
Q: Do you help with potty training?
A: Yes! We approach toilet learning on the basis of the child’s developmental level rather than age or the adult’s eagerness for the child to start.
We view toilet learning as a partnership between parents and teachers and initiate it when the child exhibits signs of readiness.
Q: Do you provide food?
A: We provide breakfast and a late morning and afternoon snack. Parents provide lunch.
Q: Can parents come inside to visit our kids during school hours?
A: Yes! Parents are always welcome to stop by. Parents are also encouraged to participate in the classroom by serving as
social coordinators, sharing their talents with the children or assisting on field trips.
Meet Our Teachers
The Rainbow Schoolhouse is family-run by mother-daughter team Katherine and Dency and supported by Katherine’s niece Ashley and husband Stuart. Our teachers bring many years of experience in child development, Spanish education, and a passion for teaching and supporting kids grow.
See Our Space
The school is located in the lower two levels of a family-owned duplex in East Greenlake. We take advantage of our school’s location in the heart of Greenlake and close proximity to many great parks and local activities. All the kids explore and play outside rain or shine, every day. On the rare days that we can’t go outside for safety reasons (ice, smoke, thunder and lightning) we have a fun indoor play area. Contact us to come tour our space and see for yourself!