Our Team

Mary joined the ACG Team as Director in January 2015. She was born and raised in Albuquerque and has attended First Presbyterian Church for most of her life. She received her B.A. and teaching certification from the University of San Diego in 1991 and completed her Graduate work at the University of San Diego, Texas Christian University, and the University of New Mexico. She has been in the field of education for over 25 years. She is dually certified in General and Special Education. Mary enjoys running, reading, traveling (especially to the beach) and playing with her family which includes her husband, four fabulous children (three of whom attended A Child’s Garden) and her dog,Tara.

Welcome! Our curriculum and daily schedule are based on the individual needs of each child. Through individual caregiving, each child is able to develop a sense of trust and feeling of safety. This security enables the child to explore an environment that is “physically safe, cognitively challenging and emotionally nurturing.” (Magda Gerber). Our low ratios enable teachers to develop strong, supportive relationships with each child and his family.

In the toddler classroom, we provide varied opportunities for learning through play, socialization, and experimentation. Our environment stimulates the children’s curiosity to explore and learn individually and with their peers. This is a time when children are building communication skills, independence and confidence in themselves. As caregivers, we respond to each child’s individual needs and ensure our environment is safe and welcoming.

Our goal is to help our students become confident, inquisitive, problem-solving, expressive, and independent individuals. This is accomplished through play, teachable moments, and strategic lesson plans. We provide a fun learning environment that is best suited for developmentally appropriate experiences which are challenging enough to promote each child’s interest and growth. As teachers, we model expected behavior, provide examples of proper language usage and suggest strategies that enable our children to reach challenging and achievable goals.

The threes age level is an exciting time of social and individual development for young children. Our curriculum is emergent, meaning that, rather than following a set of themes, units, or manuals, we develop our curriculum based on the interests, joys, and needs of our students. At the center of this work are the ideas that:

• Young children are competent, connected, and full of potential;
• Play is the work of young children and is key to learning and development;
• Creativity and imagination support critical thinking;
• We are all in relationship, and we all learn, work, and play best in the presence of supportive relationships and positive experiences.

Pre-K is an exciting time of learning. Students build friendships, work on effective communication, learn through play and are exposed to basic numbers and letters. We believe children learn through exploring their environment and pursuing their interests. We develop our curriculum based on student interests through discussions and voting. Our goal is for children to be socially and emotionally ready for kindergarten.

In Enrichment class, all children at ACG explore the visual, literary, dramatic and musical arts while engaging in multidisciplinary play. Enrichment teachers believe in each individual’s creative expression and in the importance of hands-on, physical and mental exploration. A classroom’s once-a-week session in Enrichment class might consist of multidisciplinary and long-term studies, collaborative all-school art projects, the development of stories in gross-motor-based expressive play, and more! A child’s time in Enrichment is all about using their minds and bodies in fun, active ways through exploration, using the creative languages, while learning through an emergent and responsive curriculum.

Since the 2019-2020 school year, an expansion of the Enrichment program called “Art Support” has being implemented. In Art Support, Enrichment teachers will provide developmental and facilitative support to classroom teachers in classroom-based emergent- and project-based studies.