Saturday, January 28, 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©

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A Parable.  Once there was a king, who had a beautiful, large pure diamond.  There was no other diamond like it in the world.   One day, it became deeply scratched.  The king called his best diamond cutters, “I’ll promise you a great reward if you can remove the imperfection from my jewel.”  But they could not.  The king was very upset.  Many... [Read more of this review]

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