Ashburn Preschool Forum - January 23, 2010

[FONT=&quot]The MOMS Clubs® of the Ashburn Area are pleased to present:[/FONT]​

Ashburn Preschool Forum​

[FONT=&quot]Saturday, January 23, 2010[/FONT]​

[FONT=&quot]9:00am – 12:00pm[/FONT]​

[FONT=&quot]The Mills Recreation Center[/FONT]​

[FONT=&quot]43895 Grottoes Drive[/FONT][FONT=&quot] in Ashburn Village[/FONT]​

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[FONT=&quot]Are you considering preschool for your child?[/FONT]​

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Come get the parents’ perspective on our local schools![/FONT]​

[FONT=&quot]Information about the preschools in our area will be available and moms with children in the various schools will be speaking about their personal experience with the teachers and schools.[/FONT]​

[FONT=&quot]Open to ALL Ashburn Area parents!

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For more information, please contact ​

MOMSClub@tjdjmail.com

**** We're currently looking for parents of children in the preschools to speak at the forum so if you'd like to participate and share your feelings about your child's school, please email momsclub@tjdjmail.com to volunteer. This is the 4th year we've held the forum and the people attending always seem very grateful to have some "inside knowledge" about the schools.

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Here are the schools we hope to include at the forum, so if you'd like to volunteer to speak for about 5 minutes about your experience with one of these schools please email momsclub@tjdjmail.com. We also hope to have some of the special needs programs represented so if you are willing to share your experience with those we'd love to have you. Your participation would be very much appreciated!

A Child's Place Preschool
Arcola Christian Preschool
Ashburn Children's Center
Ashburn Village Country Day School
Audubon Nature Preschool
Bean Tree Learning
The Boyd School
Briar Woods Early Learning Lab (Preschool at the Woods)
Broad Run Early Learning Lab
Busy Bees (Kari Vance)
Celebration
Chesterbrook Academy
Christian Fellowship School
Classroom of Discovery
Claude Moore Preschool (formerly Sterling Annex)
Discovery Oaks Academy
Dulles South Preschool
Fit 2 Learn
Goddard School (Belmont Greene)
Goddard School (Ashburn)
Golden Pond
Growing Minds (Judi Ratcliffe)
Heaven Sent Christian Preschool
Hope Christian Preschool
Kids Under Construction
KinderCare Learning Center
KinderWorks in Brambleton (formerly Winwood)
Little Learners Academy
Little Sprouts Preschool
Loudoun Country Day School
Minnieland
Montessori Academy at Belmont Greene
Montessori Children's House of Loudoun
My Favorite Place Preschool
Open Arms Christian Child Development Center
School of Spanish (Magnolia Inmon)
Sha'are Shalom Rosie Uran Jewish Education Center
South Riding Children’s Center
St. David's Episcopal Preschool
Sterling Annex Preschool
Stone Bridge Early Learning Lab
Virginia Academy/Ark Preschool
Willow Montessori
Winnie the Pooh
Winwood Children’s Center

 

I won't be able to attend this year due to a prior commitment. Will you have a hand out that you can share as you have in previous years?

 

We will have a handout and I'll try to remember to post it here!

 

Winnie the Pooh Preschool will be in attendance. They will also be hosting their OPEN HOUSE on Feb 11th. For more info please visit www.wtpp.org.

 

That would be great! Thanks!

 

I hope a parent of a child from WTP will be speaking at the forum - no one has volunteered yet.

 

We're still looking for parents of children in the following schools to speak about their experiences with their school. You DO NOT need to be a member of MOMS Club to speak, just a parent who can share some likes/dislikes/favorite things about the school. As you can see from the list there are a LOT of schools to choose from; you can help other parents make the tough decision and find the right fit for their children!

Send me a PM if you're willing to speak for about 5 minutes about a school - we'll give you an approximate time so you don't have to stay for the entire forum.

