Puddle Jumpers Workshop

I am a current Puddle Jumpers parent. My son is 2.5, and has been at Puddle Jumpers for almost a year now. We love Puddle Jumpers. It has been a great place for our son. He’s happy there, and we adore the community we’ve connected with through the co-​op.

I can not say enough good things about PJW. We have been members for about 9 months. It has become an intrinsic part of my sons and my life.
I would say that Pjw is a non-​traditional type of daycare, firstly because it is a co operative. As parents, we run the whole show, from creating a wholesome schedule of activities to making lunches to changing diapers :-) However the number of shifts worked per week is relatively low. For example a child attending four days a week equates to the parent (s) working one full day at the co op. Although this isn’t the best option if both parents work full time, I have seen many families do it and it is work-​able.
Pjw is an excellent transitional environment. My son started at 19 months old and was one of the youngest– shy, curious, clingy. Now he is on the older end of the scale. He radiates happy boy energy and that type of fearlessness that children exude when they are given the freedom to play and discover and grow alongside their peers.
Yes, it is hard work. Sometimes you will be in a room with 8 screaming toddlers, trying to navigate ‘taking turns’ with a popular toy, while another child needs a diaper change and the other parent is busy making lunch. It can be stressful, however unlike the start of your parenting journey, Pjw DOES come with a handbook :-) and a community of loving people who really care about you and your child. Very often we will discuss as a co op issues such as sharing, separation anxiety, hitting, napping (etc). And we always get through these issues.
If you are thinking about joining Pjw, then please go to an open house to ask questions and see if it is a good fit for your family. Details I believe are on the website.

PJW is a vibrant, cooperative community of committed parents and beautiful kids. We love and look out for each other’s children as if they were our own. We protect, play with, comfort, and encourage the kids. And sometimes we have remind them how to better share, play, and coexist with each other. We strive to create an environment of safety, joy, and consistency for these precious, developing little people.
We’ve been sending our daughter to PJW for a few months now and already we feel like an integral part of the community. I have total trust in any of the co-op’s other parents when they are taking care of my daughter — a rare feeling for a newish parent. She started at 18-​months and was smaller than most of the kids. But the bigger kids and the watchful parents and teachers ensured that our daughter didn’t get knocked around or overlooked. Now, she comes home talking about her friends at PJW by name. We are experiencing the joy of making friends for the first time through her eyes. And we’ve noted the positive effects, in terms of rapidly increased communication skills, ability to share, and physical hardiness, of belonging to a social, sharing, playful group.
I look forward to growing closer to the PJW family over the coming months and would encourage any interested parents to come to an open house and check it out for yourselves.

While I won’t miss remembering we have snack and lunch at the last minute, I will miss almost everything else about Puddle Jumpers, and I’m sure my kids will too.
As anyone who’s been there a little while can attest to, PJW is a roller coaster full of mini dramas and epiphanies, forgotten snacks, hilarious falling down games and last minute scrambles to cover shifts. But ultimately what it meant to me was a place full of different personalities and backgrounds who shared the most important thing, a love of children and an endless patience and sweetness that is overwhelming once you have a chance to step back and look over your time there. Every day we handed off the most precious parts of our lives, and every day they came home exhausted and full of burbling stories and experiences and new relationships, growing every day into their little selves in a place that was safe and caring and ultimately joyful. How that all happened in a school where most of the «teachers» (because they were parent teachers whose kids aged out) left and were replaced during our time there, is a beautiful mystery I will always treasure.
I’ll always be thankful for all the great people who were there for our kids when we couldn’t always be and for holding our kids when yours were pulling at your shirt, and thanks for being there for us when we were struggling with shifts or forgot something or needed a friend.
There are a few times in your life when a THING happens and you know it’s a THING. And it’s a THING that the rest of your life will wrap around in some way. Puddle Jumpers was one of those THINGS.

I got a great compliment from a stranger at the airport today, «I cannot believe she is only two and a half. Her vocabulary is amazing. I am sure you know this.»
My daughter has been a «Puddle Jumper» for over a year. We are so fortunate to have found this place. What caught my eye is the low tuition, as I was not working last year. I started working early this year, and my husband and I agreed that we need to keep our kid in PJW as long as possible. He found a way to go part-​time for the rest of this year, so that we can stay in the co-​op.
We have taken turns working shifts, and we get to know every adult who takes care of the kids very well. The ratio at this school is unbeatable in a daycare setting (3 adults: 8 toddlers). The main teacher is absolutely amazing with kids. My daughter adores her and imitates her regularly at home.
This place is perfect for any helicopter parent wishing to transition their kid to group care.
Major Con:
Quite a bit of work and contribution is required from each family in a co-​op.

