Our Services
Parent Coaching
Parenting young children is a profound and rewarding journey, filled with love, discovery, and moments of challenge. Taproot offers compassionate, practical, and effective strategies to help you navigate tantrums, transitions, boundary-setting, and big emotions with confidence, while strengthening your relationship with your child. Through play-based and developmentally informed approaches, we’ll work together to support you and your child—so your family can thrive.
Book a complimentary consultation today to see if we can support you.
Academic Tutoring
Children learn best when they’re engaged, curious, and having fun—and research shows that play-based learning fosters deep, lasting growth. Our open-ended, play-based tutoring nurtures early academic skills while supporting fine motor development, problem-solving, and creative thinking through hands-on exploration. Led by experienced educators, sessions are designed to match your child’s interests, strengths, and areas of growth. We’ll work together to build confidence, competence, and a love of learning.
Outdoor Education
Children thrive in nature—running, climbing, digging, and discovering the world around them. Our outdoor adventures take children into Portland’s outdoor spaces for fort building, mud play, camp games, and open-ended exploration, fostering creativity, confidence, love of the natural world, and resilience.
In summer, our outdoor camp for young children honors the magic of childhood—unstructured play, connection, art, adventure, friendship, and a deep connection to nature.
Let’s get outside! 🌿
About
taproot
Taproot Education was founded by Sandy Doughty, Ed.M., to provide thoughtful, effective support for parents navigating the early years of childhood.
With a Master’s in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and nearly two decades of experience working with children and families, Sandy brings both deep expertise and a warm, plauful, practical approach to his work.
His two decades of experience working with children include preschool teaching, play-based social skills therapy, and global early childhood education. He has taught English in Thailand, worked in Danish forest kindergartens, and led social skills programs for children with special needs in Los Angeles.
As a father of two young daughters, he understands firsthand the joys and challenges of raising children and the importance of respectful, relationship anchored, play-based, and developmentally informed parenting.
Taproot Education is grounded in the work of John Dewey, Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, Maria Montessori, Alfie Kohn, and many others. We celebrate intrinsic motivation, autonomy, connection, and leadership as the foundation for learning, growth, and coexistence.
Let’s work together to support your growth as a family. 💜
Contact Us
Have questions or want to learn more about how we can support your family? Reach out —we’d love to connect. Whether you're exploring parent coaching, play-based tutoring, or outdoor programs, we're here to help.
Let’s start the conversation.