A gentle place to play, create and grow.

The Maker’s Garden is a nurturing home based playschool in Newbury Park for children age 12 months - 5 years.

Inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach, we offer a warm, safe environment where curiosity, creativity, and connection are celebrated every day.

Childhood should feel magical, meaningful, and slow.

At The Maker’s Garden, children are seen as capable, creative, and deeply curious individuals. Inspired by the Reggio Emilia philosophy, we believe children learn best through exploration, relationships, nature, and hands-on experiences. Our environment is thoughtfully designed to encourage wonder, independence, and joyful discovery. Getting messy is all part of the fun.

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A young girl with curly red hair, smiling and looking upward, covered in colorful paint on her face, arms, and white sleeveless shirt with a yellow bow in her hair, outdoors with a green blurred background.
Children's hands working with cookie dough and cookie cutters on a floured surface.
Children's hands working with cookie dough and cookie cutters on a floured surface.
Close-up of a small frog sitting on a dirt hand with a colorful red and green background.
A woman with long blonde hair tied in a ponytail stands in front of a colorful, abstract paint-splattered wall, with various bottles of paint and brushes in the foreground. A large white canvas and another partially visible painting or paper are on the wall.
A woman with long blonde hair tied in a ponytail stands in front of a colorful, abstract paint-splattered wall, with various bottles of paint and brushes in the foreground. A large white canvas and another partially visible painting or paper are on the wall.

A thoughtfully curated early childhood experience

  • The third teacher in Reggio Emilia is the environment, at The Maker’s Garden both outdoor and indoor areas are designed to be beautiful, functional, and reflective of the children's learning, providing resources such as light, natural materials, and open space to stimulate creativity.

  • The Maker’s Garden is a intentionally designed space that encourages competence, curiosity and creativity. We provide dedicated spaces for your child to exercise their desires to explore, experiment and express their ideas through “the hundred languages” of art, light, materials and nature. It serves as a laboratory of creativity and research, fostering deep learning and critical thinking. This is a safe space where we get to explore ideas that emerge in the classroom both through teacher led provocations and child led organic inspiration.

  • The outdoor environment is a critical part of “the third teacher” and at The Maker’s Garden it is a seamless extension of our learning space. We offer a sprawling outdoor play area that offers a place for little toes to be immersed in unstructured play. We spend as much time outdoors as we can at The Maker’s Garden. Invitations to play include sensory mud kitchen, water table, sand box, construction truck demolition area, along with loose parts and open ended found materials and tools to create their own play experiences.

  • Dramatic play is a vital, child-led method for exploring the world, where children use imaginative role-play to process emotions, social skills, and complex ideas. At The Maker’s Garden we have set up a dramatic play area inspired by the children's interests or ongoing projects, such as a "farm shop," "cafe," or "post office.” Children practice negotiation, empathy, and self-regulation as they take on different roles and scenarios in a safe environment.

  • While dynamic socializing is so important for children, we also believe that children can reach their peak creative potential and flow state more easily in smaller less overwhelming group sizes. Teacher to child ratio is between 1:3 and 1:4.

 

A place in Newbury Park where families feel connected and supported

We believe strong relationships with families and connection to the community are an essential part of early childhood education. Communication is warm, personal, and collaborative. Parents receive updates, photos, and thoughtful insight into their child’s experiences and development.

• Home based environment in Newbury Park

• We provide regular Maker’s Garden parent meet-up opportunities for families to come together, bond, share and grow.

Meet the Founder

A woman with long brown hair and a young boy with short dark hair standing outdoors in a sunlit wooded area, smiling at the camera with trees and sunlight in the background.
A woman with long brown hair and a young boy with light hair sitting outdoors in a grassy area, smiling and playing together with a stick, surrounded by trees with sunlight filtering through the branches.
A woman and a young girl standing outdoors in a sunny, wooded area, hugging and smiling at the camera.

My name is Micaela Stevens, and I am the founder of The Maker’s Garden. I am a mother to 3 children who I am raising in my beloved Newbury Park community. I received my Bachelor’s degree from San Diego State University in Early Childhood Education. I also hold pediatric certificates in First Aid, CPR and Preventative Health and Safety Training. I did not create The Maker’s Garden to fit into a mold — Thousand Oaks has plenty of Preschools. My goal was to create something truly special that local parents are craving but that truly didn’t exist in our community until now.

The Maker’s Garden “Playschool” was created to provide a space where children are surrounded by opportunities for creation, imagination and exploration within a cozy and safe atmosphere with developmentally appropriate tools for play. While some traditional toys are available we place a strong value on unconventional materials from nature and everyday life in both our indoor and outdoor environments.

We use minimal transitions and allow play to proceed in a natural sometimes slower pace to allow children to become invested in meaningful interactions with materials, processes, peers and teachers. At The Maker’s Garden no two days will be alike as we value the joy, wonder and connection that stems from following the children’s interest instead of weekly themes or set curriculum. Our curriculum is emergent and evolves based on the interests of the students.

Enroll today.

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