Garden’s Noise Preschool

Our child attended Garden’s Noise for two years, and I recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone looking for a loving, outdoorsy, play-​centric pre-​school. This place is full of love, and it shows. The director and teacher are warm, caring, and very knowledgeable about child behavior. They guide the children to learn what it means to care about the world — from growing vegetable starts for a local non-​profit that plants gardens for low-​income households, to bringing flowers to the neighbors on May Day, to learning how to express themselves clearly and listen respectfully to the other children. The school year is grounded in observing the changing seasons, from digging up potatoes in the fall, to feeding the birds at the feeder (up close and at eye-​level with the children) in winter, to holding a chick in spring. While our child was «hard at play» and enjoying just about every minute at Garden’s Noise, she made great strides in her development. Our child’s confidence, communication skills, and cheery disposition are all trademarks of the preschool. As our daughter enters kindergarten this fall, we know she has been well prepared for the social setting that awaits her. And she has a wonderful repertoire of songs, to boot! Inch by inch, row by row…

I feel compelled to write a review due to the one negative review of Garden’s Noise. our experience here could not be any more different that that! I find Garden’s Noise to be a magical place, and feel so fortunate to have had a friend recommend it to us. My only regret is that our daughter started here at age 4 and so only had one year instead of two.
The director and teacher are two of the most caring and thoughtful people I have met, and I cannot stress how wonderful I feel about leaving my daughter in their care. It is a nurturing and loving environment, and they take many extra steps to get to know each child individually. The garden the children play in outside is absolutely beautiful, peaceful, and full of life. The play structures are carefully chosen to blend in to the natural environment and foster creative outdoor play, which the children are offered every day, rain or shine. The indoor space is cozy, warm, and inviting. The toys the children play with are natural and creative, with many unique play ideas used to foster creativity, imaginative play and learning (such as shadow play using flashlights and wooden figures), rather than typical store-​bought toys you can find anywhere.
There are also regular art projects, many of which are truly inspired and creative. Seriously, each child there has created and brought home some really amazing art, done without direct assistance, only with the teachers talking to the children and helping them focus their own creativity. We have actually framed 2 of the pieces our daughter brought home because they were so special and unique.
And yes, they do provide advice for parents when it comes to the difficult issues we all face in raising headstrong preschoolers, and I feel that this is done through a genuine desire to help and a love for each of the children they care for, and only as a gentle suggestion or a direct example of what has worked for my child in the preschool environment with the same problem. I have never felt that I needed to «obey», but I respect their opinion and their many years of experience in dealing with children of this age. I can’t imagine what happened with the family who gave a bad review, but I know of no other parents at the school with similar feelings. In fact, their willingness to help the parents through difficult situations has fostered a community of parents who support and help each other that I find invaluable.
Garden’s noise is not an «academic» preschool, but fosters learning through the use of imagination and children’s natural desire to explore their world and surroundings. Through this my daughter has learned so much here, and has grown so much in maturity, compassion, and social skills.
I feel so fortunate to have discovered Garden’s Noise, and cannot imagine a better preschool experience for my daughter.

The Garden’s Noise Preschool provides a caring, nurturing environment for children to play, grow and learn. We came upon Garden’s Noise by word of mouth and inquired about a place for our daughter, who would be just 2 ½ at the beginning of the school year. While the school doesn’t typically enroll children under age 3, we had a meeting with the lead teacher who gently got to know our daughter and determined she was developmentally ready for the specific environment. She has stayed at the preschool since the beginning and we feel so fortunate to be part of this community. The care shown by the teachers is overwhelming — they give enormously to each child. Garden’s Noise allows children to explore seasons, the natural world, plant and harvest from the garden, make art, learn through storytelling, and play outside daily! Children are encouraged to be creative, to breathe fresh air and to get their hands dirty. In addition, children learn the joy of giving and that they are one of many. The teachers at Garden’s Noise Preschool have created a warm environment and provide a wonderful support system for parents. It’s a truly magical place.

I would say the total opposite from the review below. Both my children went to Garden’s Noise Preschool and absolutely LOVED it. They were very happy, loved and nurtured there. My children were always excited to talk about the morning and activities shared with other preschool friends and their teachers. I thought both the Director and Head teacher were extremely nurturing and warm. I appreciated any advice/​feedback/​­recommendation that was given. To be honest, my children missed GNPS tremendously after we moved from the area and they had to start preschool at a new school this past Fall. I highly recommend this preschool to anyone. It is a wonderful place to be for children to learn and grow in a very positive and encouraging environment.

