Nature's Gift Preschools, Fremont

Like many mothers, choosing the ‘right’ preschool for my oldest child was a challenging process. But after watching all four of my children grow and blossom at Nature’s Gift Preschool, I know we chose the right school for them to spend their premier formal-learning years. A few reasons why: 1) Curriculum is balance between academic and play. My children told me how much they played at school, but they learned so much. 2) Emphasis on character as much as learning & play: treating people and things with respect, speaking nicely to friends and correctly to grown-ups, sharing, honesty, initiative, taking ownership for self and one’s own actions. 3) Extensive on-going teacher training (and grueling interview process to be a teacher at NG). The teachers not only excel in teaching young people, but are kind & compassionate. Miss Tracy, for example, taught all of my children, who are so different that I continually receive comments about how they don’t seem like siblings. Yet, Miss Tracy treated each child as the unique individual they are. She certainly does not have a one-size-fits-all approach to children. I also like that even on the most challenging days for a couple of my children, she always found something positive to say. 4) Lots of “extras”: fieldtrips, gardening, cooking, nature walks, multi-cultural events (especially in January around Chinese New Year), holiday/mother’s day/graduation performances. 5) Continual search for excellence and improvement in the program. Yinyin has a terrific program, and even so she is consistently looking for ways to improve her program. She actively solicits feedback from parents on what can be done better and will implement their suggestions when it makes sense to do so. 6) Genuine interest in each child, and family. In fact, Nature’s Gift feels like a family and after seven years as part of the Nature’s Gift family it was very sad for me when my youngest ‘graduated’. But I know that Miss Yinyin and her teachers’ interests were not unique to my children, but that they truly care about all of their students. And ultimately, I had confidence that my children were in the best care possible when at Nature’s Gift.