St. John's or Model School?
My husband and I just toured Model School as a potential daycare center for our first child. We were wondering if any current or recently-graduated parents would be willing to share their candid thoughts and review of the school to help us in our decision making. We like the Montessori philosophy of self-guided and self-directed play, but don't think AIM is quite the right fit for us. We like that Model School emulates a lot of the self-directed play and learning, and are also looking into St. John's as a possibility (though their waitlist seems to be much longer, and we have yet to hear anything back from then). I've read some of the older posts regarding the two different centers, but we were hoping to get some more up-to-date thoughts (particularly because the infant community at Model School moved into a different building set up this year).
Thank you in advance!
Parent Replies
Hi,
Our 5yo has been at St John's Childcare Center on College for 2 years now; our infant has been there for a few months, but will be transitioning to a family daycare that's closer to our house (and $400-700/mo cheaper!). Our child and we have liked St John's a lot. One thing that's been nice is they have a quarterly or so potluck on a Fri evening, and so you get to meet other parents. We made some friends that way. We find the care to be quite good- they're a little more on the self-directed play end of the spectrum, we think. When our son comes back filthy, we know he's had a great day, and that's exactly what we want. They have a couple three date nights a year, to fund a scholarship program for lower income families, which we think is really nice. We would recommend it. I don't know anything about the Model school. Our only other experience is corporate day care (Bright Horizons), one of the years at a purpose-built facility. I find these to be designed with the parents in mind, more so than the kids. St John's isn't like that. It's nice community day care, a little run down, but kids won't know the difference. HTH.
I can't speak to the Model School, but our son has been at St. John's for a year and a half. He started in the baby room when he was 1 and is now in the toddler room. We chose St. John's because we wanted somewhere that was warm and nurturing and really flexible for parents, and we've been very happy. Our son is thriving and loves his teachers and friends, and as the other respondent noted, the potlucks and parents' night out are great perks. I'm sorry to hear you're not hearing back from the Center Directors - keep trying!