My son went to Garden’s Noise and had a beautiful experience there; I highly, highly recommend it. Our son was provided with a creative and loving environment, where he felt secure and free to explore. He dug in the garden, painted, baked bread, learned about different cultures, sang, banged drums, built forts, danced, tucked himself into the reading nook to explore books, played with the rabbits and other animals who were a big part of life in the school, and generally just loved being there! The teachers were loving, supportive, and gentle. They also helped children learn about community. Our son learned how to cooperate, value difference, and support a communal experience. I will be eternally grateful for the deep thinking that went into creating the school, and for his two years of profound growth there.

I think most people will have a great experience here and many will write glowing reviews. Here is my forewarning: If you practice «attachment parenting» (I don’t really know what constitutes attachment parenting, but I co-​slept with my children and nursed them on demand and also provided structure and clear boundaries) be prepared to be criticized and told your parenting is the cause of your child’s personality (no joke, she told me my daughter had anxiety because attachment parenting causes that — she even insisted this after I told her my older child was not the slightest bit anxious). If you have older children and are not looking for instruction on how to parent, be prepared to be annoyed by condescending «education» about how to parent your child. If your child has a difficult time separating, be prepared to have your child forced into a box in order to make them behave like every other child. And if you disagree with how something is handled at the school, be prepared to be threatened and treated like a criminal. I’m not kidding, it was that bad. I wish I had filed a complaint at the time but it was difficult to figure out who to do that with. Michelle was so unprofessional when we disagreed about how to best treat my daughter’s separation difficulties. Among other things, she hung up on me on the phone when I tried to discuss things with her, she accused me of refusing to follow the school rules (aka not agreeing with her), she spoke badly about me to other parents, and she held my child after releasing all of the other children (without my permission) after school and cornered me to give me an ultimatum about what my child was and was not allowed to do. When I agreed it wasn’t working out for either of us and said I couldn’t follow her ultimatum she insisted that we pay the remainder of tuition, even though she clearly was not able to meet my child’s needs. And just to be clear, I am a professional mom who works with children in schools and have many years of parenting prior to this preschool experience.
Again, most people will have a great experience here and welcome Michelle’s «expert» advice on child rearing. I happen to be the unlucky mom who did not agree with her harsh tactics and cold treatment of my child. And my daughter happened to be the unlucky child who was severely traumatized by being treated so harshly. Really all I was asking for was for my daughter to have a consistent drop-​off routine in the morning. I was not asking for any special treatment or anything crazy like she would have liked to believe. I wanted consistency and predictably, which anyone with experience knows is important for people with anxiety. Michelle would not allow this because she insisted that flexibility was more important than her feeling of security. This was the crux of our entire disagreement. When I spoke up about this I was blacklisted and told I could not come into the preschool at all and had to drop her off at the door (which no other parents did). This was when it was very clear to me that Michelle’s ego was getting in the way of her caring for my child and that she was not making decisions about what was best for my daughter.
I am not one to want to write a terrible review of a business just for the sake of writing it, but because this is a preschool I feel I have to pass on what my experience was here. In a nut shell my experience with Michelle was that she was judgmental, self-​righteous, and when not obeyed becomes quite hostile. We had a beyond awful experience here with my daughter. She was not sensitive at all to what she was going through and only cared that I followed her orders, regardless of how harmful I knew them to be for my very sensitive child. We have had a child in preschool or school for six years now and have never seen such an unprofessional and harmful show of behavior. Other parents I spoke to also felt she was extremely critical of their parenting and believed she knew the best way to handle all parents problems better than the parents themselves. She has one parenting tactic in her bag of tricks, which is «be in charge!» There’s not much beyond that.
We chose the school because it was highly recommended by several families I knew. I only found out later that their love of the school was due to the other two teachers, one of which had decided not to return the year we started. My child really suffered because of what she went through here. Other families love the program and it is a good fit for many. The problem comes when you don’t agree with how something is handled. It was truly a shock to see what happened when things got difficult and I decided to stand up for my child. There was no professionalism at all.