What families ask us

Thistle serves children ages 2 to 5 in three studios: twos, threes and fours. Mornings run 8:30 am to 12:30 pm, and the school day runs 8:30 am to 3:30 pm.

Tours run most months on a weekday morning, while the studios are working. You see the atelier and the studios, meet a teacher and ask anything you like. Children are welcome to come along.

A long project starts with a question the children raise, such as where the ladybugs go at night. A group follows it for weeks, looking, drawing, building and talking, and the teachers write down what they notice so that the next week follows from it.

Teachers collect notes, photographs and drawings from a project and hang them on a panel in the hall, so that families can see how the children's thinking moved. A panel never carries a child's name.

Your child's age, the schedule and the days a week. We do not print tuition on this site; the figures are on our enrollment page, and we go through them on a tour.

An enrollment form and a deposit hold a place. When a studio is full, families join a waitlist by studio and schedule, and we offer places in the order families joined.

Yes. The school is licensed by Wisconsin DCF, the Department of Children and Families, and you are welcome to ask to see the license on a tour.

Everyone speaks English. Two teachers also speak Hmong, and our atelierista speaks Spanish. They use those languages with children and families who want them.

We follow each family's lead. Teachers in the twos studio help children who are learning, and the older studios ask that a child can manage the bathroom with a teacher nearby. If your child is still learning, tell us at the tour and we will talk it through.

A teacher stays with the child, names what is happening in plain words and helps them find a way back to the work or to a quiet corner. We tell you about it at pickup, and we ask what helps at home.