Fremont Community School (FCS)

Fremont Community School is an independent, non-profit school providing a multi-age preschool and kindergarten program in a progressive early childhood learning environment.  Our program is inspired by Rudolf Steiner’s Waldorf education curriculum. As a non-profit, we are governed by a Board of Directors. Fremont Community School was established over twenty-five years ago and, in 2003, we moved our school to a home on Interlake Avenue North in south Wallingford.

Fremont Community School serves as a bridge between a child’s first years at home and his or her forthcoming years at school.  Here, children cross the bridge at their own pace through the medium they enjoy the most: Joyful, Explorative Play!

Morning Program

FCS offers 1 to 5 day programs that meet from 9:00am to 1:00pm. There is a weekly rhythm of focused activity that includes bread baking, watercolor painting, outside play and seasonal projects.

Children spend at least an hour a day outside in the attached, fully enclosed yard which provides ample room to run, climb, dig and move their energetic bodies.

Play and work come together as children garden, take care of the school’s animals: our pig, Oliver, our rabbit, and our chickens. The children collect eggs each morning and help prepare organic snacks and lunches. Kids are taught to be aware of what they are eating and where their food comes from.

Our morning begins with free play either inside or outside. An art/craft project is often offered during this time. After the deep breath of free play, the children relax and eat a warm, organic snack while listening to the story of the week, either in English or Spanish.  Snack is followed by outdoor activities and then a circle time of song, movement and verse that reflect our seasonal themes and projects. Circle time is followed by lunch, which is provided by the  school. Lunch marks the end of our morning.

The morning program is a tuition based program.

Afternoon Program

FCS also offers an afternoon child care program from 1:00pm until 5:00pm. This is an hourly program (two-hour minimum) that uses the same facilities and philosophies as the morning program, but as an hourly child care, the structure and rhythm of the day are looser. A child can enroll with regular or flexible days/hours.

Children are legally only allowed to be at FCS for a maximum of four hours per day. We have a close business relationship with Tara’s Tots, a similar program next door which also offers an afternoon program. If a child attends FCS in the morning, but needs full day care, they are taken to Tara’s Tots for the afternoon. They are welcome to attend the FCS afternoon program on days they do not attend the FCS morning program. The afternoon program is also open to children who are not enrolled in the morning program.

Afternoons are billed at an hourly rate with a two-hour minimum.