Neighborhood House Nursery School (NHNS) is operated by the Neighborhood Association, a non-profit, community-based organization. Opened in 1920 and located in a charming Victorian house just one block from Taylor Park, the NHNS provides a home away from home environment where children learn to love the process of learning and discovery. NHNS also creates a unique opportunity to connect learning to our natural environment with the use of our garden area. The pre-school program is open to children of parents who live or work in Millburn/Short Hills and the surrounding communities. Our staff works diligently to prepare each child for the transition to elementary school through fostering confidence, self-awareness and the ability to connect all learning to the world in which we live.
Our school provides the kind of environment and varied "hands-on" experiences that will allow your child to:
  • Make a successful break from home
  • Learn to be with other children
  • Become familiar with a group setting
  • Develop an interest and joy in learning
  • Develop security and a feeling of success
  • Develop self-expression
  • Develop self-control
  • Develop creativity
  • Develop responsibility

News and Events

May and June are extremely busy months at the Neighborhood House. The children are working in the garden, making gifts for their Mother's Day and Father's Day celebrations, and getting ready to welcome our caterpillars. We will have our final visit to the Millburn Senior Citizens on Friday, May 25 to play bingo. This program is made possible through a grant from the United Way of Northern New Jersey. We bring together our preschoolers, high school seniors and the Millburn Senior Citizens to play bingo once a month. Neighborhood House Nursery School will be closing for the school year on Thursday, June 14. We will open Summer Camp 2018 on Monday, June 18.

There is still room in our summer camp program. There are also some slots left for the 2018-2019 school year. Contact Jennifer Langan at neighborhouse@verizon.net or 973-376-0739 for more information. 

We are also excited to share that the Neighborhood House Nursery School is voluntarily a member of the Grow New Jersey Kids Program (GNJK). GNJK is New Jersey's State wide effort to improve early childhood education across the board whether a school is private or public. The key phrase to remember is continuous improvement. 

As part of this effort, we are in the beginning stages of adopting Creative Curriculum by Teaching Strategies. This is a research-based curriculum that has existed for more than 30 years and is used both nationally and internationally. It has a play-based focus that matches the Neighborhood House philosophy of play as a child’s “work”. It also focuses on developmentally appropriate and best practices. According to the creators, Teaching Strategies, “It is based on 38 objectives for development and learning that are predictive of school success and aligned with state standards.” Objectives fall into nine categories, such as social/emotional, physical, language, math, etc. 

At the heart of Creative Curriculum, is the use of studies. A study is an in-depth investigation of a topic. A study begins with what children know about a topic, what they want to learn about a topic and then moves onto a series of hands-on activities where children explore a topic first hand. The study wraps up with a summary of what was learned over a period of time. 
Neighborhood House Nursery School
12 Taylor Street
Millburn, NJ 07041
973-376-0739
neighborhouse@verizon.net