The founding of Stepping Stones was partly a dream, partly serendipity, and partly a happy accident!! I had spent several years working in a day treatment program for dysfunctional families and children at risk of abuse and neglect during the era of "trickle down economics." (My work was primarily with toddlers.) As the years went by we were asked to do the same job as always with less and less resources. I remember being asked to stand before the board of trustees to defend and justify why I needed a package of magic markers for my classroom. Eventually the program couldn't sustain itself and closed. I felt a bit disillusioned and decided that going back into the public school realm was the answer.
I dusted off my teaching license and started interviewing. I had an offer to teach in a multi age K-1 classroom in a rural elementary school. I had the weekend to decide. There was a lot to consider, but I was excited about the opportunity to teach in a multi age classroom as that was something I believed strongly in. So on this fateful weekend I was puttering in the yard and my mother-in-law (who lived with us) came back from a walk and exclaimed with excitement. "Robin, that lady down the street who does day care is selling all her stuff. She's having a big yard sale."
I figured there would be picture books, games, and puzzles I could use for my new classroom. So I got my checkbook and my husband Dick decided to tag along. I made my selections and my pile got bigger and bigger. Dick looked at my choices and said, "Look at what you're choosing. Your heart isn't in that K-1 classroom. Your heart is here, with young children." He was in real estate at the time and thought we should take a gamble. He said, "I think we should buy the building and all the contents and see what kind of place for young children you could make. Build the program of your dreams."
The building that was originally here at 75 Hayward Street had a long and storied history. What is now Dealer.com was a plastics manufacturing company. EB and AC Whiting - they made every kind of plastic bristle you can think of - from toothbrush bristles, bristles for brooms, to bristles for street sweeping machines. The old Stepping Stones was a bar and grill where the factory workers would come after work to drink, eat, and shoot pool. Golden glove boxers trained in the backyard. Eventually it gave up its colorful past to become a family home. The LaPiere family lived there in the late 1970's. Betty, the family matriarch, was one of the teachers at Ethan Allen Child Care in Colchester. When that program closed she opened her home and took in her classroom of toddlers. When she retired and moved to Florida Linda LaRoche took over. Linda eventually moved her program to a bigger location and that was when Stepping Stones came to be.
My husband and I spent a whole summer remodeling and painting the funky old building that used to be here, ripping up carpets, putting down flooring. I put in hospital mirrors so we could see all around corners into the various rooms. Dick built staircases - none of the rooms were on the same level. Every room had one or two steps up or down connecting to the other rooms. There was a large motor room, a block room, a room with a huge indoor sandbox and painting easels, a teeny tiny bedroom became the library, and another room had tables and chairs with various table toys and manipulatives - that doubled as a place for meal and snack times. And of course the wonderful backyard space with the beautiful maple tree. I loved that funky little house and made a program and a place where children played and grew. Our newspaper ad said that Stepping Stones would be a place where love and lunch were provided. Our days were full of joy and laughter (sound familiar?).
It was important to me that children be in a program in a neighborhood so they could begin to learn about what it meant to be part of a community. And that their community could begin to recognize them as members too!! On a cold March night in 1991 (the coldest night of the year) we had a fire. The gas meter that had recently been installed on the outside of the building malfunctioned and we lost most everything. Everything but one wall standing - so the insurance company wouldn't call it a total loss. But interestingly enough when we were demolishing the one wall we found Dick's grandfather's name written on it from the days of it being a bar and grill (and now you know why I told you that part of the story)!!!
This was when I found out that Stepping Stones was so much more than just a place or a collection of stuff. We were a community! We were open and running two days later at a space a mile away that we leased and with the support of a provisional license from the State of Vermont and the support of all of our families who emptied out their basements, garages, and toy chests to provision us!!! So the Stepping Stones of today is the phoenix that rose up out of the ashes. It gave me the opportunity to think and dream about what I might like in a building (Fewer walls!!! Everything on one level!!). So I got to design my dream space to support the community that had evolved. It took a full two years after the fire to get funds, build, and move back into the space we have now. As the building evolved so did the program. I would say we began as your sort of garden variety early childhood program. As I began to research and learn more about the Reggio Emilia programs in Italy I began to feel a strong connection. There was so much of what they did that resonated with me about what was best practice in the field and what was best for young children and their families.
Reggio Emilia is an approach steeped in the culture from which it originated. While it is not possible to translate some of it to our own cultures (just imagine a two hour siesta in the middle of the day - or, as it is called there pennichella or pisolino, followed by a little meal before going back to work. It is making me feel nappish just to write about it) there are seven main ideas we can easily translate.
Relationships – collaborative relationships between children, teachers, and parents are central to this approach. Children are viewed as competent, collaborative researchers.
Environment – the attention to a beautiful, well-ordered, prepared environment with beautiful materials is so critical the environment is viewed as a third teacher.
Observation – Time and space for teachers to step back and observe the children in their learning and work is critical to the next two elements.
Emergent Curriculum – this is a bottom-up approach to curriculum where the ideas and inspiration for themes and projects flow from the interest(s) of the child/children up to the teacher as opposed to the teacher deciding on the theme. The teacher takes these ideas and interests and creates opportunities for thinking and learning around them. Projects may last a day, a week, or months.
Documentation – Photos, samples of work, words of the children, reflections of the teacher are compiled into displays to make the learning visible.
Expressing Learning – in Reggio they call this the 100 Languages. Howard Gardner might call it Multiple Intelligences. The idea is that children can express the same learning using multiple mediums – paint, clay, story, dance, song, etc.
Ties to Community – The children are seen as important and vital members of their community. They are always out in it talking to community workers, making contributions in their own ways. And they are always welcome.
