Educational Playcare - Newtown

I absolutely love this place! My 2-year-old son goes here every day and is learning so much through their wonderful Montessori-style activities. He’s always excited to tell me about what he learned and the fun projects they do. The environment encourages independence, creativity, and kindness, and I can already see how much confidence he’s gaining. He has also made some great friends here, and it makes me so happy to see how well he interacts and plays with other children. The teachers, especially Mrs. Yukimi, and the director, Julianna, are amazing — always available to answer any questions and genuinely care about each child. This is the first daycare I’ve truly loved. I feel completely comfortable leaving my son here, knowing he’s in capable, caring hands every single day.

We have been part of the BrightPath Newtown community for just about 2 months now. It’s crazy to think about since it feels like so much longer. Our son is started at 16 months here and I truly wish we had enrolled him sooner. This is a very long review just a fair warning. 😊 Below is the TL;DR bullet point view for the busy parents reading this!🥶 We had a Nanny the first year as my Husband and I both work full time, mainly from home but sometimes Manhattan. As there are pros and cons to any type of childcare, having a Nanny was very tough when it came to consistency and reliability for us. Calling out would require a full day of meetings to be rearranged and scraping to get by with a toddler running around (IYKYK😖). We knew the start of 2025 we needed to make a change for this reason and a few others. We could tell he was getting bored and under stimulated more and more being home everyday. He’s very social and loves to be around people so we made a plan to explore daycares in the area. After a few negative Nanny experiences and one childcare facility that wasn’t for us I was feeling so defeated. That night I felt this way, it turns out I came across a review from an old high school classmate whose daughter goes to BrightPath currently as my husband was playing basketball with another parent of a BrightPath kid. Both families gave us nothing but amazing feedback on how their children both were thriving and they loved everything about the school itself. Here are just a few of so many wonderful things that changed our entire outlook on childcare after feeling so defeated. • Facility - So cute!! If you like bees like me, you’ll def. love inside 🐝 They have a Zonos machine that is super cool and puts your mind a bit more at ease when it comes to sick season. There are several classrooms that are decorated perfectly and not overstimulating. Perfect balance of asthetic and color IMO. • Outdoors - not just the plastic toy house, but so many fun things in each outdoor section for the various age rooms. • Lillio App - So much fun. Teacher can upload pictures of your little one and you get a direct notification from the app (or email) or both if you choose. There is a log in real time when they change their diaper, apply cream, etc. There is also daily report that shows exact nap time, snacks and lunch intake, and all activity breakdowns for the day. The Center Director and Teacher(s) can directly communicate with you on it as well! • FUN/Spirited - every month there are several fun things going on! Spirit week just wrapped up and the impromptu Pajama Days are so much fun as well. Birthday board when you walk in to show every kid who has a birthday that month is awesome too. • Staff - The night I mentioned I felt defeated in January, I emailed Juliana at 9:30PM asking to schedule a tour soon and she got RIGHT back to me. The tour was scheduled the following day. This made me feel comfortable from the very start and has continued on the past 2 months. Communication is so important especially regarding your kids day to day. The staff & teachers truly care about this and do the best job at it. I love to see the teachers he has and has had the past few weeks and chat with them. They are so friendly and made us feel right at home. • Curriculum - I can tell by the pictures my son is so hard at work and it gets his brain going all throughout the day🥲😅. It’s not free play the entire day. It’s very scheduled (not too rigid) and the activities are so cute and fun. He is truly saying what seems to be 100 more words after 2 months of being there. Every day he is learning new things that amaze us when he does them at home. 💛

TLDR: Reasons we love BrightPath Newtown: 1. Security - pins to get into the building for each family, plus someone is always at the front desk (and they know everyone!) 2. Lillio app - we get pictures and updates frequently throughout the day. We can easily send a message to the teacher and director, and we get to see info about naps, food and activities for our girls every day. 3. Friendly and engaged staff - every teacher we’ve met has been fantastic! There are some teachers we pass in the hallway that know our daughter and smile and say hello and we’ve never even met them. 4. Outdoor space - the play spaces outside completely surround the building! Every classroom has access to an age-appropriate play space that isn’t just fake grass and plastic toys. The spaces are filled with natural wood toys and other natural elements that really encourage creativity and imagination. 5. Cleanliness - they have clean, minimal classrooms that aren’t too overly decorated or bright, and you can tell from the materials in every classroom that there is a focus on literacy, movement, and sensory stimulation. They also have a Zono machine that cleans toys and materials to help stop the inevitable spread of germs. Longer story: Finding BrightPath Newtown came after a long journey of various daycares for our daughter - 4 daycares in 3 years due to moving states and some negative experiences. When we lived in VA, we absolutely fell in love with our daycare and were so sad to leave. We compared every daycare we looked at to the gold standard they set for us. I wasn’t sure we’d ever find something as wonderful. Thankfully, BrightPath has exceeded our expectations! From day one, they’ve been welcoming, friendly, and responsive to our needs. We have a 3 year old in the preschool room and a 4 month old in the infant room. Every teacher we’ve encountered has been amazing! They clearly love what they do and they’re excited to see our girls every morning 😊 The one time I had an issue, the director, Julianna, took the time to listen to my concerns and showed that she really cared. She immediately took care of it and made sure to keep us updated on our daughter that day. It was tough to leave a 3 month old at daycare, but she loves her teachers and the pictures they send us throughout the day always show her smiling! She has grown and learned so much already. I was also worried about the transition to another daycare for our toddler but she is thriving! Her speech, attention, fine motor skills and confidence has grown in the few months we’ve been at BP. She runs in excitedly every day and at pickup she’s always playing happily outside (every classroom has outdoor space, which means they’re outside a lot and it’s one of the deciding factors in our decision to choose BP Newtown!) If you’re on the fence about joining the BP family in Newtown, take a chance - you won’t regret it 🥰

The first time we toured the infant rooms at BrightPath Newtown, I was utterly amazed to see the babies all playing peacefully together, happy and content to be there with their attentive teachers. This was a stark contrast to other centers we had toured. BrightPath has been the same loving, caring, peaceful environment for our two children from day 1. They both started at about 4.5 months old and now my oldest is in the toddler rooms. I can't say enough good things about Miss Bianca and Miss Shay who cared lovingly for both of our babies, and how engaging and fun Miss Alex makes her classroom for our toddler. We are so lucky and privileged to have BrightPath Newtown as our chosen village.

Our family is very happy with BrightPath! The director team is amazing, and the teachers are great. Everyone truly cares about your child; they know them personally, not just as a name at the school, but the details - favorite color, Disney characters, and personality traits. They engage with the entire family daily, have fantastic communication throughout the week with emails, newsletters, and daily reports, and host a variety of family events to include parents and siblings in the school. My child loves everyone, but of course, has favorites : ) We are so lucky to have had incredible teachers like Ms. Alex, Ms. Marissa, and Ms. Lynn who helped our child learn, grow, and thrive.