My child attended school here for their Transitional Kindergarten program (i.e. a third year of…read morepreschool if your child misses the cut-off date for that year) and it was a very good experience for my family. The "cooperative" part of the name indicates that each parent spends some time as a teaching assistant. I wasn't sure if I would like this, however the time commitment is minimal (3 hours a semester) and I learned a lot. The teachers and program are excellent and the school truly does foster a sense of community among its members. The T-K program is more structured than the preschool but it's supposed to be and I did not feel that the children were being pressured. It's a 'traditional' pre-school schedule in that it's about 4 hours a day but you can also do after-care for another couple of hours (or maybe more now). It's very flexible and as said everyone seems truly nice. If the location and schedule work for you, I would definitely advise exploring this program and recommend it highly.

My son went to the Transitional Kindergarten (TK) program at Bowen. It really prepared him for…read moreKindergarten. TK is quite different than just another year of preschool. It has the structure and the start of a focus on academics found in Kindergarten but in a warm, nurturing environment with a student:teacher ratio of 7:1. The Bowen community was very welcoming as well.

My now six year old son attended Storyville while he was in Pre-Kindergarten. This was our first…read moreexperience with daycare and I could not have been more satisfied with the Storyville team. The staff was warm, professional, and well-prepared to share their experience with my son for the day when I arrived to pick him up. My son has several chronic medical conditions which requires a significant level of coordination between school, his medical team, and child care provider. Through it all, the entire Storyville team contributed significantly to: (1) his speech development; (2) ability to interact with the staff and fellow classmates; and (3) his ability to explore new and exciting activities through field trips, swimming lessons, or magicians and storytellers, which were all a part of the regular activities line up. Regarding administrative matters, I found the team to be wonderful. The director Pam would personally send me email updates regarding administrative matters and was quick to respond to any questions I asked. Joan is equally amazing, extremely helpful, responsive, and knew my son very well. The teachers were supportive, attentive, caring and aware of upcoming programming. I think they went out of their way on many occasions to invite my partner and I to join in on field trips and become a part of my sons experience. With my son's medical conditions, safety in an integrated environment was a top concern in selecting a daycare. The care that the entire team demonstrated in working with him reassured me that this was the right place for him. Because of this experience, my son has had a smooth transition into Kindergarten and I am forever grateful for all the support we received from the entire Storyville team. He enjoyed his experience so much that I had very mixed feelings about his transition to Kindergarten and that school's extended-day program verses keeping him at Storyville. But ultimately, the momentum he gained after this experience led me to keep him moving forward. Thank you.

Can't say enough good things about this school. My son transitioned here at age 3 due to a move and…read moreI was a little nervous about how the transition would go (he'd been at daycare since 3 months old and loved his previous school). He was welcomed with warmth and affection and it went smoothly! The teachers are great, they always tell me how his day went and are open to discussing ideas about how best to handle my energetic little guy. He's learned so much and has really developed the academic and social skills that I hoped when enrolling him. The administration is fantastic, always flexible and accommodating to my crazy work schedule. My son starts kindergarten in the fall and is well prepared thanks to the school and it's dedicated teachers and staff. I highly recommend sending your little ones to Storyville!

I am the owner of Little Ducks Daycare in Belmont, I have heard nothing but great things about this…read moreschool. This program provides a free location for the rest of us in the area to get our CPR and first aide certifications. Without this we would all be scrambling for classes during work hours. I just wanted to say Thank you for providing the space for Mr. S to provide us with a required and much needed class. Also heard wonderful things about your programs.

Our daughter was a student at Adventures Preschool for 11 months, and it was a wonderful experience…read morefor both her and our family as a whole. Though this is a large daycare center, the care that the children receive is personalized, and caring. Our daughter was well known to teachers throughout the scho, and administrative staff. We never felt like a number here. We loved her classroom teachers, and it was clear to us that they loved our daughter too. She thrived during her time at Adventures, and I could see how she much she was learning, week by week. She was always happy to go to school! I never worried about my daughter while she was at Adventures. We received regular updates (and pictures) throughout the day, via an app, about what her class did that day, what she ate and drank, diaper changes, and naps. I knew that she was in the best hands! And for an anxious Mama, that is a big deal! We did not want to leave Adventures, but due to extenuating family circumstances we had to make a hard decision. The administrative team offered us a lot of support during this time, which we are very thankful for. Hopefully one day we will be back!

