Green Bean Day School & Nursery

Our daughter has been in the younger toddler and older toddler classrooms at Green Bean. I cannot say enough wonderful things about this place. Within the first week, the teachers and directors got to know our family well and created a warm, loving environment for our daughter to thrive. The management puts a lot of emphasis on staff training, and the teachers go out of their way to answer parent questions and give feedback. This is the first daycare I’ve worked with where all of the teachers are fully engaged and love their work. Many of the teachers plan after-​hours activities and field trips for families. Blog photos give parents a glimpse of daily activities. The facility is also top-​quality, with tons of artwork, natural light, a brilliant garden/​sandbox/​play area and a large indoor exercise room. I have spoken with several parents in the infant program that are also having a great experience. The school is also very flexible with part-​time jobs, which is very rare in the city. If you are searching for a daycare for your little one, I highly recommend this option.

We recently relocated to another state and transitioned to a new school. It is only now that I can truly grasp all that Green Bean Day School offers family and students. I looked at a number of new schools for preschool and pre-​K and none of them compared to Green Bean when it came to having an integrated and complete curriculum. Many of the schools had a lot of unstructured free time and did not have good communication mechanisms to help parents understand what was going on in the classroom. Green Bean offers a balance of these things and we miss being part of their family.
A couple things that stand out at Green Bean:
Facility — when we first toured Green Bean, we really fell in love with the fact that the facility was warm, organized but not overwhelmingly huge. It is very comfortable.
Activities — we loved that the children would walk to surrounding parks and to places in the school’s neighborhood. There were also field trips that took the children to museums and places within the city. There were other schools that do not ever go outside of campus.
Special needs — our son had a significant speech delay and the school was welcoming and cooperative with having our therapists work at the school and in the classroom. His therapy sessions thrived when he was able to get this additional attention. The staff was very sensitive to what we needed and took interest in the therapists recommendations, which helped us succeed in growth and development.
If you are looking for a place that has a strong background in curriculum, a loving and nurturing staff and a place that is organized and has an emphasis on communication with families, this is the place for you. We cannot say enough good things about the Green Bean Day School.

My son has been enrolled in the two half day a week preschool program and we couldn’t be happier! It was our first drop off program and the entire staff was so understanding with the transition. The Regio Emilia play based learning approach they use at Green Bean is amazing. My son comes home from school in the best mood and talks about his teacher, Ms. Melissa (T) all the time. She is wonderful– caring, yet firm. I completely trust the entire staff with my little guy, which is a rare quality, I’ve found, when it comes to childcare. I also very much appreciate the daily blog and photos each teacher posts, I use then to talk to my son about what he did at school that day.

My wife and I had a very difficult time trying to decide where our little baby girl should go when we had to go back to work. We selected Green Bean because it felt like home. I would honestly love to hang out in an environment like this place all day. Its cozy and warm. Everyone has a smile on their face and it just feels relaxed. Ella loves going, and while I will admit it has been tough for the first few months with her getting sick constantly, we both expected that to happen everywhere. We get a daily blog of what her day is like, and each evening when I pick her up the ladies in her nursery room always keep us up to date on everything that happened.
Only downside that really doesnt reflect on the quality of this place. Parking can be really tricky. Only 5 – 6 spots for pick-​up or drop-​off.
Overall we love green bean and are very happy we are part of the family!

It pays to lament out loud! Which is what I did when we had a difficult time finding quality part-​time daycare for our girl/​boy twinfants. Luckily, an instructor at the gym mentioned that her son’s daycare may have space as they were moving larger digs in the current Elston/​Webster location, (it has now grown to take over the neighboring dance studio). Luckily I put myself on the wait list months before they opened. We couldn’t be more pleased with the quality of care at Green Bean. It’s much more than a «daycare». From the thoughtfully curated environment, to the care-​givers & curriculum, to the organic/​locally sourced meals to Miss Angela’s music class, there’s a personal touch that’s not found at the other child care facilities we looked at.
As cautious new parents, we tentatively started 2 mornings a week. After experiencing the warm and nurturing care of Madeline, Meghan & Ruby in the Nursery, we very quickly went from 2 to 3 full days a week, (and then 4 as space allowed). Green Bean is also open to cloth diapering, which is what we did at the beginning. After turning 1 and graduating to the Younger Toddler Room we increased to 5 days a week. I appreciate that some of the instructors are able to use their artistic backgrounds. Melissa T.‘s dance background and study of movement analysis were especially helpful with our son’s physical therapy exercises — even a minute or two here and there was better than I could muster with twinfants. And Rebecca’s theatre background makes for confident and vibrant role-​playing. The kids continue to enjoy and learn from activities I’d be reluctant to try at home: tie-​dye for toddlers anyone? And of course, it’s always a joy to see how much the kids are doing and learning on the highly addictive private blog. I am able to share photos and (even videos in the Preschool Room) with grandparents and out of town family.
Once they graduated to the Older Toddler Room, Lyndsay and Ami brought about a new level of focus to our terrific two-​year olds. Their language skills exploded, and potty training was gently introduced. They seemed to turn into little people overnight. At 2 ½ they moved to the Pre-​School Room and the diapers came off for the whole day — they’re much braver than we are at home with our twins. They now have many accident free days.
I drop them off in the morning knowing that they have a fun-​filled day of being intellectually and socially stimulated. The outdoor play area is one of the best I’ve seen, and the new indoor dance studio will get the sillies out in winter. The fact that they are never in a hurry to leave is a testament to the warmth of the place as a whole.
There are many «daycares» closer to our home, but I find the care and instruction at Green Bean Day School well worth the drive. Owner Nicole and Exec. Director Melissa have created a nurturing space filled with nurturing individuals.

Another Green Bean parent and I were talking last night about our sadness that Green Bean doesn’t go up to high school level. My son spent almost two years there before he entered CPS pre-​K and during that time he really came out of his shell, made friends, developed trusting relationships with his teachers. Through Green Bean’s re-​enforcement, learned table manners, got potty trained, can count and spell his name – and entered pre-​school ready and EXCITED about school because of his years at GB. I never, ever had a single complaint or doubt about the teachers, staff, facilities – anything. We feel fortunate that we have gotten to be part of the Green Bean family for so long and look forward to sending our younger son there in the fall.

Our daughter spent nearly 2 years as a student at Green Bean, and we couldn’t have been happier with our experience. Not only did she learn and grow, but she really began to feel like the school was a second home. We always felt comfortable leaving her there, knowing that the caring and attentive faculty would look after her the same way her family would.
But beyond that — Green Bean is a place our daughter feels LOVED. She couldn’t wait to get there in the morning, and sometimes she didn’t want to leave at the end of the day. The school’s blog — updated daily with photos and descriptions — helped us keep up with what our little girl was doing each day. At every turn, we were made to feel a part of a real community of parents and kids, and we’ve made friends we’ll keep for years.
Our family feels so lucky to have found this amazing school.