History
Grandparents say that setting foot on our playground propels them back in time to when they were here in the same playground picking up their own children from DNS. Dover Nursery School is indebted to having been part of the local community for years. Our families join us from Dover and all the towns surrounding Dover.
DNS began in the first owner’s home but has been a grateful tenant* of The Dover Church in Dover since the 1970s. Shelley Poulsen became the fourth owner in 2004 and she has held onto the heart-full approach of educating young children. She assesses current educational philosophies and strategies and advocates for children and families at DNS and in the community.
DNS began as a mixed-age setting where students came to socialize and become comfortable with caretakers outside of the home. Those aspects have remained in our program because they are important. In addition, we separate by age to create curriculum to meet children’s developmental capabilities and interests. The magic is in discerning a tempo that serves a group of students as well as the individual student.
Despite expanding its physical space in 2008, the school has maintained its intimate capacity of 24 students per day. This conscious decision was to continue to afford teachers and families an easy way to get to know one another quickly and meaningfully.
Each year there is room for returning families who have become the fabric of DNS as well as new families who are enamored with our close-knit community.
*we do not offer a religious program or affiliation