A generation ago, many parents were facing the classic dilemma of what was best for their preschool children.  On the one hand, they wanted to give them every advantage, to prepare them for kindergarten, and to be sure they were socially and emotionally well adjusted.  

But on the other hand, there were so many varieties of pre schools being advertised, and all of them more expensive than most parents could afford.

There was a real push for early academics…teaching kids to read when they were three and getting them ahead of their peers long before “real school” starts.

Joy School came along as an alternative—with a curriculum that focused on social and emotional “joys” like the Joy of Sharing and Service and the Joy of Imagination and Creativity that were adopted from our best selling book Teaching Children Joy.  The lesson plans were so complete and detailed (all music and art included) that moms could form Joy School groups and rotate as teacher, making the cost a tiny fraction of commercial preschools.

It was an idea whose time had come.  Families flocked to Joy School, and there were kids and moms participating in all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries.  Kids had fun learning various kinds of joy, and moms loved having their best and most trusted friends teaching their children.

But time passed—and the lesson plans, wonderful as they were, became dated, as did the process of receiving lesson manuals and music tapes and CD’s by mail.  Thousands of moms still participated, but Joy School clearly needed an update and a freshening up!

AND FINALLY, it has happened!  Starting in the fall of 2015, Joy School 2.0 will be available. 

While still embracing the same philosophy and many of the same teaching ideas of the original Joy School, the 2.0 version is excitingly new and current, and of course it is all delivered on line with all lesson plans, instructions, music and art downloadable and wonderfully convenient.

It is all still supervised and directed by us and the rest of the Eyre family, but has creative new ideas from throughout the world and an easy to use on-line delivery that original Joy Schoolers could hardly have imagined.

And just in time, because there is a whole new generation of moms out there who believe that helping their preschoolers to be happy and well adjusted socially and emotionally is the best gift they can give those children, and also the best way to prepare them to succeed in elementary school.

Some of the moms who will be teaching Joy School 2.0 are actually the children from Joy School 1.0!  Other moms and families will discover Joy School for the first time

and start a tradition that may last for additional generations.

If you are a long term joy school mom, now is the time to recommend Joy School to your children and extended family and friends and to let them know that the all new 2.0 is now ready and available.

If you are a young mom who already knows about Joy School and were just waiting for an update, now is the time.

And if you are just now hearing about Joy School, now is the time to check it out.

Cost remains rock-bottom low, with the new lesson plans and materials costing about what the old ones cost 20 years ago.  And now, since there is no longer mailing and other logistics, new members can sign up without any membership fee. And just by signing up, they will also receive, for free, all of the other parenting ideas and programs from valuesparenting.com (which, by the way, is also being updated and re-designed on the web.  All this will make it far easier to form Joy School moms groups and to get a neighborhood Joy School started.

If you want to see samples of the “new stuff” (or if you need something to show other moms that you want in your group) simply go to joyschools.com.

After seeing the positive (and joyful) results of Joy School on a whole generation of kids, we are so excited to now offer the bigger and better Joy School 2.0 to a brand new generation of moms and preschoolers!

And if your own children are all past the joy school age, take this opportunity to reach out and recommend Joy School to moms you know—here, there, and everywhere.

Linda and Richard Eyre