Our School

10th Street Preschool is founded by childhood development expert, Cindy Wasson, who has over 40+ years of experience. Nestled in a residential enclave in Santa Monica, 10th Street Preschool has been one of Southern California’s leading preschools for 30+ years.

Formerly owned by Hal Ashby and his family, our campus, just a few miles from the ocean, includes historic craftsman bungalows, lush flowers, and expansive, vibrant murals by Peter and Nancy Turner-Alvet.

The three of us were born and raised in the same zip code (where I continue to live), played at the same park, learned how to eat an ice cream cone at the same shoppe, got our library cards from the same library and our driver’s license from the same DMV. My son who is 42 continues to have hair cut by the same barber who gave him and his sister their first haircut, and who cut mine for over 20 years.

My children attended the same preschool and elementary school and went their individual ways for middle, high, college and post graduate studies. While we share the same work ethics, morals, and values, and while all three of our careers are devoted to communicating and connecting with others, we are uniquely different. This is crucial and as it should be.

The way we raise and educate our children cannot be in the same way. We may play in the same park, and we do not play in the same ways. We may learn to read at the same library, and we do not read in the same way. We are not robots or carbon copies. Every child loves in different ways and every learner learns in different ways.

Our most honorable job as grown-ups is to be skilled watchers and listeners, to be flexible and ego-less. Only then we will know how to best meet the needs of our children as they present each day, throughout the day. That is our mandate for caring, raising and educating children. At 10th Street Preschool, our goal is to nourish each child and each family, individually, and meet their changing social and emotional needs every day. Our guiding philosophy is love. We are comfortable including classic positive proven pedagogies to help grow each child. Children learn best when they are engaged in meaningful, mixed-age play.

Whether in the sandbox, pretend room, art bungalow, or play yard the children of 10th Street achieve cognitive, physical, and psychosocial skills which is how well-being is built. This is when we know our children are ready to walk out of our Red Door and into the new door of their elementary school. Eager, confident, curious, and kind.  They know they have a right to be heard and a responsibility to listen. They believe in personal best and consider themselves to be serious learners. They do not compete with their classmates, instead they are cooperative and kind.

Our thirty-two-year history of placing students locally and nationally in the most respected elementary schools—from the most traditional to the most progressive—attests to their desirability, eligibility, and readiness. Our 10th Street children and their families are known in the community as being proud and playful learners who model the essence of personal best. They are strong listeners and communicators with ethical empathetic behaviors, open-mindedness, curiosity, and solid self-discipline who possess the intellectual curiosity to learn, read, discuss, and explore. They have gained the self-confidence required to take emotional risks that are essential in challenging oneself to learn how to do something new or something hard. They can think from the perspectives of others, have acquired the ability to view issues from someone else’s point of view and cheer for one another rather than judge or compete. 

A large majority of our students matriculate from high school into universities of higher learning, on the national and international stage , and many earn post-doctoral degrees. Just as impressive is how they choose to stay in touch with us, returning often to give me the graduation hug that I taught them so long ago, (lean into the hug with both arms and give a little squeeze), and to visit their graduation photo and graduation tile. When they stand in front of their very first cubby, they don’t need to stand on their tippytoes anymore. They don’t need step stool either.

After three decades, I have honor of educating multigenerational families; children who graduated when they were 5 or 6 years old are now bringing their children to 10th Street. I see their 3-year-old faces in the faces of their 3-year-olds. They are walking through the Red Door as parents and in turn, their parents are now grandparents!

Once you walk through the Red Door your family will always belong to our family.

When I began with 8 children, I never imagined a life as meaningful and rich as this. 

My children do not belong to me anymore. They belong to themselves, to one another and to the world. The way I care, raise, and educate my children is the way I hope to partner with you. My life and my career are devoted to caring for families; mine, yours and theirs. 

I hope you will discover your home away from home at 10th Street Preschool and I look forward to teaching your children the graduation hug. 

Cindy