My son started at Puddle Jumpers at 20 months of age and he loved it from day one! My son loves Teacher Claire and Teacher Michelle. Each day there are also two parents working so that is a ratio of three adults to eight children which surpasses all of the other places we considered for our son. During my time there I have learnt a lot from the parents and teachers they are a great resource of expert advice on toddlers. My oldest son is starting preschool soon and we are not worried about adjustment to preschool because of his time at co-​op. The co-​op daily schedule closely resembles preschool so our son has already learned to interact well in a group setting. At co-​op my son sits at the table with his friends for meals and even clears his plate away when done! I really like working at the co-​op I work one 4 hour shift each week and this gives me a first hand look at how my son is doing and I also get to know his classmates, teachers and other parents. Overall we have had a fantastic time at Puddle Jumpers my son has grown and developed a lot during his time at the co-​op and I have learned a few great new techniques for guiding toddler behavior. My second son starts at co-​op this week and we are delighted that he will get the opportunity to learn and grow in such a great community.

Our daughter has been attending PJW for a few months now, and our experience could not be more positive. Teacher Claire and Teacher Michelle create a very productive, safe, and educational environment for the kids. Meanwhile, the parents are all involved (it is a co-​op, after all) and complement the teachers quite well. Good habits are formed and energy is burned in positive ways.
Of course, as a co-​op, PJW is only as good as the parents and teachers who work there, and in our experience everyone has been fantastic.
The location is good and near a park, while the PJW building itself is large and even has a small parking lot (a rarity in the Mission!).
Our daughter looks forward to attending PJW each and every day we attend. It’s tough to sum it up better than that.

I don’t have kids myself, but my nephew just graduated from PJW and as a mostly outside observer (and occasional drop-​off/​pickup assistant) I can say I’m really glad he and his parents are part of this community. Friendly, helpful and compassionate parents and teacher working together to create an awesome gem of a program in San Francisco. If I had a kid or knew more parents I’d be sending them here.

Puddle Jumpers is a fantastic place for young toddlers and an amazing community of families. We love that there is a maximum of 8 kids per day and full-​day hours so that I can actually get work done while he is there. The teachers are wonderful and our son loves playing in the beautiful sunlit playroom, making art with all kinds of materials, taking daily outings to the neighborhood parks, tending the community garden patch… the co-​op requires work from parents but we have found it to be a lot of fun.

My daughter absolutely loves her «school» and has done really well at PJW. We chose a co-​op daycare because I still wanted to have active participation in my child’s education, and I wanted to create a community of families that felt the same. I believe that the PJW’s family values reflect on their kids, and I have been very happy with the type of child that it attracts. Besides that, it has been a great way for us to transition out of a nanny care, to a «school» format, and I believe it will prepare my kid well for her start at preschool next year.
I feel very grateful to have an extended network of families that care for my daughter and look after her with such dedication. I am also very respectful of the teachers and the level of commitment, professionalism and sweetness that they present.

Lovely. Great teacher. Amazing kids. And wonderful parents who are concerned about all the children and creating a supportive community in which to raise happy healthy kids. My son started there when he was 18 months old and it has been delightful watching him grow and thrive. And now he’s old enough to ramble on about all the fun he had, which park they went to, what they made, what song he sang, who napped and who didn’t, etc. and so on. And it’s close to our home, which is super as I’m lazy about driving.
Then why only four stars you may ask. Well, because there’s no 4 ½ star option. (I suppose I could/​perhaps should round up.) Although I love the co-​op concept and PuddleJumpers in particular, it can be challenging if there are two parents who are employed full-​time. That being said, I feel blessed that my partner and I have a flexible enough schedule that enables us to still do the co-​op. Being a part of this community and having helpful guidance from a knowledgeable teacher has made me a better parent. It’s worth the challenge and occasional headache.

