Post my move-in into a sprawling apartment in the Williamsburg Northside neighborhood in Brooklyn with my extended family, I was posed with the task of finding a daycare and preschool for my nephew and niece respectively.
My sister was very clear about what she wanted when she instructed me: “The daycare and preschool should be close to each other and also to our home coz I can’t run around from one block to another with my kids in the morning before I leave for work myself.”
All this she said in one breath and left for work, leaving me alone in the new neighborhood with a mammoth task to accomplish.
I decided to start my search from the couch itself, holding my morning cuppa in my hand and my mac on my lap.
Google never disappoints, I must say.
A few minutes of browsing led me to this daycare and preschool which are run by the same parent institution but at different locations that were thankfully not too far away from each other in the Williamsburg Northside neighborhood.
As I looked further in their website, I saw that they followed the Reggio Emilia approach, about which I had heard from my sister when she was ranting about the different preschool philosophies that very day.
The daycare was institutionalized and had enriching activities that were based on music and art for young learners like my nephew.
These activities were designed to promote a multitude of skills which ranged from physical ones (vocal and auditory development) to more intrinsic ones like creativity.
The preschool too had a structured curriculum which was based on the Reggio Emilia approach that identified young students as capable and competent members of the community who can significantly contribute valid ideas and thoughts.
I must say I was impressed.
I hope that my sister gets impressed too when we visit the two campuses tomorrow.
Williamsburg Northside Day Care - Brooklyn, New York 