{"id":74540,"date":"2025-11-29T14:08:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T14:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/74540\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T14:08:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T14:08:12","slug":"great-beginnings-preschool-made-countless-idyllic-memories-after-48-years-it-looked-like-the-end-long-beach-post-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/74540\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Beginnings Preschool made countless idyllic memories; after 48 years, it looked like the end \u2022 Long Beach Post News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Staring through jars filled with brilliantly hued liquids, digging happily at a knee-high sandbox or sitting cross-legged on the rug singing a song, the children of Great Beginnings Preschool in Long Beach seem unaware they are the keepers of a fragile tradition that, for decades, has started every morning.<\/p>\n

The tradition is a mantra, started by the school\u2019s original teacher and founder, Marian Stocking.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s another beautiful day in Long Beach, California, and we\u2019re lucky, and happy, and thankful to be here,\u201d they recite.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a saying without a clear origin. Those close to Stocking \u2014 the daughter of a local educator and outdoorsman \u2014 say she came back with the line following a trip abroad, but the trail stops there: It might have been after her excursion with the wild horses in Mongolia or beluga whales in the Arctic. There\u2019s also the possibility it was after her visit with the orangutans on the South Pacific island of Borneo, among her favorites.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re from Long Beach, the chances are good you\u2019ve crossed paths with someone who attended Great Beginnings, where generations of budding minds were shaped by Stocking\u2019s nature-first approach.<\/p>\n

There are no computers, televisions or iPads. But there are plenty of animals, dirt, sand and a garden with milkweed plants covered with caterpillars that will turn into Monarch butterflies.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer philosophy was, kids can learn math and all that stuff later,\u201d Peter Stocking, Marian\u2019s son, said. \u201cAt that preschool age, it\u2019s important to get their interest in science and nature and learning about the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

This summer, 48 years since opening, Stocking\u2019s vision was at risk. After a fall at her home, the 86-year-old has ailed, unable to teach or even lead the morning mantra.<\/p>\n

Without its matriarch, Stocking\u2019s family decided it was time for Great Beginnings to end. They penned notices, letting parents know to make plans elsewhere in the coming year.<\/p>\n

They were laid out on Stocking\u2019s desk, ready to be sent, when a local couple, Adriana Webster and her husband, Christian, intervened.<\/p>\n

They\u2019d seen the value of Stocking\u2019s school first-hand when their daughter attended. After watching her develop there, \u201cI can\u2019t imagine this place not existing,\u201d Adriana Webster said.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat Beginnings is one of those places,\u201d she explained. \u201cI have friends who went there as kids, neighbors who attended in the 1980s, and now second generations are there, and I\u2019ve heard story after story from people who light up when they hear its name.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Christian and Adriana Webster are the new owners of Great Beginnings Preschool as they stand in a classroom at the school in Long Beach on Tuesday, July 30, 2025. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/p>\n

\"\"The new owners of Great Beginnings Preschool kept the original bikes at the school in Long Beach on Tuesday, July 30, 2025. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/p>\n

So on a tight timeline, they purchased the school for $900,000 in May. During the weeklong summer recess, the two put in another $100,000 in repairs, tearing down playsets, propping ladders, sanding chairs and applying multiple coats of paint. In the backyard, the two added astroturf, shade structures, a playhouse and mud kitchen.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe literally had to move every single piece of furniture and toy that had been there for 50 years, out and clean, and we did new windows and lights and paint and floors and everything in a week.\u201d Adriana Webster said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a week.\u201d Christian Webster reiterates.<\/p>\n

In renovating the school, its new owners insisted that it maintain the character of Great Beginnings at its best. Scrapbooks kept in Stocking\u2019s drawer show that even much of the same playground equipment has been there for at least 20 years. The Websters\u2019 efforts ensured Stocking\u2019s spirit still imbues the school even as her physical presence recedes.<\/p>\n

Born to a huntsman and a high school teacher, Stocking spent her youth swimming in the Alamitos Bay, hiking Big Bear Mountain and watching \u201cWild Kingdom\u201d segments in a Belmont Shore home that had come to resemble an outfitters store.<\/p>\n

