Experience with Bethesda Reggio
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Anonymous
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In DC the regulations for childcare are 16 3 yr olds (with 2 teachers) and 20 4 yr olds (with 2 teachers). So having 20 children in a 3's room is 4 more children than you'd have in a DC preschool (although in DC the preschool in a childcare enter starts at 2 yrs, 6 mos while in MD a child must be 3 yrs old to move to preschool), but for the 4s room it would be the same group size.
The ratios and age grouping I just said is for OSSE licensed childcare centers - NOT for public and charter schools, which I know follow a Sept cutoff for preschool and kindergarten |
Anonymous
| Does anyone have any recent experience with Bethesda Reggio? |
Anonymous
And so does the Children in The Shoe director. It is very likely this is her. If you like stray dogs in your preschool and no security go with The Shoe. |
Anonymous
| We are a current family at Bethesda Reggio and have been very happy with our experience. The teachers and staff are all very warm, friendly and nurturing. My daughter has been there for almost 2 years and although she isn't speaking Spanish she understands everything. I have heard around the age of 4/5 they really become more comfortable speaking it. Neither my husband nor I speak Spanish at home but we wanted her exposed to another language at a young age. They are currently expanding. They will have space in 2 different buildings in Lynnbrook Park. If you have any specific questions please let me know I'd be happy to answer. |
Anonymous
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Points for doubt from the poster above! I am a parent with a child currently enrolled at BR (trust me, its the internet) and I can tell you a few good things and bad things:
Good: the teachers are super nice, the kids are happy and well taken care of, they seem to learn about age appropriate topics and my little one is always happy to go in. The teachers are always quick with hugs and so happy to see yous! They are next to a giant playground inside a very safe neighborhood. They are average price for the area and don't have any strict clothes rules (so OK to wear princess dress in) and don't have strict outside food rules. Bad: Patricia who? She seems to be around but its unclear what she does. Same for husband. Maybe they've been busy with the new space? Also: good luck trying to call the place and reaching someone. If you complain they give you a personal number... but really. Its 2018 and you can't figure out how to forward a phone line? The teachers are wonderful until you get a new one, which happens more often than it should. Since they got a new office admin the communications have been much better which is appreciated, but we attended our little one's parent teacher conference and even though we showed up right when they opened, they still only allotted 15 minutes. That left no time for questions or discussions... like, how exactly do they incorporate Reggio Emilia into the lessons? How much time do the kids spend learning vs just hanging out? Why can't you keep TA's for longer than a month? Why do the TA's insist on speaking in english even though its supposed to be a SPANISH immersion school? They could also get better about communicating about curriculum and events happening in the classroom. Once a week write up doesn't give you insight and the pictures + summary are super canned. It would also be nice if they could take a weekend to like... paint the walls and clean up. I recently realized that the toys are sort of sticky and worn. We pay $1500+ a month, you would think they could afford to do a once a week deep clean (Patricia, if you are reading this someone should really dust the baseboards and vacuum the dollhouse area) or replace some of the clearly broken toys with new ones. Its not so bad to say something, but you get the sense that they got used to it and just don't "see it". It would also be nice if the space was less cluttered. If its a matter of storage and they can't figure it out, then they should call a professional organizer and get some built in's OR store materials not currently in use off-site. For comparison: My sisters kids go to a reggio program in another city, same small setup, a little cheaper but they get a ton of stuff: music teacher, field trips, parents come to read day, personalized daily reports for each kid, educational toys get rotated on a monthly basis and match lessons, etc. It annoys me every time I jump on FB i see that her cousins have a much more rounded experience than we are getting. Overall: the bad things don't outweigh the convenient location and price. Our DC is also very loved and speaking Spanish.... so we are staying until we find another immersion program that fits our needs or she goes to ES. Hope this helps! |
Anonymous
| Thank you for the last post. Very helpful. |
Anonymous
| To the previous poster who posted about the good and the bad (thank you, so helpful)-can you comment on how BR is when it comes to cleanliness, safety issues? Do you feel the teachers are engaged and seem to really care? I've experienced both a very good daycare setting and not so good in this regard, but I am also thinking of BR for the bilingual aspect of it. Thank you! |
Anonymous
| Bumping this for any additional recent feedback, especially during COVID |
Anonymous
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Hi, we have currently our child enrolled in the school. The teacher takes temperature every morning and ensures that children do not have fever. Every morning parents have to fill and sign a paper ensuring that your child does not have any symptoms. Every Friday children have to bring their sleeping things (blanket and pillow) home to be washed. However, since parents (like in any other school) are not allowed to enter the building, I do not really know how COVID conscious they are; they have told us that they disinfect things, and are extra careful, but we do not know what is really "happening" behind the scene.
It is maybe also worth mentioning: children bring their own lunch to school (you can also bring snacks), otherwise the school provides morning and afternoon snack. The school is located in a great area and is a good school (especially for those who want a Spanish immersion school), they do a lot of different projects, paint and draw, and spend some time outdoors. I hope it helps. |
Anonymous
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Could you please provide some more information:
What is the tuition now? How much time do kids spend outside? |
Anonymous
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Current parent here! The kids go outside 2x a day, which we really like. Agree with the previous parent that given COVID protocols, we are not too sure how well these are followed once kids are inside. Although, we are aware that socially distancing 2 year-olds is hard. I do wish they would install air purifiers to help circulate the air inside though. I find the administrators helpful and responsive, but wish we were able to have a more direct relationship with the teachers who are the ones who spend the bulk of the day with the kids.
In terms of updates, we receive the weekly lesson plan from the teacher, which is really nice and allows us to reinforce the themes that they are learning at home. They send a monthly newsletter with pictures, and sometimes we get pictures on the app of activities they did, although this is ad hoc. Overall we are pretty happy and find that the location, price and quality of the school is very good. |
Anonymous
| Bump - would welcome any other thoughts - considering sending our DC here. |
Anonymous
| Trying to make a decision about whether or not to enroll our child in Bethesda Reggio. Our main question is: do kids learn to speak Spanish there if they are not speaking Spanish at home? What about other learning - pre-literacy (alphabet), social-emotional learning? Would love to hear from caregivers with kids there now or recently. Was your child happy there? |
Anonymous
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Late reply, but could be helpful for someone else perhaps.our DD graduated from the school in 2022, and currently is in K in MCPS. She was ready for the K. With no Spanish at home- she does understand the language but doesn’t use it that much as we wish. It’s not the school issue though. Alphabet, numbers up to 20 and some other basic stuff was introduced. All the directions were done in Spanish during school day, but kids mostly spoke English among themselves, although there were quit few kids of Spanish origin.
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