The Day the House Came Tumbling Down!

November 4, 2016 has gone down in the Harmony History book as the day The Little White House came tumbling down.

One day ahead of schedule, the Rupp Family and staff of Harmony watched as the "digger" or "scooper," depending on which child you ask, came and demolished the house and and began to excavate the small piece of land in between the Harmony building and the Discovery Garden.  It was an emotional day for all.

Excavation is now complete.  A huge thank you goes out to TW Excavating.  We appreciate your help getting this project started!  Now it's onward and upward as we look forward to the next phase on this journey ~ CONSTRUCTION!

Tiny House Living

After weeks and weeks of renovations, the Rupp Family is all moved into the little apartment above Harmony Natural Learning Center.  Here are a few before and after photos.

As someone who is a minimalist by nature, this small apartment feels just right to Chrissy.  She relishes in the fact that living in this small space forces one to stay neat and tidy.  With the smiles seen on her husband's and children's faces, I think they are feeling the same way (or it could just be that they are thankful that the physical labor of renovating and moving is OVER!).

And now onto the rebirth of The Little White House into a beautiful classroom space on the lower level and a forever home (not too big and not too small) for the Rupps built right on top!

20 Days and Counting!

20 days and counting until the KNOCK DOWN on Saturday, November 5th! The anticipation is growing for all of us at Harmony! As we get closer to the date, you may hear your child talking about construction and trucks as we prepare the children for the upcoming changes to our property.  If you have a set of toy Tonka trucks at home, a hard hat or books about construction, then now's the time to get them out! I am absolutely positive that the children will teach us more than we need to know about the types of construction vehicles that will be needed for our project and we welcome this knowledge!  We are so excited that they will be able to experience the building process along with us.  

To get the construction conversation going, we would like to share with you two architectural renderings of the new building done by our architect Rachel Harris of Vesta Architecture.  Let the unveiling begin.....

Front of Building

Side and Back of Building

There you have it!  This is what will replace the Little White House on Harmony's property.  A beautiful classroom space on the bottom level and a beautiful living space for Chrissy and her family on the mid and top level.  A change from the last post is the entrance to the preschool which will now be on the Discovery Garden side.

Are you wondering where Chrissy and her family of four will live during the construction process? On the second floor of Harmony's current building.  It has been a labor of love (or a labor of hate depending on the day) for Chrissy and her husband Doug, with a bit of help from me, to completely renovate the upstairs apartment into a livable space.  If you've ever wondered about living in a tiny space, Chrissy will do the experiment for you and let you know how it goes!

This is a recent team meeting where Chrissy hammered in 

the new flooring while we talked curriculum and planning!  

In the meanwhile, we will keep reminding her of this....

Countdown to Knock Down!

In less than one month, the construction of our brand new preschool classroom will begin with the much anticipated knocking down of the little white house on our property.  This house has been home to Harmony's founder Chrissy and her family for more than two years and although the construction will cause a bit of an upheaval to her family, they will gain a beautiful little _______ house (color to be determined) right on top of the preschool classroom!

These are our BEFORE PHOTOS!

(front of the little white house)

(back of the little white house)

The preschool space will be on the lower level facing our gorgeous backyard (see photos below).  There will be large windows all along the back to allow for plenty of natural light.  The entrance will be on the side where the stairs leading down from the parking lot are located.  We're hoping for 1,000 square feet of classroom space, but will have to see how much rock will be in the way after the house comes down.

(Loose Parts Play Yard)

(Vegetable Garden)

(Chicken Coop)

(Back Entrance to Nature Trail)

(Front Entrance to Nature Trail)

 We will continue to keep our followers updated on the construction process as we move from phase to phase on our journey towards making our dream come true ~ a brand new preschool classroom!!!!!

The Story of Us

The story of Harmony Natural Learning Center begins seven years ago in a small strip center in Rowley, MA.

At that time, we were known as Play Makers Family Enrichment Center where we focused on creating quality programs for parents and children to attend together.  Several years later, the addition of our drop-off programs for children aged 2 1/2 through 4 years old, had us realizing that we had quickly outgrown our space and so began the search for our ideal property.  

After many months of searching, this property came to us in the form of a small house with a separate office building and a large lot surrounded by preservation land located in Newbury, MA. PERFECT!

Together we spent countless team meetings brainstorming what we thought the ideal Center would look, feel and even smell like, creating a vision board along the way where we posted photos, fabrics, quotes and words that spoke to us.  Through this process, and as part of the transition to our new location, we felt like it was the right time to select a new name that more clearly identified the goals of our Center and the unique atmosphere that we offered to children and families. We began as Play Makers Family Enrichment Center, but evolved into Harmony Natural Learning Center, a name that better encompasses all that we do.

        

We knew that the decision to change locations as well as change our name was risky, but our fears were quickly put at ease as the community embraced our move and supported us through our transition.  We've collectively created a place for children that supports the joy of creative experiences, honors simplicity, provides a slower rhythm and pays the utmost respect to a child's capacities for play.  

Many months of renovations later, Harmony Natural Learning Center was born and opened to wide fanfare in October of 2014.

Two years have passed since we opened the doors to Harmony and we have been blessed many times over by a supportive community and wonderful staff.  We have continued to provide quality programming in our Parent & Child Classes as well as our Drop-Off Programs.  We are often sought out as a resource for parents and teachers who are committed to the early years of growth and development.  Through these inquiries began our next transition and has led us into another progressive transformation.

We enter the 2016-17 school year, with fully licensed toddler and preschool programs to replace our drop-off programs.  Both of these programs are at capacity and we already have a wait list for the following school year.  With this growth comes....construction once again.  That little white house in the photo above will be torn down at the beginning of November to make way for a separate preschool classroom.  Growth is inevitable and, in our line of work, welcomed with wide open arms. We cannot even begin to explain our enthusiasm as we enter the world of early childhood education and are completely invested in honoring a child's need for PLAY!  

Stay tuned as we continue to update our followers on our construction project and share the many happenings in our Willows Transitional Toddler Program and our Barefoot Creators Preschool Program.   

Until then, go forth and PLAY!  

Amy