Private Early Childhood Teacher

We’re looking for an exceptional Private Early Childhood Teacher to design and lead a warm, thoughtful, developmentally rich learning experience for a bright and imaginative 3-year-old girl in the Buffalo, New York area. This is a unique opportunity for an experienced early childhood educator who loves young children, understands how much learning happens through play, story, rhythm, language, music, movement, and relationship, and is excited by the opportunity to help create a highly personalized private preschool experience.

This is a private teacher role, not a nanny, babysitting, or household assistant position. The family is seeking a professional educator who can bring structure, creativity, developmental expertise, and intentional curriculum planning into the home while honoring the joy, wonder, and flexibility that early childhood requires.

The primary student is bright, verbal, observant, imaginative, and socially engaging. She enjoys books, stories, songs, music, pretend play, hands-on exploration, characters, and meaningful interaction with trusted adults. She benefits from gentle structure, clear expectations, playful routines, autonomy, and learning experiences that feel natural rather than overly formal.

For three days each week, she will be joined by another 3-year-old boy for a shared early childhood learning block. The teacher will use the same curriculum, daily rhythm, and schedule for both children and will be responsible for supporting both students’ learning, engagement, social-emotional development, and participation during shared instructional time. The girl remains the primary student for this placement, but the ideal candidate should be fully comfortable leading a small, two-child early childhood learning environment.

The family is looking for a teacher who can create a beautiful, intentional, developmentally appropriate preschool experience that supports early literacy, oral language, fine motor development, early numeracy, creativity, independence, social-emotional growth, and joyful curiosity.

Student Profile

The primary student is a bright and highly verbal 3-year-old who learns best through stories, songs, characters, music, hands-on experiences, pretend play, and relationship. She is imaginative, observant, and expressive, with a strong sense of personality and emerging leadership skills.

She enjoys books, audio stories, music, singing, pretend play, and open-ended exploration. She can become deeply engaged when activities are connected to a story, character, song, seasonal theme, or meaningful real-world experience. She responds well to adults who are warm, playful, calm, and confident.

She is also developing the social-emotional skills expected at this stage, including sharing, turn-taking, flexibility, including others in play, navigating transitions, and tolerating frustration when something feels hard. She benefits from adults who can provide gentle boundaries without being overly rigid, corrective, or controlling.

The family is especially interested in a teacher who can preserve her love of learning while helping her build confidence, independence, resilience, kindness, and early classroom habits.

What You'll Do

• Design and lead a developmentally appropriate private early childhood learning program for the primary student, with a small-group component three days per week.
• Implement a consistent curriculum, daily rhythm, and weekly learning structure for the primary student and one additional 3-year-old learner during shared instructional days.
• Plan rich, play-based learning experiences that incorporate stories, songs, music, movement, art, nature, pretend play, early literacy, oral language, early numeracy, fine motor development, and practical life skills.
• Create a warm, joyful, and predictable learning environment that balances structure with flexibility, autonomy, creativity, and child-led exploration.
• Support early literacy development through books, storytelling, songs, phonological awareness, vocabulary-building, conversation, print awareness, and playful exposure to letters and sounds.
• Support early math and reasoning through counting, sorting, patterns, shapes, measurement, games, puzzles, building, movement, and hands-on problem-solving.
• Encourage social-emotional growth, including sharing, turn-taking, peer inclusion, emotional regulation, flexible thinking, empathy, and gentle conflict resolution.
• Help both children build age-appropriate independence, classroom habits, attention to routines, task initiation, and comfort with transitions.
• Adapt activities to meet the developmental needs, interests, and readiness levels of both children while keeping them on the same general curriculum path.
• Use story-rich, seasonal, nature-based, Waldorf/Reggio/Montessori-inspired, or other developmentally appropriate approaches when helpful.
• Prepare materials, organize the learning environment, document observations, and communicate thoughtfully with the family about the primary student’s growth, interests, progress, and next steps.
• Partner professionally with the family and Thrive Education Partners around curriculum planning, developmental goals, progress monitoring, and long-term educational design.
• Occasionally support learning-connected enrichment experiences, outings, or activities when agreed upon in advance.

