Tiny Visionaries

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Shauna Scamaldo-Ricks and Samantha Chung (formerly Street) are the co-founders and directors of Tiny Visionaries, a heart-led, play-based in-home childcare program rooted in connection, inclusivity, and intentional care.

Shauna Scamaldo-Ricks brings nearly two decades of experience working with young children and families. She is deeply passionate about supporting children’s social-emotional, physical, and cognitive development, and believes that early childhood spaces must honor and reflect the diverse cultural identities of the families they serve. Guided by principles of social justice, equity, and inclusivity, Shauna was inspired to co-found Tiny Visionaries as a way to create the kind of nurturing, affirming environment she believes every child deserves.

Shauna’s vision is to foster a creative, safe, and welcoming space where children feel a strong sense of belonging and are supported as they explore, grow, and thrive. She holds an Associate’s Degree in Early Childhood Education and is currently pursuing a degree in Business Management, allowing her to thoughtfully blend child-centered care with strong program leadership.

Samantha Chung (formerly Street) brings over fifteen years of experience working with children and families. She entered the field driven by a deep desire to help build strong, life-affirming foundations during the most formative years of development. She believes that early childhood is not only about academic readiness, but about nurturing the whole child—mentally, emotionally, physically, and socially—in ways that shape how children understand themselves, their relationships, and the world around them.

Samantha holds an Associate’s Degree in Liberal Arts with an emphasis in Social and Behavioral Sciences from Santa Monica College, where she graduated with honors, as well as a certification in Early Childhood Education. She also earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Child Development from Mount Saint Mary’s University. Her approach to early education centers on compassion, emotional intelligence, and cultivating environments where children feel seen, valued, and empowered.

Together, Shauna and Samantha chose to continue their journey in education as directors of their own in-home childcare program, united by a shared vision of building strong, healthy, and resilient foundations for children. Having known each other for nearly twenty years and worked together professionally for well over a decade, they bring a deep level of trust, collaboration, and alignment to their leadership.

Over the past six years, Shauna and Samantha have had the honor of running a large in-home childcare program serving families throughout West Hollywood and the surrounding areas. During this time, Tiny Visionaries has grown thoughtfully and intentionally—brick by brick—into a vibrant, supportive community rooted in trust, partnership, and shared values. The love, joy, and connection experienced alongside the incredible families who have walked through their doors has been both humbling and deeply meaningful, continually reaffirming their commitment to this work and to the children and families they serve.

As a team, they offer thoughtful, responsive care grounded in experience, adaptability, patience, and genuine love for children of all backgrounds and abilities. Their dream for Tiny Visionaries is to create a community centered on empowerment, belonging, tolerance, and love—with the hope that the children they care for today will grow into compassionate, confident humans and future leaders of tomorrow.

Temwayaj

“Fantastic! We love teachers Shauna and Sam”

• Jonathan T

“Couldn’t be happier . ;)”

• Michelle T.

Filozofi

Our philosophy at Tiny Visionaries is rooted in the whole-child approach, supporting and nurturing all areas of children’s development and learning. This encompasses integrating play-based, Montessori-inspired ideals into a creative curriculum, allowing children the freedom to learn in ways they love while offering structured learning for thriving in their primary years and beyond. We aim to shape well-rounded, tolerant, kind, and loving individuals who are healthy mentally, physically, and emotionally. Our commitment is to provide an inclusive, safe, nurturing, and caring environment where all children have equal opportunities to learn, thrive, and grow. Our goal is to respect individuals from all backgrounds, abilities, and walks of life to ensure each child has the freedom to develop to their full potential.

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Tiny Visionaries is located in a welcoming and warm single family home in a quiet West Hollywood neighborhood.

We’ve designed our care environment with play and learning areas that allow children to explore various developmentally-appropriate activities based on their interests. Some of our favorite areas include our reading / cozy area (for literacy, relaxation, and respite), the music and movement area (for physical activity and cultural learning), and our dramatic play area (for self-expression and empathy).

Children will spend about half of their time outdoors between a mix of both our private yard and our local park and playground. We believe that connecting with nature, through play and exploration, allows children to gain deeper knowledge of themselves and the world. Further, we know that this connection encourages children to use their creativity while developing their imagination, dexterity, and physical, cognitive, and emotional strength.

At Tiny Visionaries, we want to provide an environment that supports the cognitive, social, and emotional growth of each child, in a way that is tailored to them.

Konsènan pwogram nou an

Tiny Visionaries is dedicated to cultivating an environment that is loving, nurturing, safe, and inclusive; one that offers children opportunities for healthy growth and development. We welcome children and families of all races, creeds, religious backgrounds, and national origins. We promote tolerance, respect, acceptance and understanding of all individuals. It is our goal to build a foundation for every child that is strong in core values and morals. In doing so, we hope to help raise children who are more tolerant, more loving, more accepting and understanding; who will stand up for what they believe in, use their voices to support those whose are muted or unheard, and fight for things that pull at their heart strings; as we need more of this in our world.

Admisyon

Join the Tiny Visionaries community in four easy steps:

1. Explore our website

We’ve provided information about our philosophies and offerings to help you decide if our program is the right fit for your child and family. Please be sure to ask as many clarifying questions as you feel necessary so that you may have as much information as possible to make the best decision for your child’s care.

2. Tour our program

We invite you to come and see what makes Tiny Visionaries unique! You can view our tour calendar to see if we’re currently hosting tours. If so, you can request or schedule a tour at the top of this page. If we are not currently hosting tours, you’ll see a “Request Info” button. Click that button and submit your information. Once we have your information, we will notify you when we start to host tours again in the future.

Please be advised that, due to COVID-19, we are only hosting virtual tours.

3. Submit an Enrollment Application

If you would like to enroll, please submit an application at www.wonderschool.com/tiny-visionaries-4819/apply – note that we require tours for all prospective families. Please do not submit an application if you have not visited the program.

4. Enroll

After reviewing your application, we’ll send an enrollment invitation. Upon accepting your invitation you’ll pay your enrollment fee, fill out enrollment documents and review and sign our Parent Handbook.