Our two sons were born five years apart, and it was very important to me to stay home with them until they started kindergarten. My husband had his first post-doc with Dr. James Van Allen at the University of Iowa, who was kind to hire him when job prospects looked bleak. His second post-doc was in Charlottesville, Virginia, with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. We had our second son soon after our arrival. Two weeks later, our first son started kindergarten in Albemarle County the same month that his baby brother was born.

Two years later we moved to Socorro, New Mexico, where my husband was a staff scientist at the VLA, operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. After two years, he came back to The University of Iowa as a visiting professor of physics and astronomy. I took the opportunity to take education classes and was happy to add Early Childhood to my certification. I loved taking classes in child development, music, art, children’s literature and nutrition.

When we moved back to Socorro, I taught kindergarten at San Miguel School which was associated with an old mission church and the school from where Conrad Hilton graduated. The parents helped me in and out of the classroom, including helping with our very large papier mâché hippo that became our mascot at the kindergarten that year, then at Treebrook Preschool.

In 1982, The University of Iowa offered my husband a professorship, and we were very happy to be close to both our families. After moving into our home on the east side of Iowa City, I arranged the lower level of our ranch-style home into an inviting learning space for young children and became licensed as a center less than a year later.

Why did I name my preschool Treebrook? Our sidewalk had a bridge between our house and the next-door neighbors’ house. A branch of Ralston Creek ran between us, which was lined with willow trees. Because of the setting, I was inspired to use the translation of my maiden name, Baumbach (later changed to Baumback), that translates to Treebrook. I also wanted to honor my father, Clifford Baumback. From the time I was a baby, his entire jaw became necrotic from a doctor’s mistake in Oklahoma City. It turned out not to be cancer, but the large doses of radium needles made his bone and tissues die. He endured seventy-five unsuccessful surgeries to try to re-build his jaw, until he finally said, “No more.” Despite the difficulty of only being able to have nutrition through a straw for many years, and having to learn a different way to enunciate words, he ultimately became a full professor at The University of Iowa, known especially for introducing the first and only entrepreneurship class at that time. He wrote many business books, but his textbook, How to Own and Operate a Small Business, published by Prentice-Hall, was on Harvard’s list of Best Business Books of the Year and published in many different languages. I honor my father’s tenacity and courage, so the name Treebrook means a lot to me.

Back to the location of our home and my preschool being next to a brook and trees, we discovered our house was in a flood plain. We were lucky that the City of Iowa City put the creek in an underground culvert before we had a problem.

I have wonderful memories of each of the children and parents that I had in my thirty years of teaching. Strong relationships were built between the families. The children made lifelong friends, including two children who later married! Parents volunteered with my program and were very involved in the monthly themes that I developed. I wrote a book, The Sharing Circle: Themes for Home and School Involvement, published by Fearon, a division of Simon & Schuster. Treebrook Preschool was the first center in Johnson and Linn Counties to get a 5-star rating on the Quality Rating System by the Iowa Department of Human Services, as it was called at the time. In the summers I was able to travel, visiting various Reggio Emilia and Montessori schools in Italy, (where we had my husband’s sabbatical) and Waldorf (Rudolf Steiner) schools in Germany.

There has been a gap between the time that I retired from preschool to now, when I am eager to re-start. During this gap, we traveled a lot to see our sons and endearing and talented grandchildren. It is enormously gratifying to see our children become wonderful parents themselves. We are leaving summers open to travel, so we still have the flexibility to visit our family on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

I also have a deep sense of gratification from being a teacher of preschool children and seeing what they become when they reach adulthood. One example, is that at least half of the leads in the City High musicals over several years, were former Treebrook students! I am so very proud of “my kids” successes in life, having become teachers, scientists. physicians, lawyers, engineers, documentary film director, architect, Washington Post writer, city planner and even an opera singer! Many of them stay in touch with me which warms my heart. I love teaching children in their pivotal early years when they experience significant brain growth and foundational skills.

I believe that preschool is a great investment for your child’s future. I also believe that Treebrook Preschool provides a best, first experience in an educational setting where each child receives personalized attention. Anyone who visits Treebrook is very surprised by the abundance of high-quality toys, games, musical instruments, equipment, books, and learning materials.

After decades of George, the papier mâché hippo, being our mascot, he decided to retire, and honestly, he took up too much space. I now have a kangaroo, Matilda or “Tillie,” with little “Joey,” in her pouch to greet children, “G’day!” Not to worry, there are still dozens of wooden, ceramic, metal and plush hippos around the preschool.