Nia House is Growing

First Day of School!

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Today was an historic day for Nia House, marking the integration of new and old.

The old Nia House children welcomed new friends and practiced the formality of a greeting, including a handshake, name exchange, and a “nice to meet you.” Many of the children’s old friends returned today, to resume the games and works they left off with a week ago, the same old sandbox and playhouse, joined now, by new friends.

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Our old office and former toddler wing have beautiful new oak flooring and are prepared for preschool children that will comprise a second new class. The old preschool classrooms remain, anchoring the children to something familiar- their home away from home.

It feels almost as though our old campus simply unfolded, opening into a new and naturally integrated, yet contemporary campus. Our new toddler classrooms have children inside!

It is heartwarming to know that the Nia House experience will be available to many more children and families. Within our beautiful new light filled classrooms and our familiar and established campus, the children of Nia House embarked today on their first day of school for the 2015-16 year. 

Thank you, Denise Hall Montgomery, our architect and Nia House alum mother, for envisioning this new campus. Everyone that walks into the office and classrooms from parents, to staff, to the children feel so pleased. You did a beautiful job. Please check out some of Denise's other projects: http://www.dhmarchitecture.com

Thank you teachers and staff for working so hard over the past week and weekends to prepare the school. It feels amazing.

Finally, thank you Eve for guiding us all through this process with such grace and vision.

Welcome to all the families, new and old! We are thrilled to merge our big Nia House family community. It is going to be a special year.


We're moving in

The toddler teachers are experimenting with classroom layout. It feels amazing to walk into this light filled room. 

The beautiful shelving was built by Mark Carilli, Brian's dad, Steph's husband, and a recent part-time hire for the Nia House teaching team! Thank you to all the volunteers that have helped us move and seal this furniture.

Nancy, Eve, and Stacey are settling very nicely into our new office. New Resource Bank kindly donated their gently used office furniture. Cara and Erik Lemire, parents of Henry and Finley, spent a Saturday by picking up the entire office, delivering it to Nia House and assembling it. A heartfelt thank you!  

The Construction Fence is Down!

The fence separating the construction zone and our yard has come down! At last, we can sense how the new campus integrates into the old. It looks and feels wonderful!

There is still a ton of work happening on the construction site. For now, it remains closed to parents and children. We are painting, finishing light installation, cleaning up, and moving in!

Yes, we are really beginning to transition our office into the new building.  This past weekend, an amazing group of NH parents spent their Saturday installing office shelving and furniture.  Cara and Erik Lemire picked up an entire office of new, used furniture for us from New Resource Bank's old office space.  New Resource Bank was kind enough to donate their beautiful furniture, and Cara and Erik hauled super heavy, beautiful furniture over the bridge to school.  All of our thanks to everyone who helped with the amazingly productive work day this weekend.

The building is looking super pretty and we can't wait to open it up for tours, but we do want to ask for your patience.  As the construction crew finishes their work, we want to be certain to give them as much space as possible.

We're almost done!!!

 

 

Save the Date for our Grand Opening Ceremony!

Please mark your calendars for Saturday, September 26th! 

Enjoy a Caribbean infused evening

of live music and dinner at

 

Nia House’s Annual

Silent  Auction.

 

The event will be held on our

newly expanded campus.

For everything you need to know, to make a donation for tickets, or reserve childcare, click here Grand Opening Ceremony. 

Decorative Cement Walkways

A group of three children and a teacher went on a neighborhood stroll to collect leaves. With the help of Scott, Esme’s dad, and with the natural falling of leaves from our avocado tree, the collected and fallen leaves laid in the wet cement of our campus walkway. (Yes, the cement mixers returned!) Beautiful leaf imprints now adorn the walkways of our new toddler campus. It is easy and exciting to imagine the toddlers thrill at discovering these. This will happen so soon!

Foundation

Not one, but two cement mixers welcomed children during their arrival Nia House. A huge tube pumping cement from the cement mixer to the open dug out lot had to be hurdled to pass through the sidewalk. In toddler and preschool life- this is living. For staff and long-time supporting families- this is happening. The foundation for Nia House’s toddler campus was laid.

Groundbreaking Ceremony

On Friday night, we celebrated with the school community during Nia House’s official Ground Breaking Ceremony. Mayor Tom Bates, Senator Loni Hancock, Nia House Founder Tia Waller and Board President Jeff Vincent helped commemorate the event, offering words of encouragement and recognition of Nia House’s journey.

Throughout the Ground Breaking Ceremony, families participated in a photo shoot with the plan of including their photos in our very own Nia House time capsule. If you missed our Ceremony and still want to participate in the time capsule, please get in touch- we’d love to include you!

Thanks to everyone who helped celebrate our ground breaking. What a weekend it’s been! Special thanks to the Ridolfi family for baking the ceremonial cupcakes.