Washington Park Early Learning Center

To find a school that is so thoughtful and purposeful in it’s approach to fostering life long learners is amazing. Play based schooling is not always understood by folks who have not experienced it, but truly it takes the best of all educational philosophies (montessori, reggio, and current researched best practices) and weaves them into a cohesive and colorful classroom experience. The size of the school lends itself to personal touches and a special community that we have not been able to duplicate elsewhere. The teachers certainly are the heart of the school and it is obvious that they truly love what they do. We feel so fortunate that we accidentally happened upon this school 9 years ago. We are currently in our 8^th (and final) consecutive year at WPELC. Our 4 very different children have all thrived while in attendance at WPELC, as well as afterwards in elementary school. Over the years our family situation/​schedule has occasionally made it necessary for us to have child care/​preschool 5 days a week. We were able to find other programs (we tried 4) with similar philosophies to fill the gaps, but all simply paled in comparison. WPELC is a gem. Our family is eternally grateful that our eldest child was pulled from the wait list during the first week of school in the fall of 2008.

I love this school! My 2 year old son goes here and he is so happy to go to school. We looked around at lots of preschools in the area and actually took him somewhere else last year but we are so happy here and plan to keep him at WPELC until kindergarten.
The price is very reasonable, and is kept down with parent involvement which intimidated us a bit at first. It turns out that the requirements are not all that onerous — if you love being involved, lots of opportunities, but if you are too busy, the actual «requirement» is pretty minimal and can even involve a buy-​out for many of the financial commitments.
We love the community, in the previous preschool we never really felt comfortable with the other families, like we didn’t quite fit in and there was definitely one-​up-​manship. That isn’t the case at WPELC. Everyone has been very friendly and reasonable.
At our previous school, I felt like my son got overlooked a lot because he tended to be a quiet observer of many of the goings-​on. I never get that feeling here, quite the opposite — I really think he is blossoming and no longer just hangs back! I really feel he is treated like an individual, the teachers and other parents know everyone’s name and face. The lead teacher (Ms Christina who is WONDERFUL) is always more than willing to spend some extra time after class, or even respond to a text, to give us personal updates.
Overall I can’t recommend this school highly enough and am so happy to bring my son and any future younger siblings here.

Love, love, love this school! My daughter loves it because she says, «I get to learn!» and it’s really fun too. The teachers and community really care for this school and it shows.