Washington Hebrew ET-ECC preschool love

[Anonymous]

If DCUM is any indication, it's more fun to complain than to list virtues -- I am no better than anyone else in this regard. All that said, I'm kind of inspired to share how positive our experience has been at Washington Hebrew, especially under our new director. I know that when I was looking at preschools, I came here to get the lay of the land. I'm sure that there are people looking here now who are in the process of making a decision and, really, how do you make sure a decision for your two or three year old? The only way is to ask people about their experiences.

Washington Hebrew has the perfect combination of structure and freedom for the kids. There's a lot of emergent curriculum and kids are wholly encouraged to think for themselves, but all in the context of an orderly, scheduled and structured environment. You walk down the halls and the place is organized with well-behaved kids. You see the art and other projects they do, and you see the creativity and energy of the teachers (even teachers who have been there for years and years bring freshness to their classrooms and curriculum). Each child gets a ton of individual attention. I have two kids at the school now and each of them is in a class of 9-10 kids with THREE teachers.

We recently had parent teacher conferences and were presented with a detailed, well thought out report that discussed dozens of aspects of my childrens' development -- I had heard that the teachers had spent their winter break working on these wonderfully thorough assessments, and when I had my meeting I could see why it had taken so much time; this is but one of the initiatives that our director has implemented that has made WHC an even better school. Another example is increased communication between teachers and parents -- we receive frequent emails about what is going on in class and have photos posted to Shutterfly on a regular basis.

The school community is, as it has always been, welcoming, warm and inclusive. Families in each class know one another and socialize at and outside of school. It's a great group of parents.

[Anonymous]

I want to second this post. We LOVE the new director. She has focused on getting things organized and is incredibly responsive. The environment is just positive and warm. We had considered moving our older child to another school now that he is turning 3 but instead we're leaving him there and also sending our younger child. Can't say enough good things. Love, love, love.

[Anonymous]

The school is good, but the parking lot at drop off and pick up is terrible. Too crowded, and dangerous.

[Anonymous]

Most centers don't have parking lots, you need to drop off on the street, so you can't have it all. I'd take a wonderful school experience and knowing that I have to hold tight to my child's hand in the parking lot vs. having great drop off/pick up and then a so-so school.