My daughter is in her third year at Common Threads and the school has far exceeded our expectations for a Pre-school. From the first month, you can see the kids grow confident, thoughtful, self-regulated - and enthusiastically brimming with what they have learned and what they have accomplished.
Academically, the school is great - the kids are exposed to wonderful hands-on learning in the Montessori method with practical life and manipulatives. There are so many great things my daughter has engaged deeply in. For example, the Natural Science learning is super - I think my daughter knows more about the earth's geology and the solar system than I do now. Most importantly is the LOVE FOR LEARNING Common Threads has ignited - and kept burning.
As a whole person, my daughter has thrived as I believe all the children at Common Threads do. By teaching and living "loving kindness" as a core value, the teachers and fellow students support each other to be considerate, self-aware, other-aware citizens of their classroom and the world. We've seen our daughter translate values of respect and loving kindness into our everyday world outside school - how she helps pickup at home, how she interacts in the playground, how she treats kids and adults and animals, and how she is starting to process moral and ethical dilemmas in a way that makes us proud (think about Christmas for example).
The school environment is really sweet. The fantastic teachers (there are always a lot of them around) are really engaged with the kids. The teachers are mostly very experienced and are calm, poised and thoughtful - the kind of people you feel good about living your kids with and also very happy to confide in and get a parenting tip or two from. The school is in a small house - cozy, warm, but not crowded and very Montessori-neat but doesn't have any of the institutional feel we've seen in other Montessori schools over the hill for example.
Final upshot? We have a poised, happy 5-year old who is delightful and has been accepted a local private school and super eager to try harder tasks and learn new things. And we are two very happy Common Thread parents. read more