There are so many wonderful things I could say about this preschool. The teachers are so giving and…read morepatient. They really take their time to get to know every individual child and they encourage their strengths and really help them to grow. My oldest child went here for two years and left very ready for kindergarten. My youngest will be at the school for three years and she loves going everyday. There is a very special parent community at the school, because it is a co-op all parents are asked to be involved with some aspect of the operations of the school, helping in the classroom once a month as well as fundraising activities. I have enjoyed this aspect very much, feeling very much part of a community and becoming friends with other parents has been very special. I would whole heartily recommend this school to anyone in the area looking for a preschool for their 2.9-5 year old.

Our son is in this third year at WCNS and has grown so much! He started at 2 years 10 months old,…read morehaving spent most of his time home with me. The first few months he was very interested in what the other kids were doing, but didn't want to participate. He was very much a watcher, figuring out how the other kids interacted with each other. After the Christmas break he became more involved, articulate, and participated more in group play. His second year he was still in the same class with the same teachers and thrived as a "big kid" knowing the ropes and helping out. He still liked to play by himself a lot, but was better able to invite kids that wanted to help to build a building next to his building. He also became better at stepping back from group play to go to the book corner when he was over stimulated. This year the school has moved to a mixed age format so he is with children 2.9-5 years old in his group. He is very much enjoying being a mentor to the younger children. It has also provided an opportunity too see how much he has grown over the last two years. Behaviors that he had when he started, like not wanting to share toys or wait a turn, he is now very patient with in the younger children. The teachers are wonderful and provide a range of craft, free play, and structured activities every day. The children play outside daily except in extreme bad weather. Early drop off and late pickup options are available and can be signed up for the day you need them.

My child made a great start at the Coop. We came from Japan…read morea couple years ago and my child had a great transition to new environment with other children having a welcoming atmosphere from teachers, classes, and many activities. I really appreciate of teachers by supporting my child to enhance her language and independency as well. Thanks for the effort of them, my child was able to do the most of things when she entered the kindergarten. She is the 1st grader now, and still been talking about the great memories of the Coop. We love it.

Children's Co-op is an amazing preschool. When my daughter started in September, she had never…read morebeen left with anyone but me, her father, or her grandmother. Needless to say, I was quite nervous about leaving her for the first time ever. And as it turned out, the nervousness was needless as well. The wonderful thing about a co-op preschool is that parents take an active role in the running of it. Everyday a different parent helps out in the classroom. This provides an excellent opportunity to view your child in the classroom environment. You get to know and play with your child's classmates. You get to see the teachers in action. And your child gets the pleasure of showing you all that they do in school every day. But you don't have to worry about it being some huge time commitment. Since there are 14 - 16 kids in the class it works out to about once a month that a parent has to help out in class. And if you trade off with your partner, that means just one half day every other month you'd need to be there. Besides the co-op structure, other features I love about the Children's Coo-op: * low student/teacher ratio (in the younger class it's 14 students with 2 full-time teachers, 1 part-time teacher, and 1 parent helper), and the teachers are all wonderful * play-based curriculum - they're NAEYC accredited * great facilities - sunny rooms, fun playground * location location location - right in Newton Center, across the street from Starbucks, down the street from the T, ample free parking * flexible schedule - in addition to the normal school hours, 9 - 12 every morning (except Wednesdays for the younger class) they have early drop off and late stay day options My daughter loves school. So I love it.

GISB is not only our three kids' school, but it is also our family's cultural home. All our…read morechildren started in GISB preschool, and by now, our oldest daughter is studying neuroscience at Boston University, our son is writing his "Abitur" right now and will decide if he wants to study in the US or in Europe, and our 8th grader can't stop talking about how excited she is to go for a school exchange with Oslo next school year. Over the 16 years at GISB, our kids have always been taken care of, both emotionally and academically. The teachers are young and committed, the principal is competent and visionary, the parent community is strong and supportive. The German International School Boston has that name for a reason. The curriculum is German based but also covers the American highschool curriculum, and our families are international. Last year we had 39 different nationalities at our school. The annual turnover is hard, many families come for a predefined amount of time to Boston and then leave (some also stay!). But that also means that you have friends all over the world since GISB by now has a worldwide network of families who help each other. Our graduates finish school with the International Abitur and the Massachusetts High School diploma, opening doors all over the US and Europe. If you want your child grow up in a warm, nurturing setting where he/she will be raised with excellent academics and a strong focus on character-building, then you should consider this truly wonderful school!

