This is just a review of the playgroup, not the preschool. As the parent of a 12-month-old, I have recently acquired a new pet peeve. It is when businesses claim that they have an activity for 0-5 year olds, etc., and then provide an activity that is actually only developmentally geared toward the older end of the spectrum. Well, today I went to the Bija Kids playgroup, wondering what kind of awesome activity my daughter would get to participate in for the steep price of $15. At the very, very end of the hour and a half, they set up a table with paint, paintbrushes, and pieces of cardboard for the toddlers to paint on. This is not developmentally appropriate for a one-year-old. They also didn't have any paint smocks even close to small enough for my (giant, 90th percentile) baby. Predictably, she liked the paintbrushes aspect and enjoyed those at the table for about two minutes. Also predictably, she tried to walk away from the table with two of them, both dripping paint, so I had to grab them from her hands so the rest of their room didn't get covered in paint. Again, predictably, she sobbed because she didn't understand why I wasn't letting her play with these great new toys that I had just handed her. Two stars because the staff are incredibly nice and the space is great. Just please, guys, don't label yourselves as newborn to three if you don't have the appropriate equipment or activities for anyone under, say, 18 months, especially when you charge an arm and a leg for about fifteen minutes of activity. read more

With two successful Bija preschool graduates who have grown leaps and bounds and made amazing friends I highly recommend. Warm and caring staff, enriching activities, healthy snacks are a few of their top qualities. They have an amazing preschool program plus their camps, after school programs and community events. We're big Bija fans! read more

My daughter attended this "preschool" for a very short time. I had visited Bija over the years prior to having a child and loved the spiritual aspect with regard to their original mission. They spoke about parents and children working together to provide quality learning through play, meditation and yoga daily, respectful interactions within the preschool community and the surrounding neighborhood. Needless to say, I was very excited to enroll my first child within this community. I'm a former educator and continue to have high expectations for all children. The school year started late in September, well after the DOE schools which didn't please me or my husband. The first day was labeled "transition", where new children, this meant my daughter, were to stay for 1 hour. My daughter was so upset that she had to leave after the hour. She wanted to stay in school. Although our payment included a full day, I was forced to take her early. They very reluctantly accommodated me the following day with providing her with a half day. Again, we paid for a full day of school but got less than what we paid for. The orientation for the school was very odd and "off putting", with parents in little nooks and cliques. The tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. The presentation had no real curriculum and the community that I remembered within the original Bija mission seemed to have disappeared. I didn't think anything of this until the Director, who has taught yoga to children and has written one article on the subject, lost her Education Director. This current Site Director, Lauren is not an educator. Nor does she have children of her own. She is not a certified educator or administrator. Many of her new "radical approaches" don't align with proven research based models and outcomes within the field of education. My husband and I left the orientation without any information on the curriculum and/or what they had planned for the year. We were worried. So, I scheduled a meeting with Lauren immediately to discuss my expectations as well as some of my concerns. My daughter attended for a month and each day the BIJA visiting area white board of objectives consisted of "learning how to say please and thank you", "walking down the street on a rope" and forced rest time. I made time to speak to the Site Director, Lauren about my concerns on several occasions. During our last and final meeting, she replied "I guess you just have high expectations." Of course I do. If you're reading this, I'm sure you do as well. She offered my husband a refund after she organized a school trip that was upstate (during a school day I and several parents paid for) with little to no coordination on her part. There were busses arranged with no mention of booster seating and the group arrived an hour later than they mentioned in the group email. My family and I went up on our own via our own car. The Bija staff were also expected to attend this apple picking trip about an hour and 1/2 to 2 hours away from Brooklyn. Many of them were speechless when we all discovered the lack of bathrooms (instead port-a-potties) for a trip with 2-3 year olds and overall lack of communication about the day. When we finally got together, Lauren decided to do a last minute lesson that half the children couldn't hear and the other half just weren't listening to. After a month and a 1/2, my husband and I were done with the excuses. After the apple picking trip, I found out from my daughter that there was a little boy playing "bad guys" all day at school. He began teaching the other kids to hit each other while the teachers did nothing to intervene. This account was confirmed by two other parents I spoke to after we were given a refund. This is not what I would call a preschool. This facility is overpriced babysitting. I've spent the last several months exposing my daughter to other programs where students are reading by 3 years old. Don't bother considering this program. The site Director, Lauren is more concerned with her new Bija "radical program" that takes place in Goshen NY, where she lives. The program here in Brooklyn is secondary, in my opinion. Once my daughter was discharged on the Friday after the apple picking trip, by Monday Bija staff had all of her things in the lost and found and her photo, that was on her shared cubby, was replaced by another child. Not a nice way to treat the child of a member of the community who simply didn't agree with the lack of expectations for children. I was refunded a week later after complaining and threatening to report them to the NYCDOE and Better Business Bureau. There are better places to place your child. Look for certified teachers, an education director who is ever present and parents (as well as their children) who actually say "hello", "good morning","excuse me", "please" and "thank you" One final note, their photos are from 2 years ago. read more

We went to an event hosted at Bija. I had been so excited for the event because I know Bija charges on weekends for people to attend playgroups, and so I expected a really fun play space, maybe with things to climb. Instead, it just looked like a cross between a preschool and a cafe: poor lighting, bohemian design principle, but on the whole a bit depressing. My toddler goes to preschool in a basement with typical basement windows in the rooms, so I get Brooklyn constraints, but this space was depressing even for a windowless space. The acoustics were also poor for hosting an event with a large number of young children, which seemed to be overwhelming for the younger children attending the event. The younger kids went into the second room, but the sound carried so much that it was hard for the person who tried to amuse the younger kids with books and singing. The child bathrooms are just two toilets off the main hallway, with no apparent door between the hallway and the toilets and no divider between the toilets. My toddler (toilet trained for several months) was initially interested in going potty, but once he saw that there was no way to close the door, he refused to. It should go without saying that everyone deserves privacy when they pee if they want it, even if it's just a divider between toilets and a door between the hallway and the bathroom. read more

