Recent reviews of Mi Mundo Preschool?
I am interested in hearing about experiences specifically with the El Cerrito location. The school sounds great, but there are more closure days than I have encountered with other schools. We are a Spanish & English speaking family so I want to keep that going in preschool, but am weighing the pros with the cons of having to take so much time off of work. Also, they are closed mid July to mid August. What do families do with their kids during this time, other than take a vacation, before kindergarten/TK starts? My son would be too young for most camps. I don't know what he'll be like in a couple years, but it seems like it would be hard to throw him into a new environment only for a few weeks, just to transition to TK a few weeks after that. Thank you!
Parent Replies
Our kid is just finishing up two years at the Mi Mundo Berkeley location and we have nothing but good things to say about it -- the arts-based curriculum coupled with the maestras' empathetic teaching style has really given our kid the room he needed to open up and to build some strong relationships to other kids and to the world around him. For what it's worth, I'd say less than half of the kids have a grownup at home who speaks Spanish as a first language (we don't), but the maestras all speak it as a first language.
That said, yes, they are closed for summer, like many schools. Most families send their kids to camp. I hear what you're saying about the transition from preschool-to-camp-to-TK -- at Mi Mundo, the families organized a spreadsheet to track who was going to which camp to make sure the kids would have a friend or two at camp with them, to ease the transition. I'm sure you can use that technique at whatever school you end up at.
It's probably worth emailing or calling Lina, the Mi Mundo director, and asking her these questions; she's very responsive and hands-on in our experience. Best of luck!