Wildwood Children’s School

"Wildwood has been a great choice for us! In particular, we love the community aspect of this school — from the parent-teacher partnership, to festive school events for families to come together and connect. We also really appreciate Anita’s leadership (Program Director); she’s thoughtful, transparent, and very involved — which is evident in the relationships she’s built with each kiddo. The fact that she actively supports in the classroom on a daily basis gives us assurance that decisions and updates are informed by on-the-ground experiences. Wildwood’s focus on learning through play resonates with us. Having multiple age-appropriate classrooms also provides good exposure / role-modeling for kids in different learning stages (from infants to pre-schoolers)."

"My Son, Augie went there for almost 1.5 year and he really enjoyed the school. They teach arts, dancing and little bit of Spanish and Chinese. I strongly recommend this place!"

"Wildwood Children's School has really stepped up its game. The new director, Anita Lee, is awesome. She is organized, responsive, knowledgeable, accommodating, warm, wonderful and loving with all of the kids, and overall just a really competent director and early childhood educator. My daughter started in the infant classroom (Roots) with Teacher Lesleigh and is now in the toddler classroom (Flowers) with Teachers Jill and Emma. My daughter has really thrived here. The environment has just the right amount of stimulation to inspire curiosity and play, yet doesn't overwhelm. The indoor and outdoor spaces are really nice and encourage imaginative play, allow for independent play, or group/peer play. The teachers communicate well what they observe in my child throughout the day (in the app and at pickup/drop off), they share stories and observations, and I really feel like they know, love, and care for my daughter. My daughter is learning a lot every day. She comes home with new skills and new words, and the social interactions she is getting with the other kids and adults is definitely helping build her SEL skills. The activities and themes are well thought out, the teachers provide opportunities to do art, dance, climb, read, observe nature (putting a lemon on the table and asking the kids to draw it, planting seeds and observing growth, etc.), "brainstorm" (they have little meetings where they discuss a topic and brainstorm thoughts and ideas), etc. Now about the teachers: Ms. Lesleigh, Ms. Jill, Ms. Emma, Mr. Devon, Ms. Marisol are all wonderful teachers, and wonderful people. They care, they are present, they model good social interactions, they model curiosity and wonder, and they support positive interactions between kids. It seems to me that they know the importance of their work and the impact they are having on so many kids, and they take their role seriously and do an amazing job (and I've observed a lot, I tend to spend some time during drop offs and pick ups chatting and letting my daughter say "goodbye" to her friends). I am very grateful to Wildwood teachers and the director Anita Lee for making my daughter's first school experience so positive (and mine!) and I am very happy with my decision to send my daughter here!"

"***NIGHTMARISH OWNER - PLEASE DO ALL YOUR RESEARCH BEFORE SENDING KIDS!!*** This school is owned and operated by a woman named Tae Ha who also owns and operates the Oakland Garden School. Before deciding to send your child here, please read all the info you can on the Oakland Garden School on Berkeley Parents Network or even on Yelp. She offered parents at the Oakland Garden School rewards and credits for leaving positive reviews on Yelp. So there are some misleading reviews there. However, there are enough people who are speaking out about what she does. She opened the second location under the Wildwood name presumably trying to flee the reputation she's built for herself. Essentially, she charges expensive tuition fees that she pockets while paying teachers poverty-line wages and refusing to pay for healthcare for them. She fraudulently presents the schools as being "nature-based" yet in almost a year at the Oakland Garden School, our son did not plant a single thing. Not once. When I tried to inquire about that after a few months of being enrolled, she told me she was too busy to answer my questions and went into her office and closed the door. The Oakland Garden School has a pattern or cycle dating back several years in which the teachers stage a massive walkout and many of them quit at the same time in the middle of the year. This has happened multiple times there, to the great detriment of the children. A former teacher summed it up perfectly. She said "OGS is like the Whole Foods of preschools. They have a good façade pretending to be socially conscious and earth-friendly, but really it's just run by the same exploitive capitalist sleazy people who ruin everything and make everyone miserable." We are friends with many of the parents who pulled their children out of the Oakland Garden School over the past year. Unfortunately, because it's the Bay Area, there are always more unknowing teachers looking for jobs and unknowing parents looking for schools. I hope people do all their research before sending their children here."