Stepping Stone School

We are now enrolling for our School Age Summer Adventure Camp! Highlights include:

• Exciting Field Journeys like bowling, rock climbing, ceramics, Inner Space Caverns, Lego Robotics and Stepping Stone School’s Private Movie Theater!
• Weekly themes with topics like airplanes, endangered animals, oceanography, anatomy/physiology and foreign cultures promote learning, character and values.
• MENSA-inspired activities, brain teasers, and math, literacy and science enhancements.
• Chess Club & Dual Language Immersion Labs – child and parent favorites!
• Sports & Fitness Camp enhancement with 6-year former pro baseball pitcher builds and polishes physical skills and teamwork values.
• State licensed, regulated environments ensure your child’s safety, security and well-being.
• Flexible scheduling allows you to customize your school-age child’s summer experience by enrolling weekly or monthly.

Enrollment is limited – reserve your space today!

Cribs to benefit vulnerable families, survivors of domestic violence

Stepping Stone School has donated approximately 230 gently used infant cribs and mattresses valued at about $50,000 to a family shelter in Monterrey, Mexico.

Continuing Stepping Stone School’s dedication to the environment and to repurpose items it no longer uses, the cribs will be contributed to DIF Nuevo Leon. The organization assists homeless families and those who have escaped domestic violence in Mexico get back on their feet.

Six months ago, Stepping Stone School began its search for an organization in Mexico that could benefit from the use of these cribs. Several Austin non-profit organizations played integral roles in making the necessary connections to allow this wonderful gift to be made.

“We are so pleased to find a group that has both the need and capacity to accept these cribs,” said Rhonda Paver, executive director and founder of Stepping Stone School. “Not only will our donation keep these items, which are still in good condition, out of landfills, but it will help families who have no other means of giving their infants safe beds to sleep in.”

Helping to better the lives and education of children and families is one of the cornerstones of Stepping Stone School’s philosophy. The company achieves this through frequent donations of time, money, food and other goods. Often, the school’s children and their families get involved, perpetuating the cycle of philanthropy and learning a valuable life lessons at the same time.

Capitol Courier in Austin, TX, provided the shipping to Mexico at a discounted rate.

The donated cribs were no longer usable as of Jan. 1, 2012, due to new federal regulations that apply to all cribs manufactured and sold in the United States.

We are introducing Beginning Level Early Readers into our Advanced Prekindergarten class libraries this spring!

Children in these classrooms will use these graduated readers to fine tune the literacy skills that enable them to decipher words and meaning.

As your children become ready and interested, they each discover the excitement of reading. These skills come together at a unique time for every child.

Our experienced teachers respectfully encourage each child to be a confident, exploring reader and learner!

Stepping Stone School is now enrolling for its Premier Private Kindergarten!

Your child’s kindergarten year is a very important foundational experience. We invite you to stop by and see how our curriculum and programs can best prepare your child for “big school” success.

Stepping Stone School is excited to announce its “Start Smart” 2012 Spring Break Camp, “Organic Gardening & Healthy Living.” Some of the highlights include field trips to such places as:

• Austin Nature & Science Center;
• Zilker Botanical Garden; or
• Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

The children will learn about growing and nurturing living things. Your child will explore the world of plants and botany by:

• Planting and growing real tomato plants;
• Creating original vases and flower pots;
• Charting and discovering the growth rates of various plants;
• Investigating the effects of light on plant growth; and
• More!

Every day during our spring break camp, the students also will participate in a math and literacy time, during which they will be provided with a variety of intellect-building activities. Your children also will participate in our distinguished chess and language immersion programs. Through these fun activities we can help the children gain greater academic skill as well as exercising their brains during this break from school.

Stepping Stone School offers a safe, fun place for children to learn and explore during their break from school. Each of our classrooms is an exciting environment in which children are able to strengthen their knowledge as well as meet and socialize with friends.

Not only will the children learn all about these concepts and many more … they will also embark on a series of exciting field journeys, including Stepping Stone School’s Sports and Fitness Camp. In this camp, Coach Blake will be instructing the children on the basics of yoga as well as the importance of a healthy, well balanced diet. We will also be continuing our gardening education at one of the three places listed above. (Location will vary by school.)

And finally, we will take a trip to the movies for some rest and relaxation. Through these field trips, educational daily activities, exciting classroom environment, and a friendly loving atmosphere, we will make this your child’s favorite spring break ever!