What Makes Someone Successful in This Role

• You are an experienced early childhood educator who genuinely loves working with young children and understands the importance of play, rhythm, wonder, and relationship.
• You have strong knowledge of early childhood development and can design learning experiences that are both joyful and intentional.
• You are skilled in early literacy, oral language development, fine motor development, early numeracy, and social-emotional learning.
• You are warm, calm, emotionally mature, and confident with bright, verbal, strong-willed preschool-aged children.
• You can provide structure without being rigid and boundaries without being harsh.
• You know how to support a child’s autonomy while still guiding the flow of the day.
• You are creative and comfortable using stories, songs, music, art, movement, nature, baking, sensory play, books, and imaginative play as meaningful teaching tools.
• You can manage a small two-child learning environment with patience, flexibility, and strong developmental judgment.
• You understand that a 3-year-old can be bright, verbal, and capable while still needing movement, play, rest, repetition, emotional support, and room to be little.
• You are comfortable helping children work through frustration, transitions, sharing, turn-taking, and unexpected changes with calm co-regulation.
• You communicate clearly and professionally with parents.
• You bring discretion, maturity, and sound judgment to a private-family setting.
• You understand that this is a professional teaching role and are comfortable maintaining appropriate boundaries around responsibilities, communication, and scope of work.

Family Culture & Values

The family is seeking an educator who can partner with them in a thoughtful, values-conscious home environment. They value warmth, professionalism, respect, emotional maturity, cultural awareness, and age-appropriate conversations.

The family has a multicultural background and wants the primary student’s identity, family culture, and broader worldview to be honored in natural and developmentally appropriate ways. They also prefer an educator who is respectful of their traditional family values and who will not introduce adult political, ideological, gender, sexuality, or activism-oriented topics into early childhood instruction.

The ideal teacher will be warm, kind, inclusive, and respectful while maintaining professional neutrality and alignment with the family’s preferences around age-appropriate learning.

Requirements

Strongly Preferred

• Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education, Elementary Education, Child Development, Literacy, or a related field
• Significant experience teaching preschool, kindergarten, early elementary, or private early childhood learners
• Strong early literacy background
• Experience planning and implementing developmentally appropriate curriculum
• Experience supporting social-emotional development in young children
• Comfort teaching two 3-year-olds in a small-group format

Preferred

• Master’s degree in Early Childhood Education, Elementary Education, Literacy, Child Development, Curriculum & Instruction, or a related field
• Experience in private teaching, homeschool education, Reggio Emilia, Waldorf, Montessori, nature-based education, or play-based preschool environments would be a plus
• Experience with bright, verbal, highly imaginative, young children
• Training or experience in structured literacy, language development, fine motor support, or early childhood assessment/documentation

Skills

• Curriculum design: ability to select, adapt, or build lesson plans from a variety of frameworks (classical, Charlotte Mason, project-based, or traditional)
• Differentiated instruction: comfortable adjusting pace, depth, and method to match the student
• Assessment and progress tracking: ability to set measurable academic goals and report progress clearly to parents
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Proficiency with digital learning tools, educational platforms, and standard productivity software

Professional Standards

• Current background check (required; Thrive facilitates)
• Verifiable references from prior teaching or tutoring roles
• Professionalism, discretion, and adaptability -- you are working inside someone's home

Benefits

Compensation

• $90,000 - $130,000/yr, commensurate with experience, credentials, and placement scope
• Compensation is negotiated directly with the family; Thrive advocates for fair market rates on your behalf

Logistics

• Location: Buffalo, New York--specifically East Aurora area. Instruction will take place primarily in the family’s home with a newly constructed dedicated learning space.
• Schedule: Full-time but. Student-facing instructional time will typically take place Monday–Thursday from approximately 9:00 AM–2:00 PM. Additional time will be dedicated to planning, preparation, documentation, family communication, curriculum development, and coordination with Thrive Education Partners.
• Small-Group Component: Three days per week, the primary student will be joined by another 3-year-old boy. The teacher will lead both children through the same curriculum and daily rhythm during shared instructional time.
• Individual Instruction: One day per week is expected to focus primarily on the primary student, allowing for more individualized observation, enrichment, skill development, and responsive planning.
• Employment Type: Full-time W-2 employee role through Thrive Education Partners.
• Benefits: Optional benefits may be available depending on final employment structure.
• Start Date: Flexible for the right candidate.

Work Environment

• One-on-one or small-group instruction -- no classroom management overhead
• Deep, ongoing relationships with students and families rather than high-volume throughput
• Schedule flexibility that mirrors the academic calendar you design together
• Opportunity to teach the way you believe learning actually works

Support

• Personalized matching -- Thrive vets families thoroughly before introductions, so your time is spent with qualified, serious clients
• Dedicated placement coordinator throughout the process
• Access to Thrive's educator network, resources, and ongoing placement opportunities
• Long-term career development: many of our educators build lasting careers across successive placements