Her father, Tharon Hodge, was an outdoorsman, hunting deer and duck with the local Elks Club, and killing enough rattlesnakes to keep his daughter well supplied with rattles with which to terrify and impress her friends. Venison and jackrabbit were always in the freezer, and racks of antlers on the walls.<\/p>\n

From him, Stocking developed a deep connection to the outdoors, and from her mother, a connection to teaching. But she didn\u2019t follow straight in her parents\u2019 path. She forwent the hunting \u2014 befriending animals instead \u2014 and detested the idea of teaching teenagers.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe wanted to focus on the young kids,\u201d Peter Stocking said. \u201cI think she felt that that is probably the most important time in a child\u2019s life, because that\u2019s when they\u2019re learning about nature and science and the natural world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Cece, a 30-year-old tortoise, makes her way across the campus at Great Beginnings Preschool in Long Beach, Tuesday, July 30, 2025. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/p>\n

\"\"Plastic play dinosaurs lie in a sandbox at Great Beginnings Preschool in Long Beach on Tuesday, July 30, 2025. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/p>\n

With the help of friends, she purchased land on Fourth Street in 1977, where an old bungalow sat atop it, and built a zoo of sorts of her own. She called it Great Beginnings.<\/p>\n

There, her animal kingdom \u2014 extended, to be sure \u2014 amounted to an ex-husband, about 2,400 children, two of whom are her own, two tortoises, a coop of chickens, a corn snake, bunnies, hundreds of dinosaurs, a wandering duck and, at one point, a tarantula in a bag.<\/p>\n

Instead of antlers and venison, Stocking brought back a different kind of trophy; scattered on the countertops, shelves and desk drawers are turtle shells, calcified starfish, whale thresh, bird nests, molts, bones and scales, binned and bucketed for children to hold and examine at their leisure.<\/p>\n

They came from her trips around the globe, from the outback in Botswana, the desert sands in Egypt and the island of Borneo, and are incorporated into the curriculum.<\/p>\n

In 1992, she was among the 60 graduating fellow docents at the Los Angeles Zoo.<\/p>\n

From every Saturday thereafter, she traveled to the zoo, introducing guests and spending time with the animals. Eventually, her son started driving her as she became too old to drive herself.<\/p>\n

Just as with the zoo, Stocking would have worked at Great Beginnings \u201cto her very last day, gone home, went to bed, and not woken up the next day,\u201d said Teri Moreno, who\u2019s worked at the school since 2000.<\/p>\n

But as her health declined, Stocking slowly receded from both. Moreno increasingly took over her day-to-day tasks until Stocking retired. At the Websters\u2019 insistence, Moreno stayed on at the school, recently assuming Stocking\u2019s role as director.<\/p>\n

And while she may not frequent the Galapagos and bring back pencils like her predecessor, she has slowly taken over the traditions Stocking left behind.<\/p>\n

\"\"Teri Moreno, director, stands behind mason jars filled with liquid representing the colors of the rainbow at Great Beginnings Preschool in Long Beach on Friday, August 1, 2025. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/p>\n

She wears her special apron during the holidays. For birthdays, Moreno will showcase a science lesson with candles and jars. She teaches the children some of Stocking\u2019s favorite songs \u2014 Build me a House, Nora\u2019s Room, Baby Beluga \u2014 as well as her famous morning mantra.<\/p>\n

She took over the feeding schedule for the now-aging tortoises, Charlie and Cece, leaving them romaine \u2014 sometimes with cucumbers and watermelon \u2014 between the faded rungs of the outdoor playset.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is just a really magical place,\u201d Moreno said. I want to keep that going. \u2026 The goals she established from the very beginning are still pertinent today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recently, Moreno was waiting at an airport gate when a woman sat down next to her.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe goes, \u2018I know you.\u2019 And I said, I know you. And we both said, \u2018Great Beginnings.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

After a few minutes of chatting, the woman said her daughter \u2014 who attended preschool 20 years ago \u2014 is no longer a little girl, but a grown woman with a burgeoning career.<\/p>\n

Moreno asked which field she is in.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Science and animals.\u2019 And I said, Oh, Mrs. Stocking would be so pleased,\u201d Moreno said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Staring through jars filled with brilliantly hued liquids, digging happily at a knee-high sandbox or sitting cross-legged on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-74540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}