At first I was very excited for my toddler to take a yoga class at Bija kids. It is one of the very few options in our neighborhood and it is convenient since we can just walk there. The space is nice and the lady who works at the desk is friendly. Unfortunately, our teacher always seems a bit on the edge. The class is kinda fun, but in my opinion it seems the teacher is not that great with children. She seems annoyed easily and doesn't have a lot of patience. It is also obvious that she prefers some children over others. The class is ok/fun but I wish she would be a little bit warmer and friendlier and I am sure the children would start to participate much better since especially toddlers feed of someone's energy. I do recommend Bija kids if someone asks me for a kids' spot but I am not sure if we will take another class in the future. I have been to other classes with my toddler and the teachers were much more animated and nicer. read more

There radical approach to learning is no approach at all the kids run the room my daughter attended for a very short time last year before I pulled her from there non educational program where she actually digressed from what we had thought her at home they have no education director no education direction and no education at all make sure you do your do your research before enrolling in this project can't even call them selves a school so sad read more

Our three-year-old daughter is currently enrolled in Bija's preschool program two days a week, and we could not be happier. Their ethos is very "teaching children to be independent"; there's a great deal of child-directed choice, both in play as well as learning basic skills like getting their own drinks in big-kid cups and washing their hands on their own. It's a place where our VERY fastidious child is embracing being messy, and where we, as parents, were helped over that final hump to get her fully potty trained. The teachers are energetic and great with the kids, the staff is so easy to work with, and our daughter greets Tuesday and Thursday mornings with excited cries of "IT'S A SCHOOL DAY!" I was SO STRESSED about finding a spot for her that would make her happy and help her grow, and I feel confident we found it at Bija Kids. read more

Nope. Don't do it. ZERO STARS. Overpriced babysitting service and they don't really teach yoga or help with homework in their afterschool program. Btw, they had an issue a while ago...something about not having proper zoning, enough fire exits, and/or lack of a license to care for children of a certain age range (younger ones I think?). Information was garnered here and there but it was announced the program wouldn't be held in their Fulton Street location for some time. Anyhow, while they (the director) worked out these "unspecified" issues behind the scenes, they (the director) never notified the parents of the true reasons they had to move the program to temporary locations. Well, I suppose it's a business after all so information sharing in this sense is not ideal for their (the director/owner's) bottom line. But then again, when it's your children, is this the approach you'd want those entrusted with their well-being to take? Plus, shouldn't you (the director) know something about properly setting up and running a business BEFORE you begin offering related services? Obviously they worked it out because they got back up and running "normal" operations but still.....Oh yeah, one other thing: I have to provide ONLY organic snacks (for their health and well-being of course!) for the all the kids in the group since it's my week but you make my child (and the other kids) sit on the dirty park ground to eat it?? Riiiight. read more

It's been a week since Bija's camp program ended and our 5-year-old still can't stop talking about how much fun she had. She was there for a month and after her first week she was begging for us to put her in the extended day so she could spend more time there. We loved the teachers, who were smart, creative, and engaging. They did lots of clever, interesting projects and activities. They even served lunch every day and got our picky eater to enjoy things she wouldn't normally try. The space is beautiful and it's just a warm, inviting place that our daughter loved. We will definitely be back for school breaks and camp next summer. Thanks, Bija, for a great time!! read more

I love Bija Kids and am so sad that they ended their weekend yoga classes -- they were my absolute favorite thing to do with my 2yo daughter, a special time each week for us to play together in a beautiful and serene place while introducing her to some core yoga concepts in age-appropriate ways. I LOVED it, and she did too -- when we'd miss a few weeks due to whatever schedule conflicts, she'd say, "Mommy, I want go yoga class!" Now I make a point of going to their monthly open house (second Saturday of every month) just for an excuse to be in that space and play with her there again... I miss the yoga, but we do really cool art projects and they have wonderful toys, like the Tegu blocks someone else mentioned. It's been a wonderful resource to have in the neighborhood for rainy or snowy days, too - I hope they'll bring back their weekend yoga classes so we can resume making them part of our family's weekend routine! (I would consider sending my daughter to Bija for preschool but for now we are very happy with our current daycare, where she's been going since she was 3 months old, and I don't want to take her away from her friends there.) read more

We live near Bija, so its really convenient, but I have to say that I really love it. The yoga classes are wonderful, that's the main thing our daughter has attended, but I also love that they often have free open house events on the weekends - especially in winter when its hard to find things to do. It is a beautiful creative space that my daughter loves. Everyone is warm and welcoming, but really so good with kids. She started in the younger yoga class and we did the class together, and has been continuing into the next age level where its just her with the teachers. I'm really grateful to be close to them, its been so worth going. Looking forward to it starting up soon. read more

My family loves Bija. The program is intimate and well thought out and the staff is always enthusiastic and highly engaged. Since our son began attending almost two years ago, he's brought home a steady stream of new arts, crafts, songs, life-science projects, yoga poses and stories about what he did that day. In his time there, he's become much more sociable and met his best friends. Bija's focus on health and well-being permeates everything they do and we're lucky to have been a part of that. Our daughter starts at bija in the spring. read more

I love Bija. My little one went to preschool at Bija and was thrilled to have her 4 year old birthday party there last weekend. It was a wonderful birthday experience. The staff was really helpful and kind and made it very easy. We chose the "dance party" option and it was fun, age-appropriate, and really perfect for this age. I would certainly recommend Bija for school or for birthday parties. read more