Every Thursday, preschoolers and kindergartners at Rain Tree Learning Community bake bread from scratch. 

“The only thing we don’t let them touch is the oven,” said co-owner Ilya Edyleman. “Other than that, they measure out all the ingredients.”

These students also sweep their classrooms at the Ballwin school, wash dishes and make their own snacks two to three times a week.

It’s a school and a learning technique Edyleman describes as unique, giving the children a ‘why’ before a ‘how’ in the learning process.

“To gain a real understanding of the information, they [students] need context and meaning,” Edyleman said. ”We give them that first before we give them the skill, and that’s often overlooked.”

Teachers like Meghan Halsey use action plans and projects to engage students.

“They feel like they’re a part of the school and that’s so important,” Halsey said.

One of those action plans was opening a pizza restaurant, where the students spent four months doing everything from making plates out of clay to taking orders over the phone. 

“Everything emerged from their[ the students] conversation,” Edyleman said.

And the projects are extensive, always giving students and onlookers an explanation about whatever it is they’re working on.

“We don’t just showcase a pretty picture that we’ve drawn," Edyleman said. ” We always put up a script; an explanation about what they’ve done.”

Edyleman and his wife started the Rain Tree School when they began looking for a preschool for their son and were not finding one that fit their needs.

“We quickly came to the realization that there was nowhere we wanted to leave our kids in West County,” Edyleman said. “We had heard of places like this on the West and East coasts, but there was nothing like that here, so we created it.”

Rain Tree is now home to full-time salaried and contracted teachers, and a chef responsible for creating a brand new menu every month from scratch.

Students are involved in nearly every aspects of the school as well, from cleaning to even growing 15 percent of the food they eat in a special garden.

“We get parents who say my kids would never eat anything but pizza and hamburgers, and now they eat raw spinach,” Edyleman said.