Welcome to Aaron Milken Center!

Welcome to Aaron Milken Center!

Thank you for visiting our site to learn more about the Aaron Milken Center. At the Aaron Milken Center, we nurture our students’ social and emotional development, as well as their critical thinking and problem solving skills. Framed within the context of our Jewish tradition, we promote creative exploration in our dynamic learning environment to establish a strong foundation of learning and curiosity for Kindergarten and beyond. Take a look.  We know you’ll love it here as much as we do.

Warmly, Jen Shankman, Director, Aaron Milken Center for Early Childhood

Parenting Center

Begin your journey at Wise with learning, music, play, guest speakers, and camaraderie for parents and children from three months to two years old.

Preschool

The Aaron Milken Center nurtures students’ social and emotional development, as well as critical thinking and problem solving skills.

The Aaron Milken Center nurtures students’ social and emotional development, as well as critical thinking and problem solving skills.

Framed within the context of our Jewish tradition, we promote creative exploration in our dynamic learning environment to establish a strong foundation of learning and curiosity for Kindergarten and beyond.

The Aaron Milken Center’s emergent and developmentally appropriate curriculum is distinguished by a partnership with the USC Rossier School of Education, and carefully planned teacher/student classroom ratios to ensure meaningful and differentiated learning.   We invest in our families to create meaningful relationships through social and educational events throughout the Stephen Wise Temple community.

Aaron Milken Center

Early Childhood Highlights

  • Small class sizes and student-teacher ratio
  • Flexible hours
  • Financial Aid Offered
  • Gated Security
  • Hebrew Immersion Class
  • Extended Hours Offered
  • Stimulating classroom environments
  • Over 27 enrichment class offered including: Yoga, Soccer, Cooking and more
  • Sits atop the Mulholland Corridor
  • WASC Accreditation
  • Over 2 acres of lush landscape
  • Ages 2 – 5 years old
Aaron Milken Center Early Childhood Education Mission Statement

Learn deeply. Be creative.
Experience wholeness.
Make great happen.

Learn Deeply

We encourage a love of learning by enabling children to experience their own stage of development, helping them to feel success. Through dedicated concentration on emergent curriculum, we use the interests of the children to launch opportunities for in-depth, integrated study, and exploration across all academic disciplines.

Be Creative

We know children learn best through experiential practice. We allow children to foster their creativity, imagination and curiosity through our emergent curriculum and play-based philosophy that focuses on the development of critical thinking skills.

Experience Wholeness

Raising a child takes a village. Aaron Milken Center will look to expert educators, family, and friends to help support the whole child on his or her educational and spiritual journey. We incorporate the values and community of a  Jewish education (Talmud Torah), such as hoda’ah (gratitude), kavod (respect), and our responsibility to repair the world (tikkun olam).

Make Great Happen

We know children are capable, critical thinkers who understand their role as active participants in a vibrant Jewish community. At Aaron Milken Center we will raise happy, well-adjusted mensches who we know will one day change the world.

Philosophy

The Aaron Milken Center Early Childhood Education provides children with an innovative, educational experience tailored to the needs and expression of the whole child in an inclusive Jewish community. In each class and at every age, our approach to education is through the lens of a Constructivist philosophy, focusing on hands-on, experiential learning that sparks curiosity, fosters creativity and encourages children to think deeply, imaginatively and critically as they explore their classroom environment and unravel the challenges that arise through their work and their play. We give honor to the diversity of our families, and we celebrate the uniqueness in each one of us as well as the strength of our temple community.

We encourage a love of learning by enabling children to experience their own stage of development, helping them to feel success without pressure. Through dedicated concentration on emergent curriculum, we use the interests of the children as a natural springboard to launch opportunities of in-depth, integrated exploration and study across all academic disciplines, from language, math, social studies, Jewish studies, science, engineering, technology, music and fine arts. Small and large-group activities strengthen the children’s social skills, self-esteem and teamwork abilities.

Throughout the school year, we focus on the celebration, history, culture and traditions of the Jewish people, combined with an emergent curriculum that includes academic readiness experiences in math, reading, social studies and science. As a focus of our partnership with the USC Rossier School of Education in developing our award-winning curriculum, we emphasize critical and creative thinking skills, with the purpose of helping children learn how to learn. Teachers build self-esteem in children by providing the language of critical thinking to help describe the interest and wonder they find in the world around them. We provide multiple points of entry through various mediums to captivate and sustain deep engagement for every child. The values of kindness (chesed), respect (kavod), responsibility (achrayut), gratitude (hoda-ah) and being part of a holy community (kehillah k’dosha) are integrated throughout the learning process. They are at the forefront of the work we engage in with children and how we make meaning every day.

get involved

We strongly believe in the partnership between parents and school. We also know that, when a parent chooses a synagogue preschool for their child, the parent is also seeking to make connections and build community. We want that for you, and so much more.