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June 2024 by Marie Sibley Hunter
My niece and nephew (twins) go to this school and they have both blossomed in their own way since starting there this past fall. When I came to visit, I got to be involved with picking them up from school. I got to see how engaged they were with the community of teachers, students, families and it made me so grateful they found this place. Absolutely worth exploring if you have a 2-5 year old person who needs a loving, nurturing school!
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March 2024 by Destiny Powers-Zarcone
We love FTCNS! We’re so glad that we found such an inclusive community for our toddler to attend pre-school, and just the general community of families that the school provides. The teachers are absolutely wonderful, and have been working here for decades. We’re so grateful for their experience, and dedication to early education. The open and creative play environment provided to our toddler has flourished her imaginative play. When our toddler started at 2.5 years she had quite a speech delay, and 6 months at FTCNS and she is full of sentences about her peers, teachers, and activities. We’re so grateful to have Families Together, not only for the education and care they’re giving our toddler; but also for the overwhelming warm welcome of our second child. Families Together has been such an amazing fit for our family, and we are so lucky to have them.
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February 2024 by Helen Hunter
Hey so I want to give a quick plug for the Families Together Cooporative Nursery school. My twins started there this past fall - they were 2.5yo. The school has a number of options for enrollment - classes for different ages or times of day. The faculty and staff are all really talented and dedicated, many of whom have been working there for a decade plus - unlike a lot of schools with high turnover because they wear their employees down. The school is cooporative, which means that parents are really engaged - my husband is on the fundraising board and every few weeks I’m acting as an assistant teacher in my kids’ class, which is actually really fun!! As a result of this engagement, the school offers a sliding scale for tuition. I feel truly very lucky to be part of this warm and supportive community and I will definitely be starting my youngest in the toddler play group this fall! Enrollment is down this year, so of you’re looking for a stellar preschool, please consider Families Together!
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February 2024 by Jonathan Meyer
This is the third year for our now 5 year old. FTCNS is simply an incredible and rare haven. In an era of standardization, teaching to tests, and technological inundation, here is a school that centers play, agency, and healthy social interactions and communications. I can't rave enough about the value it has had for our child's happiness and development, and for our family as a whole. And I see the foundation this is creating for her, which will serve her through her whole academic career and life - both through the clear research on the importance of play, and through the empirical evidence of other families whose children have gone before us.
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January 2024 by Caitlin Grogan
The first time I asked my almost 3-year-old son to imagine where he would go, if he could go absolutely ANYWHERE ("Like a castle or the moon!" I suggested), he responded: "School!" and then quickly added, "so I could see Miss Mary and Miss Salena and my friends."Our son's joy at being a part of this school is as great as my own joy at being a part of this community. There is so much trust, care and safety built into the environment created here, as well as a true commitment to diversity and inclusion. As a co-op, Families Together offers particularly special opportunities for parents to be a part of the community, interweaving our children's "home" and "school" spheres into a single supportive world for our kids.If you are looking for a place to nurture your growing child to learn important lessons through play and joy, create friendships, and learn how much fun it is to learn, you will be thrilled with Families Together. #earlychildhoodeducation #prekoptions
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December 2023 by Justin Doggett
Our daughter looks forward to going to school every single day because she loves the environment. She gets to socialize through play, paint, listen to stories and do many other things that help her development. We're watching her blossom at Families Together!
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November 2023 by Azusa Shiraishi
This is the first year we joined with this school. Environment, teachers and staffs, all the kids are so great. Our kid, my husband and I are beyond happy and thankful to find this school. We see so much value in sending our kids to FTCNS.
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November 2023 by Julia Antonick
Families Together is such a special place. Our kiddo has gone to school here since she was 2 years old. We'll miss the teachers and the community so much next year when we head to kindergarten but know that the things she learned here will be lasting. Highly recommended!
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October 2023 by Fabiana G.
Families Together is a magical place. The play based learning model is the heart of this school and families have to be involved in the co-op model. A minimum of volunteering in and out of the classroom, plus loads of extra optional community events. They have helped our family so much and we've made great connections with others. The staff are all excellent, fun professionals and I can't say enough good things about this experience.
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October 2023 by Jenny Mason
Finding a preschool that allowed "kids to be kids" while learning how to identify and work through feelings, problem solve and play with others seemed impossible...until I found FTCNS! Getting involved in my child's early education has been such a joy. I have found my tribe of parents as well :)
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October 2023 by Emily Russell
I highly recommend Families Together! All three of our children spent two years at the school and LOVED it. They learned that school and learning are AWESOME, giving them a really positive start to their academic career and life in general! The teachers are amazing and I always look forward to my turn to assist in the classroom (about once a month - doable and totally worth it!). I've learned a lot listening to the teachers talk the children through a problem or conflict - it's made me a better parent for sure! The community is wonderful to be a part of, and has been a lifeline for me at times. The school actively builds community with a combination of parent and family events. Plus, you get to be in the classroom so you get to know the other kids, and the kids know the other parents... it creates a really special dynamic. We started there when we had a stay-at-home parent, so the part-day options were perfect. We've stayed there with our third child even though we're both employed full-time now, because we know it's the best place for them to be. There's a little extra juggling (we hire a babysitter for a couple hours in the afternoon), but the amount of time in school feels really developmentally appropriate. Also wanted to mention that we don't live in Edgewater, we drive over from further west and there are other families coming from this way as well.
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September 2023 by Susan Vescovi
We have loved out time with FTCNS! It has made us feel connected to the community through the teachers and the other families that are part of the school. FTCNS's teaching model allows kids to learn while still being kids (rather than making them do repetitive tasks like color sheets or writing out letters). We got frequent updates from the school and the teacher's about our son's classroom and the fun activities they did every week creating a sense of connection between our family and the school community. It's a special place!
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September 2023 by Jeffrey McManus
Families Together is a truly amazing place. Our child reports every day that the only "problem" with at school is "I need to go back RIGHT NOW and stay with my friends and Mary and Salena all day." The curriculum follows children's interests. The teachers are highly trained. The class sizes are just right with tons of support (with parent volunteers and assisting teachers, the ratio is often about 4 kids to one adult) Transitioning to school each year is dome thoughtfully and intentionally. Communication is excellent. You'll make lifelong connections with other parents here, we're told by alumni families, and in our case, we can already see how that will be true for us after our kids move on to kindergarten, too.
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September 2023 by Chanin-Kolaj Family
There's no place quite like Families Together. If you have ever wondered why Edgewater feels so magical, it's because these teachers have had a hand in raising the neighborhood children for the past twenty years. Our son and our family have thrived in this lovely, supportive community. Having parents in the classroom creates a special bond between the children and caregivers, and between parents and teachers.
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September 2023 by betsy b
Families together is a wonderful, inclusive, nurturing, play-based preschool. Our first daughter spent two very happy years here and our second daughter will be attending this fall. I can’t say enough about the wonderful community here. The staff is wonderful and highly experienced (there is very little turn-over at the school). Tuition is sliding scale, and this is just one example of the school’s dedicated efforts to make such a great preschool experience accessible to all. In the process of choosing a preschool I visited quite a few in my neighborhood. Families Together is a 15 minute drive for us but I’m willing to do it because nothing else I visited can compare. Really cannot recommend highly enough!
