Congregation Tikvah Jacob

This review is actually for CTJ’s preschool «Tikva Tots». This school was started by a teacher who used to teach at another local preschool but quit after witnessing (and receiving) mistreatment by the head of that synagogue (where my twins attended). This school only has 15 children that are split into two classes — one class is run by Teacher Gwen and she wrangles the 2 & young 3 year olds (I believe there are 5 students in her class). The other class (which is where my daughter started this year) is run by Teacher Marla & Teacher Amy. There are 10 kids in their class and they are the older 3’s as well as the 4 year olds. All of these educators are firm believers in learning through play. They do not force any of the kids to sit and trace lines in an attempt to teach them their letters. At first my thoughts were somewhere in the neighborhood of «well, she’s only 3 and I won’t worry about her ‘learning’ anything (i.e. writing, reading, etc.) until she’s 4». Now that her first year in preschool is coming to a close she is way further ahead than my twins were at her age. More importantly, she ENJOYS it! She asks me for homework constantly, draws letters, she even has been sounding out two letter words. She also has had the freedom to perfect her fine motor skills by way of gluing, patterning, drawing, cutting and the like. I do not really let her do these types of things at my house because the minute I turn my back she tends to cut my couch (twice btw) and glitter-​glue the other furniture, so it’s nice that she has an outlet for her hobbies that does not include my possessions! :-)
Now I could go on about how all three of them are credentialed and hold a myriad of post-​grad degrees but they know that info more than I do so you can call and ask them about it. What I do what to say is that my daughter now writes her name (she isn’t even 4 yet!), begs me to leave her at school while pushing me out the door, knows all of her letter sounds (they teach zoophonics) and has been socializing in an age-​appropriate manner. The only drawback is that there are prettier campuses around with nicer playgrounds and such but if I have the choice between a school with the love, education, individual attention and socialization she has received or a school where she doesn’t enjoy learning but it looks nicer… I choose the former!
If you have any questions or whatever, please feel free to p.m. me — I would love to talk about this wonderful place (where Rebecca will be again next year)!!