Smith College Center For Early Childhood Education is a before or after school daycare daycare located at 28 Lyman Rd, Northampton, Massachusetts MA. Find contact info, location details, and similar daycares nearby.
What Parents Say
Smith College Center for Early Childhood Education receives mostly positive reviews praising teacher quality, individualized attention, and strong art and music programs. However, one parent reported their child struggled with large class sizes and felt their concerns were not adequately addressed.
Ft. Hill has been terrific for our family. The infant/toddler care is unparalleled, our son is thriving there. Excellent teacher:child ratios, a range of activity, thoughtful staff, top notch facilities, we could not be happier. We had growing pains with the mixed-age classrooms on the preschool side when our son was one of the younger children (and new to the school and a mixed-age setting), but the staff and administration were really engaged with us to work through them, and our older son is thriving there now. The facilities and opportunities for children to learn and develop there are fantastic. Agree with the other review on-line about cost and lack of diversity as drawbacks.
Unfortunately the program was not as we had hoped or was presented to us. Our daughter was in the Group A toddler class and did not do well with the large class size of 17 kids. She prefers quieter environments that allow her to concentrate on her play/work. Nick the music teacher is great, but we wished it was more than half an hour a day. The art room is also great, but it is usually only open half the days of the week as Val is also a substitute teacher. We tried working with the school with various issues but it felt like our concerns and desires fell on deaf ears. We finally pulled our daughter from the program as she was becoming very shut down and just not her playful and talkative self. Within weeks being at home she returned to her normal self. Fortunately my wife an I run a small business so we can move our schedules around to be with our daughter at home. Since you have to sign a contract we are “contractually obligated” to pay for the rest of the year. Normally I don’t write reviews, but I felt a need to especially after seeing many of the reviews are from faculty. For this reason I took off another star rating as I would have given the school two stars.
Both my children have thrived in this program. The teachers we've had are incredible and respond directly to the individual needs of each child. We have two very different kids and they each have been supported and nurtured here. We love the amazing art and music programs (which my daughter participates in daily) and the creativity and critical thinking that is everywhere.
Great place to be a kid. While they don't strictly follow Reggio Emilia standards, they largely embody the same wonderful philosophy. Only gripe is that it's outrageously expensive, if you're not affiliated with Smith, and there are no financial aid options. This means there's a lack of economic diversity (as well as racial).
Amazing School !