A Child's Place
Arcola Christian Preschool
Arris Montessori Academy
Ashburn Children's Center
Ashburn Village Country Day Center
Bean Tree
Boyd School
Briar Woods High School (Preschool in the Woods)
Broad Run High School Early Learning Lab
Busy Bees
Celebration
Chesterbrook Academy
Christian Fellowship School
Classroom of Discovery
Claude Moore Preschool
Discovery Oaks Academy
Fit2Learn
Goddard School
Heavensent Christian Preschool
Hope Christian Preschool
Kids Under Construction Preschool
Kindercare
Kinderworks (formerly Winwood in Brambleton)
Little Bear Preschool
Little Learners Academy
Little Sprouts
Loudoun Country Day School
Minnieland
Montessori Academy at Belmont Greene
Montessori Children's House of Loudoun
School of Spanish
Stone Bridge High School Early Learning Lab
Virginia Academy/Ark Preschool
Willow Montessori
Winwood (on Hay Rd.)

 

Just to clarify:

Our forum is sponsored by the three local chapters of MOMS Club and is intended as an opportunity for parents of children in the various schools to share their thoughts about their child's school. We're excited to provide this opportunity to our community!

Please bear in mind that it is NOT a forum for presentation by the school representatives, but a forum for expressing personal opinions to other parents to help them get an unbiased view of what the schools are like in practice. ​

We would like our speakers feel free to give their opinions and not feel hindered by seeing their school staff and/or administrators in the audience. In the four years we have held this forum the vast majority of the parent opinions have been positive (we are lucky to have so many good schools in Ashburn!) but we don't want our speakers to feel shy about expressing their thoughts because school personnel were present. That is not to say that administrators from the schools are not allowed, we just ask them to keep in mind the comfort of their parent speakers.

We look forward to seeing you there!

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Do you have a schedule of the order the schools will be presented if all parents are unable to stay for the full time? Thanks!!

 

I don't have a full schedule yet but hope to by Thursday. The ones I know of are:

Audubon Nature Preschool, My Favorite Place Preschool, and St. David's will all speak on the early side. Ha'Penny Montessori School and Destiny Preschool will speak at the end. Otherwise they generally go in alphabetical order.

 

My child went to St. David's Preschool.
Postivites. it is a safe environment, the doors are always locked. Sing and Celebrate is twice / month(they do have to walk outside to get the church) The playground is nice. Children bring their own prepackaged peanut friendly snacks.
Negatives ... the discipline and the car line. Very strict. If you have a energetic, spirited, active child beware.. they can get sent home early or you get pulled out of carline to discuss. (these are normal preschool personality traits.. HELLO !!!) Car line can be abrupt. No time to discuss the day .. good or bad. Get there by 3:30 so that you can be the first in line. Although it does go by quickly.

 

My child went to St. David's Preschool.
Positives... safe atmoshere. the doors are always locked. Sing and Celebrate twice/month (they do have to walk outside to get to the church) . The playground is nice. Children bring their own prepackaged peanut free snacks.
Negatives. Very strict and car line . If you have a active, spirited child beware.. they can get sent home early or you get pulled out of car line. (although this is normal preschool behavior !! hello)
Car line can be abrupt. It does go by quickly. But if you want to discuss your childs day you should email because there isn't alot of time before class . you just drop them off at the door and go.

 

Times are subject to change but here's the plan:

9:10 Audubon Nature Preschool
9:20 My Favorite Place Preschool
9:30 St. David's Episcopal Preschool
9:40 Arris Montessori Academy
9:50 Celebration (Ashburn Presbyterian Church)
10:00 Early Childhood Special Education at Cedar Lane Elementary School
10:10 Golden Pond
BREAK
10:30 Growing Minds
10:40 Ha’penny Montessori School
10:50 Hope Christian Preschool
11:00 Little Bear Preschool
11:10 Mother's Day Out Preschool at Sterling Baptist Church
11:20 Open Arms Christian Child Development Center
11:30 Sha-are Shalom
11:40 Winnie the Pooh
11:50 Destiny Preschool

Many more schools are included on the spreadsheet we'll be handing out - not every school has someone speaking about it.

 

Attached is a PDF copy of the forum spreadsheet. While the spreadsheet does not include the comments made by the parents who spoke about their schools, it does include contact information for the parent speakers so you can email them with any questions.

 

The preschool spreadsheet I posted previously incorrectly listed Winwood's rates as monthly. They are weekly. Attached is a corrected spreadsheet. Sorry about that!