Leila Day Nurseries, Inc.

Mission  

Leila Day Nurseries, Inc. is an accredited, private nonprofit child care center serving children of working families from diverse economic, racial and cultural backgrounds from New Haven and surrounding towns. Our mission is to foster children’s social, emotional, intellectual and physical development within a warm and nurturing environment built on sound principles of child development.

Philosophy

At Leila Day, we believe children learn best through play and first-hand experiences and need many opportunities to explore the world around them directly. A balance of independent activity and teacher input gives children the best opportunities to acquire knowledge and skills. We want children to love school and to be active learners with good problem-solving skills. We work to foster children’s positive self-image, as well as a sense of competence and mastery in which the roots of confidence are anchored. We help children learn about their own feelings and those of others, and we work to create a community in which children learn to get along with others.  

Each classroom has its own structure and order, created by the arrangement of space and materials, daily schedule and rules and routines, within which children have many choices. Activities include blocks, group meetings, water and sand, outdoor play, caring for plants or animals, language and math experiences, dramatic play, cooking, music, and movement. In all our learning spaces, children have available to them materials to support their interest in reading, writing, and numbers. Children pursue these interests at their own pace, and each child's individual readiness is deeply respected and carefully assessed by our teachers. Daily communication with parents is vital to the success of children in the program.

History and Organization

Leila Day is a private, non-profit child care center serving approximately 100 children age 3 to age 12 in full and part day programs. Founded in 1878, it is one of the oldest continuously operating child care centers in the nation. Originally founded to care for the children of immigrant working mothers in the Wooster Square neighborhood of New Haven, Leila Day moved to our current location in the late 1960s and has a long proud history of meeting the needs of children and working families. To this day, a guiding principle of the center is its longstanding commitment to enroll children of diverse economic, racial and cultural backgrounds. The school charges tuition for most of its programs on a sliding scale based on family income.