Our son does a mix of kindergarten at First Steps and Beyond and also attends full-day kindergarten at public school on alternate days.  Within the first few days at First Steps and Beyond it was clear to us that we had made an excellent choice.  His teacher is an absolute gem and an exceptional person.  She is warm, kind, encouraging and the classroom energy that she creates is nothing short of amazing.  When you walk into the classroom, there are science experiments going on, games, so much wonder, imagination, fun, colours, excitement and positive energy.  It is obvious that a huge amount of time, care and consideration is put into creating the very best environment for the kids to learn in.  It's not my intention to put any one else down or system, but we haven't seen this in the public school that our son attends.  It's not that it is bad, but our experience hasn't been to this high level.  Our son immediately came home with projects and "take-homes" in his backpack that made us say "wow!"  Things like personalized games for where he is at (ie: sight word games), building sentences, writing words and drawing corresponding pictures.  We see an excitement for learning in our son on the days he attends First Steps.  He is engaged and excited to go to school.  The environment has a warmth, and from our first day we felt welcome and that our son and us, as a family, are important to all of the teachers there.  We instantly were treated with kindness and felt like an extended family, on the same team and with the same goals.

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As a parent, I'm exhausted from the endless choices that I need to make for my child every day.  Some of the choices feel monstrous, when they are to do with his education and essentially  choosing the people that will be in his tribe to shape the person he will become.  In my journey as a parent, I've found that I've needed to continually adjust my expectations and that it hasn't been realistic to set my hopes so high of what I want for my child.  I've heard comments like "no one will treat your child as well as you do" or "that's a dream world to have that."  First Steps & Beyond has been a rare experience where my hope and expectations have been in line with what we've seen and experienced.  I am very grateful that this school and these teachers exist!  I would highly recommend them.  It's a powerful thing, when the dream you vision for your child and the environment for them to learn in, is attainable.