The Palisades Preshool

I truly cannot imagine a more loving, thoughtful educational environment than this for my two young children (nearly 3 and nearly 5). We were at another preschool for a year before PPS. It was chaotic to say the least and has since shut down due to low enrolment. I was extremely nervous - feeling at risk of making another poor choice, but I was instantly put at ease by the warmth of the teachers and the community as a whole. The head of the school is a wondrous person for fostering such a beautiful spirit of social and emotional development here. They have a dedicated art teacher who helps the children to create the MOST expressive and thoughtful pieces of work. A music teacher who attends weekly who is unrivalled. A kitchen where the kids make and taste brand new foods regularly. Not to mention extremely high teacher ratios (we are currently in a class with 3 teachers for 12 kids) and huge amounts of time outside on a beautiful yard. And wow are those teachers magic. I don't know how I will bear leaving them when we eventually have to go. I'm sad to see another review complain about their children being behind in Kindergarten. The Kindergartens I have toured for next year have all expressed that they support children at all stages of reading/writing, including zero - it is their first year of official school after all. All the educational philosophies I care about support play-based education from 2-5. For me it's not a race. I feel lucky to have found a beautiful preschool in which my kids are thriving. EDIT: A year later, our older child is now in Kindergarten. It's a prestigious elementary school and his teachers have described him as having been extremely well prepared for Kindergarten. Thanks PPS!

My son's entire preschool experience was spent in the inspiring, thoughtful care of this fabulous preschool. He learned great empathy for his peers, and built a solid foundation of self-confidence and respect. He has gone on to explore the world with a sense of wonder and natural love for learning that was nurtured here and continues to serve him well. I always appreciated that he had high quality art materials to work with, interesting projects going (in and out of the classroom), and always under the guidance of high quality humans who were passionate about Reggio inspired education. (I learned a lot, too!) Thanks PPS!

After paying the exorbitant amount of money charged by this school (for essentially half days), my child is behind every student the Kindergarten class in all basic requirements such as reading and writing. The "alternative" teaching approach here is fine if you treat preschool like day care but it will not prepare your child for what's next on their learning path. What a tremendous let down.