Alphabet Soup School

This preschool is kind of Seattle’s best kept secret, so I’m probably breaking some sort of code even writing a review here. But I saw that there were only two reviews, one of them based on an unfortunate event — which I would consider either an aberration or the product of some previous employee — so I had to write one, just to balance the scales.
We moved to Alphabet Soup after having had our child in a school that never seemed like quite the right fit for our family, and boy was I glad we moved. Alphabet Soup is amazing. Here are some of the things I love about Alphabet Soup:
–My son plays outside twice a day and comes home dirty, like a preschooler should. That back yard isn’t grassy, which I thought at first I wouldn’t like so much but boy is it perfect for a bunch of sand-​measuring, water-​pouring, sensory-​table-​playing kids. Plus there’s a big tree back there, they’re growing veggies, and there’s a giant park across the street.
–The owner, Jeanette, is seriously no drama. She is direct, positive, happy, and knows what she wants for her schools (she has one location in Friday Harbor, one on Linden, and this one on Latona).
–The teachers — they are so warm, kind, fun. Marnell has been with Jeanette since they first opened the school in Friday Harbor and has been teaching preschool for something like 20 years. I’ve observed her really connect with the kids at circle and story time, and her morning greetings are so cheerful. Yoshimi is a ray of sunshine. She has an infectious smile, is so genuine and grounded. She’s a licensed massage therapist and that nurturer vibe comes through loud and clear. Stevie is the third teacher, and she’s been with Jeanette since Friday Harbor, too, with a break in there. She is upbeat, fun, and my son loves to do art with her. She works fewer hours at the Latona location, and even so, she really connects with the kids and families.
–The communication — oh my goodness. Alphabet Soup has a private (families-​only) Instagram, where Yoshimi will post a handful of photos and videos every day. In my son’s first weeks there, I was so excited to see photos and videos of him engaged in learning, playing with new friends, being outside. Great springboard for dinner «how was school?» conversations. There’s also a calendar of monthly themes, daily topics, and a white board of what the kids are up to. There are even binders for each kiddo! And you get to check in with the teachers at pick up and drop off since the number of kids is so manageable.
–It’s all thought out. I really appreciate that they follow the rules — like posting emergency contact info and the dates they did fire drills. And also they have great systems in place, like everyone has their own clear bin of extra clothes, their own cup with their name on it, a bin for each kiddo’s nap time lovey. Every family has a family photo on the wall.
–It’s cozy and intimate. The converted-​house thing is a great transition from being at home to being in kindergarten. The teacher-​kid ratio is incredible! The school itself is lovely to look at — sweet tiny furniture, cozy rugs, gorgeous dining table and benches. It has that whole «beautiful learning environment» that Montessori endorses, minus the sterility.
–To me, it’s the right balance of play and school readiness. Yes, they’re learning great skills around reading, writing, numbers, but it seems to me that there’s a real emphasis on being a kid and playing. They also nurture the child’s social-​emotional development, which I think is huge.
In short, our son was never excited to go to school before we switched him to Alphabet Soup. Now he’s super happy to go to school, and we feel so glad to have found such a lovely school.

My twin daughters entered Alphabet Soup Preschool when they were 2 ½ years old. They will be entering Kindergarten this fall having completed three years at Alphabet Soup. I am impressed on a daily basis with the new knowledge the girls seem to bring home every day. After 2 years at Alphabet Soup, I had considered moving to a new school for their third year as I feared my kids would start getting bored at Alphabet Soup. Before I could even consider other options (and before I even broached the subject of leaving with the head of the school), the school added a «Pre-​K» class which consisted of a group of 5 kids with the aim of prepping them for Kindergarten. The girls love it! In the time that I have been there, the school has at least doubled in terms of students and space, which speaks to the popularity of the school.
We’ve been comfortable with all the teachers and I can’t recall an instance where we have had any concerns for our kids care or guidance. We had an issue six months in where one of my kids was having «potty issues», and we actually were asked to move from the Alphabet Soup Preschool to their sister school that worked with younger kids. I knew the rules — the kids have to be potty-​trained to be in Preschool and I was hoping my kids would catch on sooner than they did. While switching schools temporarily was a somewhat difficult transition logistically for us, Alphabet Soup worked with us to make the transition as easy as possible. In the end, both kids were at the school for younger kids for three months, and then returned to Alphabet Soup Preschool once the potty issues subsided.
The school has events every couple months («Holiday Party», «Spring Luau», «Summer Picnic») where parents, teachers and kids get together and have fun. This isn’t something the school has to do, and isn’t something we have to pay extra for — I appreciate the school’s efforts to bring us all together in a non-​school setting so we can get the chance to interact with one another and meet other parents.
My only challenge with the school is what to do with all the artwork my kids bring home every day — the kids are prolific artists! If I could do anything different, I would have taken pictures of all the artwork starting on DAY ONE so that I could create a record of my kid’s time at Alphabet Soup.
If you send your kids to Alphabet Soup, prepare to:
* Be amazed at the new things the kids learn every day
* Create space at home for all the artwork you will be asked to take home
* Hear tons of silly songs that your kids learned at school
* Get invited to other kids birthday parties seemingly every other week
* Prepare to get corrected a lot by your kids «Pluto’s a DWARF planet daddy!» «Brachiosaurus’ are vegetarians…»
Bottom line: I feel Alphabet Soup Preschool has prepared my kids well for Kindergarten, and the teachers and kids had a good time doing so. Thank you Alphabet Soup.

