Seeking recent Abracadabra feedback

[Anonymous]

I’m hoping some current parents at Abracadabra on Commonwealth in Alexandria can tell me what they think. I’d appreciate hearing your thoughts generally and especially how you think they’ve done during Covid. We are researching options!

[Anonymous]

We left a couple of years ago because we were putting our oldest into a private school that started at age 4 in junior K. We weren't thrilled with it, but there were many positive aspects.

There is a new director and I have heard they've had a lot of issues with her, but I'll be curious to see what parents who have kids there under the new director think. I know they were closed for a LONG time during the pandemic, if they are even open now.

Things we liked:
--family events like a halloween parade/fall fair, mothers/fathers day celebrations and a really cute christmas play
--they have an awesome playground that is bounds above that of most daycare centers, and it even has shade
--little picnic tables to eat outdoors
--lots of fun activities
--the two teachers my kid bonded with really seemed to love her
--the lunches they catered were good
disliked:
--way too strict about rest time, requiring all kids to lay in the dark for two solid hours, whether they needed the sleep or not, and no quiet toys or books allowed
--there were a couple of weird things like taking the kids on a field trip to 7-11 for free slurpee day without asking permission from parents or even informing us (I heard about it from my 3YO after the fact)
--there was teacher turnover and drama
--didn't like that many days, they didn't take the kids out for their afternoon playground time until 430/5 when many parents were picking up anyway

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We left a couple of years ago because we were putting our oldest into a private school that started at age 4 in junior K. We weren't thrilled with it, but there were many positive aspects.

There is a new director and I have heard they've had a lot of issues with her, but I'll be curious to see what parents who have kids there under the new director think. I know they were closed for a LONG time during the pandemic, if they are even open now.

Things we liked:
--family events like a halloween parade/fall fair, mothers/fathers day celebrations and a really cute christmas play
--they have an awesome playground that is bounds above that of most daycare centers, and it even has shade
--little picnic tables to eat outdoors
--lots of fun activities
--the two teachers my kid bonded with really seemed to love her
--the lunches they catered were good
disliked:
--way too strict about rest time, requiring all kids to lay in the dark for two solid hours, whether they needed the sleep or not, and no quiet toys or books allowed
--there were a couple of weird things like taking the kids on a field trip to 7-11 for free slurpee day without asking permission from parents or even informing us (I heard about it from my 3YO after the fact)
--there was teacher turnover and drama
--didn't like that many days, they didn't take the kids out for their afternoon playground time until 430/5 when many parents were picking up anyway

I remember hearing about the slurpee field trip but had forgotten which school it was! That’s pretty awful. You can’t take kids off school grounds without telling the parents. And I happen to be a sugar freak who wouldn’t love that aspect of it either. But mostly I would be livid about the unauthorized field trip. What were they thinking?!

[Anonymous]

Honestly don’t know what I’d be more mad about; the slurpee field trip or my kid being made to lie alone in the dark for two full hours when they no longer need to nap. Can you imagine how long that feels to a kid?

[Anonymous]

I don't have kids there but live nearby, in the last week I've seen kids playing during the day and a sign saying they have openings, so I think they are open.

My day care (a totally different one) also is very strict on the 2 hours nap and it was a nightmare for the last year before K. My kid actually said, when it was closed for the pandemic, that he really missed day care and wanted to go back EXCEPT his hatred of nap time outweighed everything else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't have kids there but live nearby, in the last week I've seen kids playing during the day and a sign saying they have openings, so I think they are open.

My day care (a totally different one) also is very strict on the 2 hours nap and it was a nightmare for the last year before K. My kid actually said, when it was closed for the pandemic, that he really missed day care and wanted to go back EXCEPT his hatred of nap time outweighed everything else.

Goodness. Our daycare got rid of the nap for pre-K kids last year bc they found the kids were being too disruptive and affecting the other kids trying to sleep. So the non-nappers are taken to a different room and they give them quiet activities.

[Anonymous]

Bumping this up to see if there is any recent feedback on Abra now that the new director has been in place for a while.

[Anonymous]

Bumping…hoping for recent feedback

[Anonymous]

Bump.

[Anonymous]

Bumping- Does anyone have any recent Abracadabra feed back? Thanks!