WHAT MAKES US UNIQUE

The Mini-Maternelle program is an exciting way for Brooklyn’s parents to provide their children with the building blocks needed for a lifetime of learning while exposing them to the benefits of a foreign language in a nurturing and supportive environment.

Our program offers a unique hybrid of outdoor and classroom-based learning. We spend as many mornings as possible exploring nature in Fort Greene Park. At LLS, we know that young children learn best through hands-on discovery and when they are relaxed and having fun. We keep children excited about learning by building on their own discoveries and interests.Through their own hands-on explorations and with questions designed to elicit conversation, the children form ideas about the world around them.

We provide a secure and loving place for children to learn and play. Play is the most complete curriculum when implemented as the primary focus for teaching and learning. Play is learning for children, it is how they get to know their world. Children engage in what Lev Vygotsky referred to as inner speech where they self-talk, assessing what has occurred, what they are engaged in, and possible solutions.

We believe that a child’s intelligence and reasoning are exercised through playful creativity: trying out new ideas, expressing emotions, taking different roles, making choices, repeating known ways of enjoyment. Play is a natural medium for children to express pleasure, curiosity, autonomy and is integrated as a primary way of learning.

Our well-trained, highly dedicated teachers work to build on each student’s unique strengths, interests and learning style while taking into account his or her needs and levels in terms of intellectual, social, emotional and physical growth.

The daily schedule includes a balance of stimulating and relaxing developmentally appropriate activities. Through the well-known power of educational tools, our educators awaken in the children a life-long love of learning, empathy towards others and creative thinking.

Play is learning and learning should be play-filled in early childhood education programs now more than ever. 

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Our daughter attended LLS for two years (at ages 3 and 4, before starting kindergarten). I wish she could have attended forever. We really cannot say enough good things about LLS. The program is perfect - it is intellectually engaging, but also fun for the children. The teachers are so caring and do everything possible to make sure the kids are happy and comfortable. Pascale is an amazing resource. She is very involved in the classroom and so knowledgeable about children in general and bilingual education in particular. And our daughter learned French! She still asks to attend the summer camp every year, and always has a great time.
K.V.
Parent

CURRICULUM

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As students struggle to create their own futures two kinds of knowledge are critical: knowing how to learn and knowing how to think” Covington

Creating Education for Global Citizenship as it continues to maintain the goal of “cultivating happiness” (Goulah, 2021) and actively engaging to shift and shape a more harmonious world.

The program is divided into 5 domains of development:

  1. Language: Expressive & Receptive
  2. Social-Emotional
  3. Cognitive
  4. Physical: Gross Motor- Fine Motor
  5. Sensory: 5 senses, Touch, Proprioception, Interoception, Vestibular

We use an integrated approach to curriculum so that children see the direct application of these skills in their learning. Projects are designed to stimulate the children to search for answers to questions in a variety of ways and through a variety of mediums. We provide opportunities for experiences that encourage invention and innovation.

We put an emphasis on interaction with the world around them both outdoors and in the classroom – The wisdom to perceive interconnectedness of all life and living.

The program boasts a two-year age range of pupils to encourage an interactive social and learning environment. This system allows flexibility in learning pace and permits the mutually beneficial relationship to develop whereby younger children seek to emulate older children, and older children naturally become teachers by sharing what they have learned with the younger ones.

All activities will be led in French!

All learning is a three part process; first emotion, then reflection, and finally action.
Rudolf Steiner (1921)

Our daughter attended LLS for two years of pre-k. Not only did she come away fluent in French but was cared for and educated in the gentlest and most caring manner that one could ever imagine. All the teachers were loving and well as imaginative in their approach to the teaching and caring for all the children that went there. We still say that it is probably the best educational experience she will ever have. We were not alone in that feeling as parents either. I cannot describe in words how great an experience it was for our whole family.
S.M.
Parent

2024-2025 ADMISSIONS

WHO CAN ATTEND

There are no French language requirements to attend our Mini-Maternelle program – only an openness and desire on the part of the parents or guardians for the children to learn a new language!

Children must however be between 2-1/2 and 4 years of age by the time they start school in September 2024 to enroll in the 2024-2025 academic year. 