I wish there had been reviews online of this school when I put my daughter in last Fall at 3, because before and after I had pulled her out in the Spring, I met different people who wound up alluding to the school being a ‘bad fit’ or having had problems with the school. On a daily basis it was okay, but we wound up having some serious problems with Alphabet Soup, both with the staff and especially with the director, who was condescending, unprofessional, and totally out of touch with some of what her staff was doing. The staff was good but not getting the professional guidance they needed from the director. There were a few minor incidents, like the fact that one of the teachers was personally editing my child’s perfectly healthy lunches but not talking to me about it, instead to my child, and not based on anything in the school’s handbook or policy. Then there was one major incident that occured that caused me to pull my daughter out. It was traumatic for her, and absolutely horrifying to me, both on a personal level as a mom and also from a professional standpoint. If you put your child in this school, and you have any issues with what happens there or with the staff, get ready to be stonewalled and condescended to by the director.
One day in February, when I arrived to pick my daughter up, I could hear her crying and screaming (very unusual for her) from out on the street. I ran inside and asked one teacher what was going on, who told me that my daughter had ‘just melted down’. I ran outside, where another teacher was supervising three other girls on the deck, and my daughter was down in the cold, in the mud in an adirondack chair, alone, crying so hard her breathing was spastic, snot and saliva was running down onto her sweater, there was mud all over her boots and the bottom of her sweater, and she was soaked in her own urine.
I know my own child. She doesn’t struggle to breathe and drool and choke on her own snot after only a few minutes. Then she was inconsolable for 45 minutes once we left. She never throws that kind of fit. I can only assume that whatever happened at school exacerbated what would have been a more typical display of frustration for her. She had had a nap prior to school, she had eaten, etc. Finally at home when she calmed down, she said that the outside teacher had upset her. I asked her why, and all she would tell me is that she had wanted to ‘rest on the deck’ but ‘miss Amanda put her in a time out’. I didn’t care what that meant, or what originally upset. What I objected to was how her fit was handled, and to the fact that I was not contacted.
Two days later I convinced her to go back, and at drop-​off I got two different answers from the teachers when I asked them each how long she had been crying. One said maybe 20 minutes, didn’t tell me what had happened or why she had been put down in the mud in a chair. The other told me that it had been a two part fit and with about ten minutes for the first part and the last had lasted «about five minutes». This is probably not the true, she had obviously been crying for a while, at least on the second leg of the fit. I asked why they had put Maxine down in the mud in a chair, by herself, when she was that upset, and she told me that it was because they wanted her away from the other kids, that it was upsetting the other kids. I said to that teacher that if they want my child away from the other kids they need to call me to come get her. Ostracising her to a chair outside in the middle of Winter, in the mud, by herself, when she is getting over a cold, while she obviously gets more and more upset, and not calling me, was obvious mishandling – no matter what it was that precipitated the fit. That was her last day at the school.
I tried to talk to the director about this and was totally stonewalled. I noticed a marked difference in the teachers’ demeanor toward me after my attempts to have a frank and constructive dialogue with the director about other issues and I think that it affected the way they treated my child as well as me. Here is the email I got from the director after I raised all of the above to her– NO attempt to speak to my concerns, explain, or apologize to me, topped with a nice catty tone just like every other time I had approached her with a concern:
K
I am so sorry that M feels that she does not want to return to school and that we did not have a chance to discuss your concerns further. She will be greatly missed.
As per our Parent Handbook that you signed when you enrolled there is a 30 day notice for complete withdraw but under the circumstances I will not hold you to that agreement.
We all wish you the best,
Jeannette