MERIDETH EADES

Early Childhood Director

Merideth Eades spent her early years in Southern California but, for the last 30 years, has been calling the Central Coast ‘home’. Merideth’s love of learning was cultivated in the loving hands of her mother - an educator who never stopped learning herself. She had an insatiable desire to absorb new things and, as Merideth grew up, that rubbed off on her and she couldn’t help but follow in her mother’s footsteps. Her mother was always reading about something new in education and the two would spend hours discussing it. This excitement about education prompted Merideth to pursue her B.S. in Human Development(Psychology and Child Development) at Cal Poly, and dive right into teaching. Before coming to SLOCA 8 years ago, Merideth was a Reading Recovery and First grade teacher at a local school. She decided to take a leave of absence to try her hand at homeschooling her eldest in Kindergarten. That’s when she found SLOCA, fell in love, and never looked back! While she has always considered herself a reader, Merideth wasn't exposed to a lot of the classics. Now that she has 3 children at the school, she gets to read and learn right along with them, and has subsequently been taken in by Classical Education. Merideth finds joy in the narrative approach to history and literature, and the way that her children are learning to ask questions and ponder the answers together, which has really impacted her family in a positive way. Besides taking care of three children and a husband, Merideth enjoys yoga, hiking, reading, camping and spending time with friends. She got a Ukulele for her birthday and is looking forward to learning how to play it. For this year’s recitation evening, she decided to challenge herself in memorizing a poem. Part of the reason was to show the parents the lasting impact this cornerstone element of our program will have on their children and the other was just to see if she could. Turns out she can and she even had a great time. It was fun to bring her children in the process and, as a result, she has decided to commit more poetry to memory. Maybe she’ll even recite it while playing the ukulele!