My children attended GISB for four years. Below is an honest review of our experience. I wish I…read morehad an honest review of the school before we had decided to enroll there. Hopefully this will help parents who are considering GISB make an informed decision. Location: The traffic in Allston is bad now and will only get worse as Harvard opens its new Engineering Campus in 2020. Facilities: Upper campus is an old Catholic school that is quite shabby in areas. There is no air conditioning in the summer. The heat fails in the winter. The paint is worn out in the stairwells. The parking lot has rusty twisted broken fences. Some specific spaces such as the library have been renovated recently and are OK. Lower Campus, where the pre-K and K grades are located, is a recently converted office building. The lower campus space turns out to be quite cramped when it is full of students. If you have a young active child that needs to move and get their wiggles out over the course of the day this will be a challenging environment for them. Tuition: The German International School of Boston (GISB) demands all the tuition upfront for the school year and there are no refunds for any reason. Buyers beware of any service that demands all the money up front and puts "no refunds for any reason" in the fine print. There are also a lot of various extra fees for the after school classes, ski week, vacation week camp, etc. School Calendar: The GISB academic calendar follows the German academic calendar rather than the American academic calendar. This means that there are two week breaks in February and April where parents must scramble for childcare. Teacher turn over: In the four years that my kids attended GISB they lost teachers every year (sometimes even mid-year) for a variety of reasons (disputes over pay with the administration, visa issues, pregnancy, health problems, etc.). There is no substitute teacher pool to draw on so when a teacher is sick it is a mad scramble to cover the classroom. Even when there is plenty of advance warning of a teacher's departure. (This teacher is pregnant. She will be going out on maternity leave in 4 months.) There was no planning on the part of the administration on how to cover the class room and it was an ad hoc assortment of people covering the class which was very detrimental to the students. Teacher's Credentials: Being a private school the teachers are not subject to the same credentialing criteria as public-school teachers. When I asked the administration if I could see the credentials of my kid's teachers, I was told no. What are they hiding? Why won't they share their teaching staff's credentials? Teaching style: Modern pedagogy acknowledges that students have a variety of learning styles and that teachers need to craft their lesson plans to cover different types of learners. GISB seems firmly stuck in the 19th century with one method of teaching and if your kid doesn't get it too bad. It obviously must be the kid's fault. My older child entered public school a full year behind in reading skills than his peers after we left GISB. Thankfully he was immediately identified as someone who needed some extra help with learning to read and after just one semester in public-school, he was up to grade level. Clearly there was no learning disability on my child's part. My child just hadn't been taught to read. I have talked to other parents who have left GISB for public-school and they have related similar experiences. If a school can't do something as basic as effectively teach kids to read... Social Environment: The small classes mean that the social environment is somewhat stifling. If you kid doesn't make a friend in the handful of other kids in their class, it will be a long lonely year. If your kid becomes the target of a bully, there is no avoiding the bully. The bully is right there all the time. The teachers seem at a complete loss of what to do when bullying is brought to their attention. The teachers and school administration at GISB clearly view the student's behavioral, emotional, and social development as not their responsibility. My experience so far in the public-school system is the complete opposite. The public-school system views its mandate as helping children grow as a whole person and this includes the academic, social, emotional, and behavioral development. Addressing of Concerns and Grievances: The GISB administration, parent council, and GISB board have no interest is addressing issues that are brought to their attention. There is a constant shirking of responsibility. The standard excuse they all give is "But you have to understand GISB is a young school." GISB has been around for 18 years and there are plenty of resources available on how to effectively run a school. The public-school principal of my children's current school has a clear "The buck stops here." attitude which is so refreshing after GISB.

The Talent Acquisition team at Bright Horizons is unprofessional and unethical…read more Also, we did not have a positive experience in daycare. As a result, we ended up using the JCC Early Learning Center, and had a MUCH better experience!

Best daycare ever. It doesn't make a parent feel good to leave their child with anyone else but…read morethis daycare has made it into a great experience. The teachers are incredible and the administrators make you feel like everything is going to be ok. The technology is great so I'm able to see what's going on daily with pics and videos and get updates on development from their perspective. No paper filling out ever- all done via app. The teachers also keep a bright horizons journal that's updated monthly with pictures and stories that is an amazing keepsake. My daughter LOVES all her friends and teachers and it makes drop off a positive experience.

We are SO happy with Little Sprouts Watertown! Our son has been going since he was 2 months old; he…read moreis now 10 months and he and we love this center so much! Both the previous (Melinda) and the current (Christine) Director, as well as the Education Coach (Janay) have been amazing; they truly care about each and every aspect of their center. Teachers have been nothing short of wonderful so far. Tuition is very competitive for the Boston/Cambridge area, and we couldn't be happier. Our son has a great time, it's always well taken care of, and he is learning so much. Every Little Sprout is different. This location is amazing. It's always hard to find time to write reviews, but we really want to share our experience to help someone else with their childcare decision, because we understand how important it is to find people that you trust.

Very horrible experience. We tried to schedule tour of the daycare couple of times and each time it…read morewas cancelled or no one showed up. One of the other most important things to me from a daycare is the responsiveness and this was absolute horrible. If I could give 0 stars I would.