The Goddard School

Address:	14630 York Rd, Sparks, MD 21152, USA
Phone:	+1 410-472-2232
Site:	goddardschool.com
Rating:	4.8

Location

Photos 20

Reviews 5

Anonymous User

Our son started in Goddard when he was 2 and a half. Now he has graduated from Goddard and is in Kindergarten, so this review covers the three upper years in Goddard. Our older child went to another family daycare which we thought was quite good. My wife and I worried that a `school environment is too large to allow bonding with caregivers, so we originally skipped all `schools including Goddard. What a mistake! It turned out that Goddard school has everything. It is big enough to have resources, but small enough that all teachers know all children and vice versa. By and large we found that the teachers are excellent, and provide both warmth and intellectual stimulation in all grades. And while necessarily teachers occasionally need to rotate, since the children are familiar with all of them, this turned out to work out fine. (This was one of our -- unfounded -- concerns.) My sons last year at Goddard really looked like Kindergarten, and he was in fact being taught by former BCPS teachers. So his switch to a real public school went without a hitch: the teacher and his friends were all different, but the form of the experience was basically the same. (As opposed to that, his older brother -- the one who went to a family daycare -- had quite a bit of a rougher start.) In addition, I must say that the owners, Mike and Janelle, really impressed me! They are truly going an extra length to make preschool a special and rich experience. The kids have music lessons! They practice yoga! Every once in a while, special shows are being put for the kids (magicians, music concerts, etc.) The school has an excellent outdoor playground. However, even more importantly in cold winter and hot summer days -- the school has a larger indoor gym! So the kids have a chance to run around and be physically active every day, regardless of the weather. So in summary, we couldnt have been happier with Goddard!

Vikas Gupta

We have been thrilled with the services at Goddard for our 6 month old son. It starts with the staff - they are always so happy and smiley and we love that they always say hi and bye and interact with our son as we come in and out. They make it their business to be involved with all the children and it really helps make it feel like this is a second home for our son. The facilities are clean, secure and cheerful - it feels great to bring him in and we dont worry about his safety or health at all. The teachers in the Hummingbirds room are wonderful - they are so patient and tend to each babys unique needs. They have a great connection with our son and I love when he smiles with them and is comfortable in their arms. They are so invested in knowing his schedule and needs and they are willing to have a conversation to make sure their care matches up with how we might want it done. We love all the stimulation he gets all day - going outside, tummy time, big boy toys, art work, music, dance, etc. We have noticed a drastic improvement in his fine motor skills since being at Goddard which, while natural growth, is also attributable to the lesson plans and stimulation at school. We also appreciate keeping in touch with the parents with pictures and allowing calls during the day. We would recommend all our friends to come to Goddard with their infants and we look forward to a long stay here. "Thank you" doesnt even do justice to our gratitude for the services here.

Maria Mazzone Kulp

My husband and I choose Goddard because we agree with their philosophy of teaching through hands on activities that are both age-appropriate and challenging. We also appreciate their commitment to ensuring that the children had plenty of opportunities for physical activity. The children go outside twice a day, weather permitting. Unlike many of the other daycares in our area, the Goddard School also has an indoor gymnasium. The enrichment activities offered at Goddard are fantastic. The children participate in music and dance classes, yoga gymnastics and sign language. I never really thought about the benefits of baby sign language, until I saw them first hand. Our daughter could ask for milk or water using her signs before she could speak the words. Seeing her use sign language, really made me realize how much babies understand even before they can communicate verbally. Seeing how beneficial it was for my child, I am now a big advocate for teaching babies sign language. My husband is an IT professional and is very impressed with how The Goddard School has included technology in the pre-school classroom. They use technology to dive more deeply into the lessons, but screen time is limited and educational. Our daughter loves when her class gets to use the Smart Board, a chalk board sized interactive computer. We are extremely pleased with the educational experiences our children, ages 3 and 1, are getting. We love the Goddard School in Sparks!

Anonymous User

In the beginning, as first-time parents, we were challenged with the idea of putting our then eighteen-month-old daughter in childcare. We had some concerns about the care she would receive in childcare and were reluctant to trust the ‘unknown’. Upon meeting Mike and the staff at Goddard in Sparks, MD, we were instantly comforted and our reservations were quickly left behind. Goddard made it easy to make the switch from au pair to childcare, and after three years with the school we couldn’t be happier. The school offered a loving, caring and safe environment for our daughter from her very first day (at eighteen months), until her recent graduation of Pre-K. Not only does the owner of the school also operate the school and participate, on-site, with its day-to-day affairs, but Goddard is also equipped with nurturing, devoted, well-trained and extremely qualified staff, who encouraged, loved, and inspired our little one every day. Our daughter’s educational and social growth has grown exponentially since she started; every day she was coming home with new knowledge, stories about her classmates and new curiosities, showing us that she was thriving in her learning. We are now in a position where we are able to place her in Kindergarten technically a year earlier than the school system dictates, because she is significantly ahead of the curve - something to which we owe Goddard a great deal of credit and gratitude.

Tracy Cosola

Our family LOVES The Goddard School in Sparks. My son is in the Pre-K program and my daughter is in the Preschool program. I am so impressed with both of their classes and their teachers. My son is 5 and has made incredible progress since we started about a month ago. He is better behaved at home and is reading books to us! He is mentally stimulated all day long and physically exhausted too. They have an outdoor playground for the kids and an indoor playroom too which helps keep them moving all day long! And my daughter who is 3, is a quiet girl, and has been talking more than ever and singing all the songs she learns from her teachers to us at home. She loves her teachers and often pretends to be them at home too. Theyve also had special presenters and activities that keep help the teachers throughout the day and weeks too. Both kids are so proud of the work and projects they do there and that makes me smile every day when I go to pick them up. They really enjoy their time at school and I certainly feel like it is in their best interest to go to school at The Goddard School in Sparks. And I would recommend this school to anyone with young children. Youre preparing them for a lifelong love of learning and what could be more rewarding than that as a parent!