A COMMITTED TEAM SUPPORTing YOU AND YOUR CHILD
Our family of dedicated staff, teachers, and assistants welcome you to MHCP
MHCP staff are committed to upholding our inclusive community, making each child feel safe and secure. We are thankful for the opportunity to work alongside parents to help encourage and support your children as they make discoveries. Each child is respected as a unique individual, and we consider it a privilege to think outside the box to find the best support for your child. Our teachers are a talented and engaging group of educators, committed to helping children grow and learn together. Teachers work closely with one another to create a seamless transition from one classroom level to the next. Teachers consult with the Director and parents to ensure that each child's needs are met throughout the year. Conferences are held with parents in person, via Zoom, or telephone on an ongoing basis, providing parents with recommendations and supplemental materials to use at home. Our staff fully welcome parent input and classroom participation.
Tania Ryan, Director
Tania has been MHCP's Director for twenty-three years. Prior to that, she was the Director of the Lower School at St. Stephen's and St. Agnes School for ten years. She began her career as a kindergarten teacher. Tania is an active member of the Alexandria Preschool Directors' Association, and is committed to bringing parents together to build a strong community for children. She treats each child and family respectfully and provides individual guidance for parents to support their child's learning style.
Some of her favorite things are greeting children in the morning and later popping into classrooms to see what's going on, working with parents to discover more about their child, playing with cars, goldfish, reading stories 1-on-1, popcorn, dogs, and the books "Goodnight Moon," "Make Way for Ducklings," Strega Nona," and "Draw Me a Star."
Allyson Hazzard, Assistant to the Director
Allyson has been the Assistant Director for eight years and was a parent in our school community while her girls attended the preschool. In a previous career, she was an oncology nurse at Children's Hospital in Washington, D.C.
She is also an active member of the Old Presbyterian
Meeting House church community and serves on the
Board of the Alexandria Tutoring Consortium.
Some of her favorite things are taking care of kids in need of a boo boo bunny or Band-Aid, playing hopscotch, dogs and cats, vanilla ice cream, cheese pizza, baking cakes, cookies, and all kinds of sweet treats, and the books "Madeline," "Ping," "Charlotte's Web," and "The Very Hungry Caterpillar."
DINOSAURS? TRAINS? HERE ARE SOME OF OUR TEACHERS' FAVORITES!
Our teachers love many of the same things your kids do! We can't wait to learn more about your child's favorites and talk about all that we have in common as well as the many things that make us all unique! Knowing a little about our teachers helps create a connection before your child even starts class. There's so much more, but some of our teachers' favorites are building with blocks, trains, butterflies, pepperoni pizza, sledding, chocolate chip ice cream, the color blue, drawing with chalk, splashing in the pool, making music, firetrucks, reading books, dancing, dinosaurs, building forts, singing, cereal, riding bikes, sledding, turtles, making music, construction vehicles, looking for animal shapes in the clouds, making cookies, dogs, planting seeds, chocolate, puzzles, coloring, and using our imagination!