And there you have it! There is the story of Stepping Stones.
Dr. Robin Ploof
(she/her/hers)
Program Director M.Ed. in Early Childhood
Division of Education and Human Studies
Champlain College
I dusted off my teaching license and started interviewing. I had an offer to teach in a multi age K-1 classroom in a rural elementary school. I had the weekend to decide. There was a lot to consider, but I was excited about the opportunity to teach in a multi age classroom as that was something I believed strongly in. So on this fateful weekend I was puttering in the yard and my mother-in-law (who lived with us) came back from a walk and exclaimed with excitement. "Robin, that lady down the street who does day care is selling all her stuff. She's having a big yard sale."
I figured there would be picture books, games, and puzzles I could use for my new classroom. So I got my checkbook and my husband Dick decided to tag along. I made my selections and my pile got bigger and bigger. Dick looked at my choices and said, "Look at what you're choosing. Your heart isn't in that K-1 classroom. Your heart is here, with young children." He was in real estate at the time and thought we should take a gamble. He said, "I think we should buy the building and all the contents and see what kind of place for young children you could make. Build the program of your dreams."
The building that was originally here at 75 Hayward Street had a long and storied history. What is now Dealer.com was a plastics manufacturing company. EB and AC Whiting - they made every kind of plastic bristle you can think of - from toothbrush bristles, bristles for brooms, to bristles for street sweeping machines. The old Stepping Stones was a bar and grill where the factory workers would come after work to drink, eat, and shoot pool. Golden glove boxers trained in the backyard. Eventually it gave up its colorful past to become a family home. The LaPiere family lived there in the late 1970's. Betty, the family matriarch, was one of the teachers at Ethan Allen Child Care in Colchester. When that program closed she opened her home and took in her classroom of toddlers. When she retired and moved to Florida Linda LaRoche took over. Linda eventually moved her program to a bigger location and that was when Stepping Stones came to be.
My husband and I spent a whole summer remodeling and painting the funky old building that used to be here, ripping up carpets, putting down flooring. I put in hospital mirrors so we could see all around corners into the various rooms. Dick built staircases - none of the rooms were on the same level. Every room had one or two steps up or down connecting to the other rooms. There was a large motor room, a block room, a room with a huge indoor sandbox and painting easels, a teeny tiny bedroom became the library, and another room had tables and chairs with various table toys and manipulatives - that doubled as a place for meal and snack times. And of course the wonderful backyard space with the beautiful maple tree. I loved that funky little house and made a program and a place where children played and grew. Our newspaper ad said that Stepping Stones would be a place where love and lunch were provided. Our days were full of joy and laughter (sound familiar?).
It was important to me that children be in a program in a neighborhood so they could begin to learn about what it meant to be part of a community. And that their community could begin to recognize them as members too!! On a cold March night in 1991 (the coldest night of the year) we had a fire. The gas meter that had recently been installed on the outside of the building malfunctioned and we lost most everything. Everything but one wall standing - so the insurance company wouldn't call it a total loss. But interestingly enough when we were demolishing the one wall we found Dick's grandfather's name written on it from the days of it being a bar and grill (and now you know why I told you that part of the story)!!!
This was when I found out that Stepping Stones was so much more than just a place or a collection of stuff. We were a community! We were open and running two days later at a space a mile away that we leased and with the support of a provisional license from the State of Vermont and the support of all of our families who emptied out their basements, garages, and toy chests to provision us!!! So the Stepping Stones of today is the phoenix that rose up out of the ashes. It gave me the opportunity to think and dream about what I might like in a building (Fewer walls!!! Everything on one level!!). So I got to design my dream space to support the community that had evolved. It took a full two years after the fire to get funds, build, and move back into the space we have now. As the building evolved so did the program. I would say we began as your sort of garden variety early childhood program. As I began to research and learn more about the Reggio Emilia programs in Italy I began to feel a strong connection. There was so much of what they did that resonated with me about what was best practice in the field and what was best for young children and their families.
Reggio Emilia is an approach steeped in the culture from which it originated. While it is not possible to translate some of it to our own cultures (just imagine a two hour siesta in the middle of the day - or, as it is called there pennichella or pisolino, followed by a little meal before going back to work. It is making me feel nappish just to write about it) there are seven main ideas we can easily translate.
Relationships – collaborative relationships between children, teachers, and parents are central to this approach. Children are viewed as competent, collaborative researchers.
Environment – the attention to a beautiful, well-ordered, prepared environment with beautiful materials is so critical the environment is viewed as a third teacher.
Observation – Time and space for teachers to step back and observe the children in their learning and work is critical to the next two elements.
Emergent Curriculum – this is a bottom-up approach to curriculum where the ideas and inspiration for themes and projects flow from the interest(s) of the child/children up to the teacher as opposed to the teacher deciding on the theme. The teacher takes these ideas and interests and creates opportunities for thinking and learning around them. Projects may last a day, a week, or months.
Documentation – Photos, samples of work, words of the children, reflections of the teacher are compiled into displays to make the learning visible.
Expressing Learning – in Reggio they call this the 100 Languages. Howard Gardner might call it Multiple Intelligences. The idea is that children can express the same learning using multiple mediums – paint, clay, story, dance, song, etc.
Ties to Community – The children are seen as important and vital members of their community. They are always out in it talking to community workers, making contributions in their own ways. And they are always welcome.
And there you have it! There is the story of Stepping Stones.
Dr. Robin Ploof
(she/her/hers)
Program Director M.Ed. in Early Childhood
Division of Education and Human Studies
Champlain College