Growing Brilliant Preschool Academy (Ps)

My daughter began her journey with Growing Brilliant at just 3 years old, and we recently wrapped up her time there at almost 6. During these years, she learned to read, write, express herself, and come out of her shell. We watched her bloom in ways we could have never achieved on our own, and for that, we are incredibly grateful. The teachers and staff at Growing Brilliant supported her every step of the way. Today, she’s reading and writing at advanced levels, and her current teacher is consistently amazed by her skills. We truly owe so much of her growth to the foundation she received at Growing Brilliant. While we’re sad to close this chapter, we are deeply thankful for the impact this program has had on our daughter. I highly recommend Growing Brilliant to families with young children—whether they are not yet in school or are homeschooling. It has been a transformative experience for our family.

I wanted to come on here and share my experience with my daughter in their pre-k program! we were very skeptical about the program but the first week free gave us a chance to see if our daughter was receptive to this type of teaching situation(because not all students are receptive to learning with a teacher or class on a screen, that is just reality, learning is not a one size fits all but I can say that growing brilliant is dedicated to making sure they are the right fit for your child and making adjustments as needed if the first try isn't the right fit). My daughter has Ms. Marrisa, who is a god send as a teacher. My daughter had never been in any kind of school environment, so she was and is very excited and social and still learning the whole process of sharing the teacher's attention and staying focused on task. But as her teacher my daughter has grown and blossomed and truly fell in love with learning and gets excited for class! The songs and activities make learning fun and keep the kids attention. My daughter prefers the smaller more intimate classes, and since this is her first "school experience" she needs to feel involved and heard to stay attentive and when her teacher had to miss her class and sub another class, Growing Brilliant went out of their way to let us adjust our class time to be with her and when not an option, if my daughter wasn't receptive in class they let us make up a day when her teacher was back. They also allowed for make-up days when she was out for a week due to being sick. The foundation of this program was built on people who really do care about children and parents and making sure each kid has what they need and the right fit, in order to thrive. My daughter went from us being worried she may not be ready for kindergarten this coming year(she was always home with me and her younger siblings we didn't do PreK before this or daycare honestly), to LOVING learning, working on letters ON HER OWN!, being excited to learn numbers and counting and honestly growing so much as a person and student that it blew our minds! I could not recommend this program enough and I wish I had found it sooner! My two youngest will for sure being using this program and I recommend it to everyone I know. Again, no program, especially with small kids, is going to be a one size fits all situation, you may need to try different classes, different teachers , different times of day , but I promise if you work with your kiddo and this program, they will work with you to find exactly what your kiddo needs to blossom and learn!

We are so grateful we found out this online program when my child turned 3 years but didn't get a chance to put him to any in person school. Ms.Colette is my son's first teacher.She is just awesome, interactive and more importantly she is patiently listening to each kid and creating a great connection.My son especially loves her Quaker.He started communicating well after enrolling this platform. Highly recommend this platform and Ms.colette Teacher. Thank you so much

Our experience with Growing Brilliant has been exceptional. All of the teachers are so kind to each child, truly encouraging each to their strengths and the teachers bring out the best in every child by tapping into their individual strengths. My daughter loves attending the classes weekly!

I’m very disappointed with a few things shared below. My child is part of the 3-4 year old classes with Ms. Collete and the issues below were experienced on multiple days (almost every session) over the last 2.5 months. 1. Large class size: The program for 3-4 year olds regularly has 11-12 kids when it’s advertised as 6 kids and many classes on Monday's since February have 15-16 kids at minimum. Ms. Tove’s class is often combined with Ms. Collete’s. It has happened multiple times and this results in over 15-20 attendees. 2. Camera Usage: Not all joiners are on camera, this is a concern because how do we know it’s not some adult or predator who’s creating an account on growing brilliant and watching children? The only verification and information needed to register is an email address and the child’s name and age which can be easily falsified. If my child is on camera in a call with 12-19 attendees, everyone should be on camera. The teacher should automatically remove anyone who’s not on camera from the session. This is for the safety and security of all children present. Also, if a child doesn’t want to be on camera then the digital learning platform isn’t ideal for the child. All this should be communicated clearly to parents and established in the policy, so if someone is removed from a class for not being on camera, they know why. The teacher should make sure that all attendees are on camera and have at least ONE or more child present. If a child is not present or the zoom account has the camera off, then remove them asap. 3. Interaction Issues: Not sufficient attention and interaction is given, rather no or barely any attention given to justify the cost. There have been multiple instances in classes where my child raises their hand but isn’t given an opportunity. This happens almost every class. Only certain children are interacted with, it’s almost like the teacher has favorites that she interacts with and knows about their like and dislikes, everyone else is ignored. Ms. Collete often asks the same 2-3 children their favorite parts of the books she’s reading and spends over 2 minutes on the favorites, allowing them to let her flip through the book to find their favorite part while the others just sit and watch, despite raising their hands with an answer ready. My child has been ready multiple times with a specific answer and raises their hand but is never given an opportunity. Ms. Collette essentially just ignores some children. Even during the initial greeting, she barely unmutes my child for 1-3 SECONDS, if ever (yes I have counted), when other students get to actually talk and interact. The whole concept of muting and unmuting is very confusing for little kids. They should have a small class size of 4 students and keep them unmuted so they can actually interact. In a real classroom setting a teacher doesn’t “mute” students. An essential skill of teaching is allowing meaningful dialogue and interaction and teaching children to wait their turn to speak while still allowing interaction. This is totally lacking in this asinine model of teaching. Cost of class: The issues listed above would be less concerning if this was a $5/session class with multiple attendees. However, these are $21/ session for those attending once a week and are advertised as “interactive” when there’s virtually NO interaction with certain students and only a few getting all the attention from the teacher. This is false advertising and cheating. Other platforms like outschool offer similar sessions, including sharing actual learning material at a fraction of the cost and have actual smaller class sizes of 3-5 students for those who are paying upwards of $0.40 per minute. In a nutshell, I am extremely disappointed with growing brilliant after being a customer for over 9 months now. I will also strongly discourage my family and friends from ever using growing brilliant, since it’s essentially a waste of time and money for both the parent and the student.