oneness family preschool?

[Anonymous]

Anyone have experience with Oneness in Chevy Chase?

[Anonymous]

You have to be really open to it and like the program. If you do, it's a great school. If you are the kind that may get offended to all the differences they expose the children to, than it's not for you.

[Anonymous]

Can you please elaborate!?! I found that to be a very odd and condesending post. I've been very interested in the school but your previous post gave me pause.

[Anonymous]

18:55 here

No, no, please do take it like that:
My friend's child goes there and they learn about all religions, and cultures. She stated that a parent in her child's class was offended that they addressed a certain religion. She was saying that they were not "teaching" religion, just exposing children to the "whole world". I love that idea. But like she said, that other parent complained. She felt that if that parent did not like that, than why are they even at the school?

[Anonymous]

My DD didn't get into the Little Stars program there (2 y.o.) but I absolutely loved it. Was by far my first choice preschool. The woman who runs it (Stefania) seemed incredibly warm and great with the kids. As I said, my DD didn't go there but I was a huge fan from what I saw in the admissions process.

[Anonymous]

have heard from more than one family that this place was cultish, but im not sure what that means

[Anonymous]

what do you mean cultish ????

[Anonymous]

Anyone have any more insight on this school? I was really impressed but would like to hear from someone with firsthand experience at the school.
thanks!

[Anonymous]

To answer the last poster's inquiry about Oneness-Family School located in 6701 Wisconsin Ave, on the corner of Bradley and Wisconsin Ave -- www.onenessfamily.org

My oldest daughter is now just over 6 and in 1st grade. She has been at Oneness before she turned 3 (Oct birthday). My younger daughter is in the preschool program (her first year at Oneness - she was at Concord St Andrew's Cooperative Nursery School previously). This was a warm and nurturing environment just perfect for my daughters. They helped both transition to school life by supporting their needs and stimulating her mind with geography, cultural studies of different countries about customs, animals, languages, art, music, movement, yoga, sports/games. The mixed aged K class (ages 3-5) go on a field trip 2x/month - trips loosely based on their curriculum - on whatever continent/season,etc they are studying.

I loved the fact that some of the teachers were all international and multi-ethnic. Having grown up in NYC, I wanted my daughters to know that there are so many nationalities represented in a school of 120 students. The School has an annual United Nations Day where many embassies participate (this past year, we had over 20 embassies - 3 ambassadors attending) for our celebrations. All winter solstice holidays - like hannukah, christmas, ramadan, kwanzaa - are discussed (parents come to speak to the classes about this). No one religion is pointed out over the others. This is just a fact brought to the students - every culture celebrates the winter solstice in different ways and it means different things.

I read a post by someone who said that they didn't like the fact of not having a non-native English speaker as teachers. Well, if some of the teachers at Oneness are non-native English speakers, they are all are fluent in English, including their native tongue and some even know a 3rd language. For me having a teacher with a 'perfect' American accent is not my measure of a good teacher -- knowing that each teacher who grew up with a different culture would bring such a rich and fantastic perspective for my children, including a bit of their language is great. Oneness also offers French or Spanish for all students ages 3 and up.

There was one posting about Oneness and being 'cultish'. I do not know what they are referring to and I have been a very involved parent for the last 4 years. There are other parents who have been there longer and that is not the conversations we have. Oneness is a Montessori based school, teaching the students about conflict resolution, global awareness, world cultures, in addition to the maths, languages, history, grammar/spelling, etc. If by 'cultish' that poster was including all private schools which follow certain educational methodologies like Montessori, Rudolf Steiner, Waldorf and other Quaker schools - then, lumping all these schools would be incorrect, wouldn't it?

We have a wall of heroes in one hallway -- a beautiful hand made quilt of all the personalities that influenced the world, chosen by our students on this wall. It is next to photographs of Harriet Tubman, Ghandi, Frederick Douglass, JFK and Sri Chinmoy (who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007). These are all people who have fought for civil rights, for justice, for equality, for peace and for community services.

Just giving a different perspective when parents are concerned w/ all the negativity around the world.

Feel free to contact me if you would like more info.
Junga Kim
[e-mail]

[Anonymous]

We were very impressed by it, but decided not to go because they follow a private school schedule (lots of time off during the year and a long summer break). With two working parents, we didn't want to try and find alternative care for a pre-K child for all that time.

[[e-mail]]

Anonymous wrote:We were very impressed by it, but decided not to go because they follow a private school schedule (lots of time off during the year and a long summer break). With two working parents, we didn't want to try and find alternative care for a pre-K child for all that time.

hi - so glad you liked Oneness. I presume you attended an Open House or came for an individual tour/visit?
I'm not sure what you mean by 'lots of time off during the year and a long summer break" - Oneness follows Montgomery County Public School for holidays and our last day of school is June5, while the public schools end June 16, only 7 days difference. MCPS have professional days, half days, etc as do all schools to accommodate report card preparation and parent-teacher conferences. We are offering a summer program from June 22-July31 for children ages 2-5. It looks like MCPS will start Aug 31 and most independent schools traditionally begin the week after Labor Day. So there is really only a difference of less than 2 weeks between 'private school schedules' and MCPS. So I just want to make sure others reading it don't take your comment and think that we take a month off for winter break (it's almost the same length as MCPS) and spring break (1 week) and summer vacation.

The summer vacation is a throwback from a generation ago (at least, I think) and some parents were resistant to changing this schedule of having a longer academic year and a shorter summer vacation b/c of holidays, vacations, etc when topics of altering the calendar came up (when I was growing up in NY and living here in DC).

-Feel free to contact me if you want any clarification on Oneness' calendar for the academic year. I'm sorry you have decided not to send your child to Oneness. It's an amazing place.

Junga Kim
[e-mail]

[Anonymous]

Do they offer financial aid?

[Anonymous]

I'm the 13:35 poster, and I don't need any clarification on the calender-- it is what it is. I was just saying that we came to the conclusion that it wasn't very workable for our family (2 working parents and a 4 year old). How many summer programs for 4 year olds do you know of that run from June 5 to after Labor Day?