Preschool Recommendations that are NOT play-based
Our daughter is at a play-based pre-school which is not the right fit for her. It's a good school but it's a bit too "lord of the flies" for her personality type. She's very precocious and craves more structure and direct engagement in something she can learn/explore. She's just shy of 2.5 years old.
Any recommendations? Ideally located close to us around the Berkeley Bowl (Ashby bart) area.
Aug 17, 2024
Parent Replies
I've had two kids at Shu Ren International preschool for the last three years and it has a good amount of structure. (It's worked really well for both of our girls, but some other parents have complained lightly that it is too structured for their kids.) It is Mandarin immersion, not sure how you feel about that but there are plenty of non-Chinese speaking families there. It is also an IB (International Baccalaureate) school. I didn't realize the IB curriculum extended to preschool, but I have been really impressed with it (although mostly with the 3- and 4-year old classes; 2 is still pretty young to benefit from any curriculum.) They have structured lessons around ~4 topics throughout the year, and take a Socratic approach to lessons during circle time that seems really engaging for most of the kids. Each class also has weekly lessons including music, cooking or gardening, and library/storytime (in addition to daily circle time in their regular classroom). It's not terribly far from Ashby BART.
They also have after-school care with optional enrichment programs like soccer, ballet, etc.
Good luck!
I really highly recommend EBI - escuela billingue internacional located on Alcatraz. Both my kids started at 2 1/2 and thrived at the school with small class sizes and lots of personal attention and the teachers are amazing. My daughter is now an 8th grader and my son is a sophomore at Bentley in lafayette. He was accepted to all the school the he applied to (parochial odowd, st marys, de al salle and Head royce, wait listed at college prep) and was very prepared for HS. Happy to discuss this with you and they also offer competitive financial aid.We didn't qualify until he was in kinder since they attend to the needs of the upper grades first but I would explore it and not let the tuition deter you as its inline with other private schools in the area like Redwood Day, EB, Headroyce etc.
Our children attended preschool at American International Montessori school (AIM), which is a language-immersion Montessori school in South Berkeley. Families can choose the Mandarin track or Japanese track. The classroom is highly structured, and based on the Montessori principle of "Freedom within limits;" children have the autonomy to choose their work within a range of presented works. By the time the children reach their third year in the classroom, they are working on multiplication, reading and writing in their target language, as well as refining motor skills through a variety of handiwork (sewing, beads, painting, etc.).
The teachers are immensely caring and lovely. Can't recommend highly enough!
Check out Hummingbird Montessori. It’s in Albany, but worth a little drive. The students have daily opportunities to do developmentally appropriate “work” (Montessori term for purposeful activities). Kids choose engaging projects to explore independently. On our visit day I was impressed by how intently focused all of the children were working. Both of my kids transitioned to drop off there seamlessly and were happy to go each day.