Saturday, May 19, 2012


A Mindful Garden Where Active Minds Blossom...We nurture your child's beautiful inner nature through engaging, nature-based, hands-on play.

Riviera PlaySchool offers a humanistic, constructivist, and mindful program for the "whole child," inspired by the best of Attachment Parenting, Reggio Emilia, and Non Violent (Compassionate) Communication. We are also inspired by other forward-thinking philosophies, including the fun and freedom to explore of Bev Bos, the beautiful and abundant nature of Waldorf, and Maria Montessori's easily digestible, experiential approach to learning. PlaySchool has the distinction of having been chosen as the very first ever practicum site for UCLA Extension’s Early Childhood Education Certificate Program. We will also continue our partnership with El Camino College Childhood Education Department that currently brings student teachers to Riviera PlaySchool to learn from our wonderful staff.

Drawing on principles from leaders in child advocacy such as Bev Bos, Ruth Beaglehole, Alfie Kohn, Daniel Siegel, Joseph Chilton Pearce, Naomi Aldort, and Marshall Rosenberg, our PlaySchool facilitators are compassionate and loving, inspiring a cooperative and joyful environment. Leaders of mindfulness and peace, Thick Nhat Hanh and Mahatma Ghandi, and Jiddu Krishnamurti, who encourages us to ‘question everything,’ also inspire our school significantly.

Our Guiding Principals:
  • Promote positive conflict-resolution with compassionate and gentle guidance
  • Facilitate hands-on activities that encourage your child’s imagination, creativity and independence
  • Encourage self-sufficiency through self-discovery
  • Nurture self-confidence and self-reliance in a fully ‘kid-centric’ environment
  • Encourage lifelong relationships with nature featuring an “Edible Classroom” with Organic fruit trees, and children’s own vegetable garden
  • Inspire a joyful and compassionate community
  • Welcome Attachment Parents without the co-op parameters
  • Facilitate small groups with low student ratios balanced with community diversity

Riviera PlaySchool is a place where social, emotional, intellectual, and creative growth thrives. Our school is outdoors, play-based, natural, developmental, engaging and fun! We are conveniently located to Redondo Beach, Torrance, Hermosa Beach and the Greater South Bay Communities.  Come and experience our wonderful school for yourself!


To hear more about our community or to schedule a visit, please contact us by email or at (310)408-5616
  We hope you enjoy our website!

Parenting From Balance©

Non Violent Parenting Class coming this weekend In Palos Verdes!

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What Are Your Biases?

It is not important to wonder whether or not we have biases…we all have them.  It’s a given.  What IS important is to understand which biases we do have, so we can start to break them down, to “deconstruct” and pull their tangled webbing from every section of our life, so we can eliminate them from our speech, our thoughts,... [Read more of this review]

PlaySchool SUMMER CAMP for Older Kids grades K ~ 2 (developmental age)!!

Whoo-wee!  PlaySchool for older kids!  What will THAT look like? Hiking, Collaborating on BIG plans, building, creating, exploring…….being free (like a kid should be….)  (do you remmember those days?  Wish you had them back?  Why not provide that for Your child?) PlaySchool is all of that, and more.  Our compassionate, passionate... [Read more of this review]

Everything Can Be Play!

Most children, and some talented adults, can take practical life (getting dressed, for example) and turn it into a magical adventure.   Everything is play, and everything becomes play. Have you ever tried to hurry a little boy into his clothing and out the door?  It is usually to no avail — the shirt becomes a pirate’s hat, and then his... [Read more of this review]

Mommy “Fix-It”

My son Kian has always been good at conjuring up plans… but bringing them to life is another matter entirely.  The pieces wouldn’t fit, the parts would fall off, or the wheels would not turn.  His grand visions just needed his building expertise to catch up a little more….  and his ensuing frustration would start to leak out sideways, screaming... [Read more of this review]

Creating a Place of Belonging and Empowerment for Children

“People Are People No Matter How Small.” ~ Horton   Wherever you go, it is the staff who make a school what it is.  And the staff at Riviera PlaySchool are all grounded in the same philosophy — that of non violent communication, and mindfulness.  You will notice that every interaction between child and adult has a consistent... [Read more of this review]

Old-Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills Old-Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills

  "Who would've thought soap and water could be so much fun?" Old-Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills (Click Here to Listen to the Story) by Alix Spiegel NPR    February 21, 2008 On October 3, 1955, the Mickey Mouse Club debuted on television. As we all now know, the show quickly became a cultural icon, one of those phenomena that... [Read more of this review]

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