School for Little Children

I like the school—seems most similar to Cherry but I didn’t love it. I thought the rooms were a little sparse in their activities (actual rooms and the play rooms as well) and I wished their teaching approach were a bit more methodical and intentional. Again, they seemed to do a lot of the right things and perhaps they were intentional—but when walking me through, they couldn’t explain why they do what they do. In addition, which is a very minor point, they share the rooms with the church (Sunday School) so a Christian theme is definitely throughout e.g. I love Jesus boards in the rooms, etc.

Director

Lisa—only met with her for a brief minute. Met with Sophia for the remainder of the time. Wasn’t totally impressed with the overall administration of the school—couldn’t remember my name or any info on my kid... kept saying I had a girl entering school.

Location

It is about a 5 minute drive from the house—located in the church.

Timing

Classes meet 2 days a week from 9:00 to 11:00. When the kids return in January, they go until 11:30. I liked this.

Ages

They have 3 classes for 2 year olds... so they definitely specialize in small child education—the red room, green room and rainbow room.

Structure

They have open play/activities from 9:30 to 10:15, then gym play, then clean up, circle time and bye-bye.

Activities

The class is mostly about play and learning through play. They appeared to do a bunch of art projects but it isn’t mandatory. They also have a gym room and a car room. The gym room is very large with limited toys in it. (the kids all seemed happy to hover around the couple that were there). The car room is very dated and the toys seem dirty to me. It's probably just that they are very old. (the small children don’t usually go outside, since they don’t have an outside yard; they go to the park a block away) They have a cool rotational program where they bring in a music teacher every other week and a natural history teacher every other week. Today they were talking about reindeers and viewing a bunch of different antlers. I actually learned some new things!!!! The rooms are pretty small—with the exception of the red room. It is definitely a homey atmosphere though...

Teachers

The teachers all have college degrees and the lead teacher may have a masters in childhood education. The ratio is great—2 or 3 teachers for 10 or 12 kids. They also communicate with the parents by having a folder on each kid just outside of the classrooms. They definitely seemed very organized in that regard. (my preference was the green room teachers!)

Type of education

Nothing coined—but essentially have fun and learn at the same time! Like cherry, they usually have a child with special needs in each of the classes. It is a school that emphasizes inclusion. My observations told me that they were doing a lot of the right things, they just didn’t really emphasize what they were doing and why they were doing it. At some of the other schools, it was very clear we do this and here is why….

Food

Parents rotate bringing it in. You usually bring in something one time per month. They provide guidelines on what is acceptable.

Outing

They generally go up to the gym, since they don’t have an outside play center.

Overall Feel

Very warm and welcoming. Like the class we are taking there now.

Fundraising

They really didn’t talk a lot about this and I forgot to ask. I expect that it is similar to all the other programs.