Shire Early Education

Our Teachers

S.E.E. staff members are chosen for their warmth and patience, as well as mindfulness in their interaction with the children. Our teachers have diverse experience working around the world and backgrounds in many other fields including medicine and higher education as certified teachers. Each teacher brings their unique personality and love for children to add to a cohesive community of caregivers.

Meet the Staff:

Ashley ( Ms. Tink) Kelly - Owner, Teacher:

• Founder of S.E.E. Ashley “ Ms. Tink” Kelly has dedicated her life to education in hopes that all children will have the opportunity to learn according to their individual needs and desires. She is passionate about integrating inquiry based learning, self regulation skills, and celebrating diversity. Creating authentic spaces for parents, teachers, students, and community members to come together to village raise children is her dedicated mission for life. With Ms. Tink leading this heart-centered program, everyone is valued and thrives!
• Ms. Tink has a M.Ed. in Early and Special Education from Boise State University. She believes inclusion for all learners is foundational to maintaining a healthy environment and society. She is a part-time educator for The College of Southern Idaho teaching for the Early Childhood Department. Her favorite courses to teach are Intro. to Teaching Children’s Literature and Early Childhood Environments. She also is a certified elementary educator in Idaho and Oregon with an endorsement in literacy education.

March Williams - Teacher

• March Williams has been with The Shire for over four years. Her experience with raising children goes far and wide. She has raised four wonderful now adult children and has had various forms of child care experience throughout her life. She is passionate about family, gardening, animals, sailing, and nature. At The Shire, Ms. March brings stability and structure, a deep love for nature, gardening expertise, movement, school readiness activities, and she tends to teach through connecting with the seasons and holidays. We are lucky to have this Teacher-Mama on our team!

Zoe Jones - Teacher

• Zoe Jones has been with The Shire since 2021. She came to our program with extensive nanny experience and has been rocking the classroom for the past few years. Ms. Zoe has a zest for life. Her energy is infectious, and the children are drawn to her silly and inviting ways. She is a phenomenal musician integrating her skills of singing, dancing, and playing the guitar into our routines. She is dedicated to teaching through a positive lens of light-heartedness and play. Zoe is unique and creative. We are so grateful she is in our school family. Outside of school, Zoe loves helping to create local films, hiking, hot springing, roller skating, and writing poetry and music.

Philosophy

At Shire Early Education, we adopt various approaches.

• Place-based Education is an educational philosophy focused on preschool and primary education. It is a pedagogy described as student-centered and constructivist that utilizes self-directed, experiential learning in relationship-driven environments. The program is based on the principles of respect, responsibility, and community through exploration and discovery through a self-guided curriculum. At its core is an assumption that deep and meaningful connections to nature, the environment, people, and cultures drive purposeful learning.

• Waldorf education has slightly influenced our program as well to be more creative, celebrate the seasons changing, sing, dance, and spend more time on practical skills. The Association of Waldorf Schools in North America describe Waldorf education as, “Founded in the early 20th century, Waldorf education is based on the insights, teachings and principles of education outlined by the world renowned artist, and scientist, Rudolf Steiner. The principles of Waldorf education evolve from an understanding of human development that address the needs of the growing child. Music, dance and theater, writing, literature, legends and myths are not simply subjects to be read about and tested. They are experienced. Through these experiences, Waldorf students cultivate their intellectual, emotional, physical and spiritual capacities to be individuals certain of their paths and to be of service to the world (ASANA, 2020).”

• Although, S.E.E. does not completely model itself after Place-based Education or Waldorf education, we are inspired by the wholeness of these systems. We focus on viewing the child as an autonomous being, connecting with our community, and integrating nature into our lives each day. We also are in alignment with Idaho’s standards for preschool/kindergarten age content. This includes, but is not limited to letter and number identification, letter sound recognition, initial and ending sound identification, comparing, contrasting, sorting, categorizing, measuring, weighting, sequencing, retelling, parts of a story, rhyming, fine motor skill development, and colors and shapes. Our program is not oriented around drilling skills or worksheets. We find it more engaging and useful to teach these skills through authentic experience and special interests.

Inquiry Based Education:

• We are a student-centered program. We often ask, “What do YOU want to do” Each child learns at his or her own pace and engages with the things they are curious about. We believe that the most effective learning happens in the natural state of flow when children are at play. While still keeping to a routine, children have many choices throughout the day to direct their own learning. It is amazing to see what they come up with! We celebrate creativity and individual ownership for these spaces.

Conscious Discipline:

• Created by Dr. Becky Bailey, an internationally renowned expert in child developmental psychology, Conscious Discipline® is built on the premise of developing discipline within children rather than applying discipline to them. The program focuses on Emotion/Behavior Regulation and Emotion Knowledge/Expression. Shire Early Education uses the Conscious Discipline classroom tools and philosophy to create a loving and cohesive school family where each student feels empowered to express themselves and connect to others with mutual respect. A few of our favorite Conscious Discipline strategies include the safe space, the check-in mat, “I Love You” rituals, classroom responsibilities, and good morning and good-bye greetings. Each of these strategies focus on choices, self-regulation, and teaching empathy and consent.

About our program

Shire Early Education (S.E.E.) is a consciously minded and heartfelt preschool program for children ages 3 – 5. We prioritize inquiry, creativity, and outdoor education. Through this process we weave in academic skills organically, based on students interests and natural curiosity. S.E.E. was founded in 2017 by Ashley (Tink) Kelly in Boise’s North End and accepts students from throughout the treasure valley and beyond.

What We Offer:

• Heart centered and consciously minded atmosphere
• Self regulation skills
• Student interest driven
• Field trips and community involvement
• School readiness activities
• Multisensory activities
• Diverse outside play
• Teaching students to be stewards of the Earth
• Classroom responsibilities
• School readiness
• Enthusiastic and engaged educators

Parent Communication

• Shire Early Education maintains regular communication with parents, through the email newsletters, private whole school parent group page, and our private Instagram channel. The newsletter is sent out to currently enrolled parents and includes information on students’ activities, special events and opportunities for parent engagement. Enrolled parents are also granted access to the Instagram feed, where teachers make posts weekly. Instagram posts include photos of children in their day to day activities: learning, playing and growing together. The Facebook parent page is designed for parents to buy, sell, and trade days with each other, share resources, and creating a more unified community. Neither newsletters, Facebook, or Instagram posts are accessible to the general public. Our staff also communicates face-to-face with each family at drop-off and pick-up. We also have quarterly check-ins with families about student achievements, social development, and areas of support.

Parent Engagement Opportunities

• Shire Early Education offers many volunteer opportunities for parents and guardians to engage directly with the students. Opportunities include volunteering in the classroom, reading at story time, chaperoning for field trips and more! Only currently enrolled parents or guardians, and their approved family members, are allowed to volunteer at S.E.E. We also have monthly potluck parties for our entire school family to get involved with one another.