dieneke andrus, owner / director

I was raised in Virginia, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. My family moved to Branford, Connecticut when I was fifteen.  Upon graduation, I decided to take a semester and work as teacher assistant in a local nursery school.  I then moved to Burlington, Vermont where I attended Champlain College for Early Childhood and later Johnson State College in Johnson, Vermont for Art Education.

​ I worked as a teacher at Dunn’s Corner’s Preschool and helped pilot the very first Rhode Island Early Learning Standards. It was through this project that I started realizing that early childhood education was drastically changing along with the family unit and reform was necessary. I spent a great deal of time contemplating whether or not I should stay in the early childhood field all together. Instead of backing out, I happened to discover “peace education” and how this movement was the core behind Montessori education. Through a kind neighbor, I was offered a co-teaching position at South County Montessori School in RI.  I then attended Three Rivers College and received my AMS Early Childhood Montessori teacher training.  

A head teacher position became available to me at Calvary Nursery School in Stonington, CT where I taught for nine years. I invested in that special school as if it were my own. I had the privilege of traveling to the highlands of Guatemala with my husband for an extended period over the summer and I volunteered in an orphanage as well as assisting in their schools. It was a life-changing experience that will always stay with me.  I received my Karma Kids Yoga teacher training and started pursuing a Nature-based EC teacher certification through Antioch University in NH. My husband and I relocated to North Carolina in 2018. While in NC, I had the opportunity of working at Rainbow Community School which offers a Montessori and mindfulness approach.

The desire to start Little Acorn Preschool came from working as a teacher for over twenty five years. It also came from trying to find the right school that would nurture my hands, heart and mind as an educator and as a person. I spent a large portion of my time visiting other preschools and substitute teaching in the public schools and I found myself extremely limited when it came to quality, philosophy, community and all of the things that I am passionate about and all of the characteristics that will make up our Little Acorn Preschool.