Outdoor East Bay Pre School for 3 year old
Hi all,
We're looking for full-time (or almost full-time) daycare for our 3 year old in the new year. She loves the outdoors, reading and being with other kiddos and thrives in most environments. We align most with RIE / Reggio Emilia / Montessori / Waldorf, child-centered, respectful approaches.
We live in a very covid conscious house and want to respect everyone's needs so are looking for something which is reasonably small, outdoor-based with strong parental communication and agreements.
Does anyone have any recommendations? It's really hard to search for these kinds of covid requirements on the standard sites, and I'd love to have some first hand experiences to know that the school takes them seriously in practice.
Thanks!
Lucy.
Moderator note: BPN doesn't accept posts about unlicensed programs for children under 5. There are a few outdoor programs that are not licensed. If you aren't sure whether yours is licensed, you can look it up on the BPN website - we display the license number if there is one. More info: Forest Schools and Other Unlicensed Programs for Ages 0-5
Parent Replies
My family and I have loved our experience at Cedar Creek Montessori, right near North Berkeley BART. The teachers and the programming is the greatest and I am eternally thankful that they've been taking care of and teaching my kids. :)
Try reaching out to Jenny at Garden Day Small School on Parker Street near San Pablo Park -- it's a wonderful preschool and covid conscious. This is our 4th year at Garden Day (2 years with the older kid, 2 years with the younger), and while we loved it pre-pandemic, we've been super impressed at how it's been operating over the last 18 months. It's also small -- currently about 8 kids, with a 12 kid max. Lots of families in the neighhorhood, homey vibe, kids are outdoors most of the day, wonderful and enthusiastic teachers. I give it my highest recommendation.