We loved Puddle Jumpers. Our son made so many friends. It was wonderful to know that I was leaving him with trusted adults who are as committed to children as I am. They are more invested in the shared responsibility of caring for our kids, than any nanny or daycare. It was also wonderful to have a community to share the challenges and joys of our toddlers. And the head teachers have incredible patience and love. You also can’t beat the adult: child ratio and quality activities, unless you have thousands of dollars for a really high end daycare.
Since this is a coop for younger children – an exception in this city – it requires more effort. But it was well worth it.

We were a little worried about our 18-month-old’s first child care experience outside the home, but we could not have found a better, more nurturing place than Puddle Jumpers.
I think the secret is the working parents. You’re not dropping off your baby with strangers or even friendly employees. You leave your child with parents whose children you’ll be watching later, so you always know that they’re showing your little one the same patience and attention that they’d want you to show theirs.
And then there are the teachers: professional, creative and unconditionally loving.
Most importantly, our child loves it. On the way home, I kept hearing, «Funagoo, Mama! Funagoo!» I finally figured out what it means: «Fun at school, Mama! Fun at school!»

Our son started attending PJW when he was 2 years old. We were looking for an affordable complement to a share care, to help our son socialize and learn English (we are non-​native speakers). We also wanted to be involved in our son’s early education and the coop system seemed very well suited for us.
Some of the perks we liked about PJ included healthy organic meals, use of non-​toxic products and toys when possible, lots of outdoors space, a huge classroom with many choices of toys and activities, lots of natural light, an organic garden to tend to, and the list goes on… (I had visited daycares and found nothing that measured up to PJ for these criteria).
We are both working and just had a new baby when we started, so needless to say that we were unsure about being able to sustain the workload that a coop required (as compared to a regular daycare). We now realize the incredible benefits of this system for our family: a strong network of parents genuinely committed to our son’s well being, extremely qualified activity coordinators, over 15 multi-​cultural families for our child to bond and interact with.
At the end, we feel that the amount of work put in this coop was well worth it as it has paid back in these unexpected ways, but the best one is the «parental education» we got from simply participating. After all, there are 15 families, 2 activities coordinators and a parent educator consultant to help you with your parental concerns (!), which for us was the best benefit of all and if our schedule allows it, we will come back for our second child.

My daughter has absolutely thrived at Puddlejumpers. She loves to go and it has helped her development a great deal. She began potty training early because of the influence of being around the other kids all day. I call PJW a ‘warm hug’ of a school because it is really just about being loving and nurturing to the children as they discover the world around them. The parents and teachers are so supportive and really involved with the kids at every moment. It is a big committment as a parent to be involved in a co-​op, but when you know your efforts are going to help your child, it makes everything you do worth it. You have an opportunity to really set the standard for what you want at the school and influence the way things are run. I am very glad we sent our daughter there for a year.

Our family choosing a co-​op was the benefit of allowing us to actively participate in our child’s upbringing in a daycare setting. Puddle Jumpers families believe in providing a parental support for a stronger community, an enriching and developmental program for younger children. We all want our daughters and sons to be provided with socialization skills, nurturing love and a foundation for learning.
Puddle Jumpers Workshop approach allows children to be children, they are given the opportunity to gain a new and exciting understanding. Our children have opportunities to learn through music, acquire language through art, develop their abilities to relate to one another through play, and solve problems together in the playground and during snack time. At Puddle Jumpers Workshop, parents are teachers and students, our children are our teachers, and we all are partners in a collective learning environment.

My daughter started at PJW when she was just over 2 and it was still Little People’s Workshop in Noe Valley. PJW took all the wisdom and good energy from LPW and has given it new life in the Mission! It is amazing to be part of such a diverse and incredible group of parents. The school welcomes all families, and is a true expression of community. Working at the school each week is a joy, and being part of our daughter’s first school experience has been immensely rewarding. Highlights: brand new classroom, with all natural light, wood floors, a plot of our own at the organic community garden at Parque Ninos that the kids work on twice a week, a professional teacher every morning, and musicians most afternoons, daily outings to the park, lots of cool toys, and amazing art projects. We highly recommend visiting and joining this wonderful school. We will be sooo sad to leave!!! We have made amazing friends and have fallen in love with all the kids here!

My son started at Puddle Jumpers when he was 18 months and he looks forward to it everyday. There is a max number of 8 children a day and 2 – 3 adults at all times. I feel my son is getting a fabulous first school experience and I have learned so much from working with the kids. I don’t think the co-​op experience works for everyone, but it sure works for us.
Anne-​Lise