Aldrich Memorial Nursery School

We welcome children, ages 2 through 5 years, who are not yet enrolled in kindergarten. Classes are held in the mornings or afternoons, and they are scheduled to meet two, three, or five times per week. Lunch Bunch and Kids Club extensions are also available. In addition, we offer afternoon enrichment classes and six weeks of summer camp in June and July.

Aldrich Memorial Nursery School is a nationally accredited learning program for preschool children. Our mission is to provide an inclusive, developmentally based program that equally fosters a child's social/emotional, physical, cognitive, and language development, focusing on interactive play. Aldrich provides a learning environment based on developmentally appropriate experiences in all areas of growth. We call this 'child directed learning.' Children learn through experimentation, manipulation, observation, and social interaction. Teachers plan the curriculum for the needs of both the group and the individual child. In 1944, the Mayo foundation, in extending its public health activities, formed the Rochester Child Health Institute. Dr. H.F. Helmholz, then head of Mayo's section of pediatrics, selected Dr. C.A. Aldrich to carry out the study of children in a community. Because Dr. Aldrich believed a nursery school to be an essential part of a community, he joined forces with a women's group to found the Demonstration Nursery School. Dr. Benjamin Spock was also on the advisory board for the school. In 1953, after Dr. Aldrich's death, the Board of Directors incorporated the school and renamed it Aldrich Memorial Nursery School.