The structure at Cottage Kids breaks down like this: infants, 2s, preschool, and pre-kindergarten…read more(ages 4-5). I am basing my review on the 5 months my son spent in the preschool (ages 2.5-4) classroom. My 3 stars are based on some things we liked a lot and some things that were disappointing, so I'll organize my review into those categories.
** Things we liked a lot: **
- The facility is excellent. The building is secure, light, bright, and very clean. The play yards are large with a fair amount of shade. They have a lot of tricycles and outdoor toys. The slide equipment is in excellent condition. The physical space is premium.
- They use an app to share things like: what your child ate, when he went potty (or had an accident, if you're potty training), and snapshots of the children learning and playing. This is one of my favorite things about Cottage Kids. (On the "disappointments" list is their spotty use of this excellent tool.)
- The main teachers are highly educated in early childhood education - like they have college degrees in this area of study. This is a *career* they have chosen. They are educators and not babysitters. They are very professional. (I'm not sure the same is true for the support staff. More on this in the "disappointments" list.) They can talk to you about developmental milestones. For my kid, who is super tall for his age, they could explain about his coordination and how he is learning to use his body. I valued this perspective.
- They are NAEYC accredited. That's the National Associate for the Education of Young Children. This means their curriculum is very structured. I liked the quality of the planned activities.
- They provide hot meals and quality snacks. No one is eating saltine crackers and a thimble full of water for snacks here. Their menu includes Olive Garden style breadsticks with marinara or pita bread with hummus, etc. In fact, he ate so well at Cottage Kids that some nights he wasn't too interested in dinner at home.
** Disappointments: **
- This place is expensive! Sure, we knew that going in, and we agreed to pay it because our expectation was that with this premium tuition, we would be getting premium care. For us, the value never measured up. How expensive, you wonder? For 3 days/week of preschool, the rate was just shy of $1000/month. (That rate reduces for federal employees and perhaps other contracted businesses, but if you pay the "community rate," you will pay dearly.)
- Perhaps my expectation was unreasonably high about the app, but I thought I would see updates in real time. Sometimes you don't see updates until the end of the day. Sometimes you don't see updates at all. Sometimes you only know they ate pears for a snack or peed at 10am. Sometimes you get 6 really great pictures of the kids during the day with explanations about what they are learning. The point is - I thought I was going to get all that every day, and for the price we paid, it was disappointing when that turned out not to the be standard practice.
- The classrooms are big and full, and for my kid, it was a challenging environment. He would often come home and report that children (he would name names) were "hitting" him or "hurting" him. We addressed this with his teachers and the on-site director on multiple occasions, and to be fair, they always listened and sounded concerned. For a while, they were able to separate the boys, but on the early and late ends of the days, the classes mix. That means the preschool and pre-K kids may play together, and again, with large class sizes, the teachers literally can't have eyes on every kid at every moment. This left my kid, who was having some issues, vulnerable. This was among the top reasons we decided to look for other options.
- Right now, they are short staff in the preschool room, and the revolving support staff was a point of frustration. Having new staff means your kid who is no longer wearing diapers or pull-ups might be diapered at nap time. (If you are potty training now, you understand why that is HUGELY frustrating. If not, just trust me.) It means the temps don't know about the "hitting" issues and may not know to keep kids who need to be separated away from each other. Continuity of care is really important to me, so this was a major point of frustration.
Overall, this is a good facility, but it was not a great fit for us. For the price, I needed the fit to be excellent. I know other parents who are very happy there, and I think if your kid isn't coming home telling you he's being hit in the gut by the same 2-3 kids, your overall impression would be much more positive.
I just wanted to provide a comprehensive review because other reviewers have made comments about the tour and the price, but Cottage Kids is light on substantive reviews. I hope this helps prospective parents.