NEW! Stepping Stone School is now serving nutritious and healthy hot lunches to our school-age children during school holidays and breaks.

This service is always provided to our younger children at no additional cost, but has now been expanded to include our older children when they attend full days. We are pleased to provide this convenience for our families!

In its January/February 2012 issue, Exchange magazine has listed Stepping Stone School as the 21st largest for-profit child care organization in North America.

The list, which is based on the licensed capacities of all centers, included many publicly traded companies and large chains. Stepping Stone School was among the highest placed privately owned organizations.

“We are very pleased to be part of this list,” said founder and executive director Rhonda Paver. “Stepping Stone School remains a tight-knit, family-owned organization where we are small enough to be vigilant and responsive to our families’ needs. We feel that we have so many advantages over the chains and franchises, but it also feels nice to know that we are growing in our ability to educate and care for more children.”

The listing also was part of an article examining the past 25 years and the current state of child care. In it, Paver was quoted regarding employers’ views on the work/family connection, “Corporate America has become more aware of the need to take work and family issues into account in recruiting and maintaining their work force. Over the last 25 years, they have moved from creating their own onsite child care centers to turning over management of those centers to ‘professional’ child care providers to now subsidizing child care by creating corporate partnerships that provide their employees with discounted tuition and priority placement.”

Stepping Stone School maintains dozens of such corporate partnerships.

Echoes of “Gobble! Gobble!” filled the autumn air Tuesday when the students of Stepping Stone School IX competed to determine which of them was the Turkey Calling Champion.

Stepping Stone School and ThunderCloud Subs kicked off the 21st annual Turkey Trot and Kids’ K with a live Turkey Call at Stepping Stone School, 8121 Shoal Creek, on Nov. 15. The contestant who elicited the best response from the turkey was to be declared this year’s champion with full rights to “crow” about it, however, because Tom Turkey was silent, all earned honors for their enthusiastic attempts!

The children of Stepping Stone School wore festive, hand-made turkey hats, sang turkey songs and competed to gain the attention of a live turkey. The children also were excited by the presence of television cameras. You can see the news clips from KVUE and YNN.

The families of Stepping Stone School also collected nonperishable food for Caritas of Austin, a non-profit organization that fights hunger, homelessness and poverty.

The Turkey Call is an annual event to encourage registration for the ThunderCloud Subs Turkey Trot and Stepping Stone School Kids’ K, which will take place Thanksgiving morning. All proceeds from the Turkey Trot benefit Caritas of Austin.

Stepping Stone School is pleased to announce the addition of its new foreign language enhancement! The Dual Language Immersion Labs will give students at each school a jump start at learning a second language.

According to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, learning a second language at an early age…

• Has a positive effect on intellectual growth;
• Enriches and enhances a child’s mental development;
• Leaves students with more flexibility in thinking, greater sensitivity to language, and a better ear for listening;
• Improves a child’s understanding of his/her native language;
• Gives a child the ability to communicate with people s/he would otherwise not have the chance to know;
• Opens the door to other cultures and helps a child understand and appreciate people from other countries;
• Gives a student a head start in language requirements for college; and
• Increases job opportunities in many careers where knowing another language is a real asset.

This new language enrichment is just a small part of how Stepping Stone School is boosting brain development in its young students. The new labs are up and running at a Stepping Stone School near you!

“That’s what chess is all about. One day you give your opponent a lesson, the next day he gives you one.”  -  Bobby Fischer, American chess grandmaster

Stepping Stone School is proud to introduce the traditional, yet revolutionary game of chess to its advanced pre-k and school-age masterminds! These students are learning about the history of the game as well as how the pieces move and strategies for winning. The classes will also include tournaments to allow the students to practice their new skills.

Children who play chess have been shown to improve their math and reading skills, but the benefits go beyond academic.

Chess can help your child reach full potential by:

• Encouraging the development of analytical and decision-making skills;
• Calling upon higher-order thinking skills to analyze consequences and visualize future possibilities;
• Increasing one’s ability to recognize complex patterns;
• Strengthening your child’s mental clarity, fortitude, stability and overall health;
• Teaching a healthy sense of fairness;
• Improving your child’s self-esteem and communication skills; and
• Aiding in the growth of certain areas in the brain & mind.