Available Programs

There are two Mini-Maternelle programs available depending on the child’s age:

Petite Section, FOUR-Days Program:

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 9:30am – noon or 2:30pm

Grande Section, FIVE-Days Program:

Monday through Friday, from 9:30am – 2:30pm

The Extended Day Option allows children to stay through lunch until 2:30 pm. This extended period includes supervised lunchtime, a transitional activity, rest time and dismissal. Children bring lunch from home and eat together while conversing in French.

We also offer an early drop off option from 8:30.

Students may additionally register for “l’Atelier” every day from 2:30pm to 4pm. Both of these programs require minimum enrollment of five children to be offered.

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Our son attended the LLS Mini-Maternelle program for 2 years and it was the most amazing, loving, kind and educational environment we could have hoped for. Pascale's program nurtured his curiosity, taught him autonomy and ignited his creativity. The French immersion was exactly what we were looking for and our son bonded with his teachers and school mates in a way we have not experienced since. All the carefully crafted parts of her program have given him a powerful platform to continue on to primary school. I would unreservedly recommend LLS and their programs to anyone.
J. D.
Father

APPLICATION PROCEDURES FOR NEW STUDENTS

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TO APPLY FOR 2024-2025
Note: we are fully enrolled for the 2023-24 academic year. However we welcome you to join our waiting list. Please reach out to us if you are interested.
  1. Fill out an application.

  2. Attend our Fall 2023 Discovery Day open house.

  3. Admissions notifications will be sent in March 2024.

  4. Enrollment confirmation and non-refundable tuition deposit  are due within one week of acceptance. 

  5. Complete your enrollment agreement.

MEETING AND TOUR

When you fill out your application we will invite you over to our 2023 open house event. This is an opportunity for you to learn more about the school and meet our teachers and for us to meet your family and see if the Mini-Maternelle is the best fit for your child. You will learn more about our unique program, our mission, and our philosophy.

Re-Enrollment 

Current (2023 – 2024) Mini-Maternelle parents who wish to enroll their child(ren) in the following school year receive information on how to do so directly from LLS in November.

My son attended the mini-maternelle for 2 years and it was the perfect environment for him to flourish as a person and also to build on his exposure to French. Now that I am in the mainstream education system I have fully realized what an outstanding foundation for children LLS provides. My son had a French nanny twice a week from age 1-3, and then his two years at LLS allowed him to become fully bilingual without either parent speaking French at home. He is now one of the most confident and active students in his class. He has no fear when leaving me in the morning, and he is embracing the challenge of school. I was surprised by how quickly they have started teaching them to read and also to write in lowercase at his public school, but thankfully he had two years of gentle experimenting with reading and writing at LLS, so he is doing well. LLS supported him as the sensitive and unique child he is (and aren't they all?), and I am very grateful for that. I believe that really good preschool education is a subtle art, and it can be hard to define or understand - but trust me, they know what they are doing at LLS, and you won't find a better preschool program!
S. G.
Mother

SCHOOL CALENDAR 2023-2024

Please note that this is the Mini-Maternelle calendar. The calendar of the weekly classes may be different  (please refer to the confirmation email that you received after signing up).

LLS 2023 – 2024 Calendar

First Day of School Grande Section: Thursday, September 7th, 9:30am-12pm (Half-Day) (*Full Day for Grande Section begins Friday September 8h)

First Day of School Petite Section: Monday, September 11th, at 9:30am *Phase-In week for Petite Section, start time and day length will vary

Early Drop Off and Atelier Begin: Monday, September 18th We will be closed on:

September 2023:

• September 25th (Monday): Yom Kippur

October 2023:

• October 9th (Monday): Indigenous Peoples’ Day

November 2023:

• November 10th (Friday): Parent Teacher Conferences (*Children do not attend)

• November 22rd – 24th (Wed.-Fri.): Fall Break

• November 27th (Monday): Staff Professional Development Day (*Children do not attend)

December 2023:

• December 18th – January 1st (Mon.-Fri.): Winter Break, Classes resume on Tuesday, January 2nd

January 2024:

• January 15th (Monday): Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

February 2024:

• February 19th – 23re (Mon.-Fri.): Winter Break

March 2024:

March 28th (Thursday): Spring Parent Teacher Conferences (*Children do not attend) March 29th (Friday): Good Friday

April 2024:

• April 10th (Wednesday): (Eid al-Fitr)
• April 15th – April 26th (Monday – Friday): Spring Break

May 2024:

• May 27th (Monday): Memorial Day
• May 31st (Friday): LLS Family Picnic

Last Day of School Year: Friday, June 7th, 2024

 

 

 
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