The Adventures of Baby Arthur

by Lincoln and Liz

Our search for a pre-school, which has included stops at Love-a-Lot, Stinkin Chinatown Day Care and Your Kids Our Kids Day Care / Pre-School, moved on to our last stop: Educational Alliance. Educational Alliance is actually more than just a pre-school as they offer many different types of programs for children and adults alike. Check out their website for details.

As things usually go, Liz learned about this pre-school from a personal contact. Her best friend's sister Bertha, whose 3-year old son, Berthos, attends the school. Bertha had positive comments about the school as Berthos has been thriving and his speech has drastically improved since he began attending. Like us, Bertha was looking to place Berthos in an environment where he could interact socially with others. Liz made an appointment for a tour.

Liz walked into Educational Alliance, which had a lobby and a receptionist. All guests are required to announce themselves and sign in. The children area is upstairs and accessible by elevator (plus emergency stairs of course). The tour proceeded as scheduled, which is more than we could say about Stinkin Chinatown Day Care.

The Program Director herself conducted the tour. She seemed like a person of authority, yet professional and welcoming. In addition, she has Montessori experience, which we found to be a plus. Educational Alliance is setup like a public school. Each child is assigned a cubby in the hallway, where they can place their coats, lunch boxes, and other items. There was art work made by the children on the wall and the children were separated into classrooms by level. The entire environment was organized and clean. Educational Alliance also has a rooftop gym, which had the regular playground items like swings and slides. Staff to child ratio is approximately 3:1.

The Program Director explained how every toy served a purpose, whether it was for developing motor skills, speech, or cognitive thinking. Learning through play and experimentation in a nurturing environment is emphasized. The day time is split into periods of instruction in reading, arts & crafts etc. Field trips are also conducted. For example, they will take the children to the market and teach them about the different vegetables. Special weekly classes, such as yoga, dance and music, are also held.

Educational Alliance is a Jewish organization and they observe all of the Jewish holidays. In addition, parents are required to supply meatless lunches to their children. No meat, poultry or shellfish is allowed. Even though I'm a meat activist, I think I can live with that!

One look at their website is telling. It is very informative and professional looking, unlike Stinkin Chinatown Day Care, which doesn't even have a website! A quick Google search did not reveal many parental reviews, but a few articles did come up about the school, including one that called it "under the radar".

Educational Alliance is our selection. Ta-da! At $641 per month for their 3-day part-time program, this was the kind of price point we were looking for. Of course, there was a waiting list. After completing the arduously long and detailed application (Again, UNLIKE Stinkin Chinatown Day Care's one-page abomination!), Arthur has been accepted to their 2-day part-time program, which runs for $480 per month. We are on the waiting list for the 3-day program and hope that it will work out soon. The combination between the convenient location, price and quality made Educational Alliance an easy pick.

Labels: parenting