Playhouse Preschool — Local services in West Orange

We live in Glen Ridge and had been keen in January to get our four-year-old started in the pre-K program in the school district here. But the coronavirus pandemic forced us to rethink our plans. The district adopted a hybrid program, which we felt would not have worked for our kid as he was too young for online learning. We felt kids his age needed to interact with other children to learn and grow. So we started looking around for other options in the area, and came across Playhouse via a local Facebook group, where parents were raving about the school. We really liked the place. During our first visit this summer, our kid was easily occupied by the toys in the classroom and was introduced to some of the pets in the school, which he enjoyed. The playground, too, was engaging, and the teachers told us they take the children out to a big field across the street when the weather was good. Anat Stettner, the director, talked in detail about the school's long tradition of play-based learning and its importance for pre-schoolers. For us, however, the most important factor was the school's plan to work out a way to continue to take that approach in the middle of the pandemic, such that children could interact with each other while the risk of the virus was minimized. The school organized staggered drop off and pickup times, used different entrances for different classrooms and checked for fever when kids were dropped off, along with a series of questions to check for exposure risk. When someone got COVID during the semester, they quickly responded with proper quarantine protocols and re-opened when it was safe, while communicating the plan in real-time. Meanwhile, our son has enjoyed school and looks forward to it (on most days!). Nearly every day, he comes back with something that he has made at school and is proud to show us or tell us about something new he has learned. School was an extraordinarily hard decision to make this year. All things considered, we feel Playhouse offered the most rational and age-appropriate learning environment we could find for our child. A few months in we are glad we made...

I know that this won’t be a popular review, But I’m pretty angry that the director Dana kicked my 3 year old daughter out because she was hard to manage so I’ll explain. To be fair my daughter doesn’t speak well so communication can be difficult but my daughter was being bullied along with a brazilian family’s kid and they let it go on. My daughter picked up a lot of bad habits like pushing and pinching from kids there because they’re under staffed and the kids suffer for it. Kids were always getting sick and no one cared enough to wipe their faces leading to all the kids getting constantly sick. They made us come in and take care of our own kid because they didn’t have enough teachers, my wife and I are very hard working people. We have to so we can afford very expensive preschools like this one. I noticed a lot of mismanagement when Dana forced us to be there to watch our own kid (we always wound up watching other kids as well), they went as far as making parents clean up the preschool or be charged a clean up fee. Constant nickel and dimming parents. In the beginning we sat through a fake presentation where The director (Dana) said they care for special needs kids and showed a video of a poor handicapped kid that they supposedly gave her special attention but I saw No evidence of this anywhere. They’re money focused and don’t give the attention or babies need. Some teachers are great like Collette and Maria but Jessica was always complaining about my daughter that occasionally would not listen but whose kid listens 100%, I’ve witnessed boys fighting, pushing and misbehaving with no one trying too hard to control them. Not fare that they needed to single out a little girl for protecting herself. Find...

I have 2 kids at Playhouse, my eldest has been there for 3 years, and we couldn’t be happier. Playhouse is a place that offers a caring approach to the social emotional development of children at the most critical time in their lives. They approach education with the developmental needs of children as its focus, and by fostering a positive relationship to learning through play. It goes without saying that the teachers and staff are extremely caring and nurturing. I don’t believe this approach to education can work without the loving commitment these teachers have for the kids and their work. Luckily for me Playhouse has not only fostered the growth of my children, it has for me too. I personally gained and learned so much from the opportunity to spend time in the classroom, be involved on the board, attend workshops and guest speaker talks, and even just talking with Anat and Lisa (the Directors) with their many years of experience and deep commitment to the wellbeing of the children and the community. I’ve popped up in their office so many times unexpectedly, only to be given their complete attention, and advice after discussing whatever my concern was for as long as I needed to. Playhouse is our second home, and I’ve become a better parent...