There are a number of things I especially appreciate:

Firstly, Dain’s house is very light and welcoming, and there is an atmosphere of transparency.  Parents get to see what the kids are doing when they pick up the kids, and there seems to be a sense of family among the families who have kids there.

Secondly, Dain is very qualified and experienced with kids.  She is musically gifted and combines that talent with her training in Reggio Emilio (an Italian creative arts method), and other ideas she’s come across.  Some of her materials look rather Montessori-esque (wooden, kid-sized equipment and jobs that kids can work on that build independence) and she also uses some phonics technique (can’t remember what it’s called), plus early childhood music development (developed by the composers, Kodaly and Orff).  

She’s very gentle and playful in how she presents all this stuff to the kids so it comes across as just a lot of fun but is actually well thought through and helps them with their development in multiple areas at once.  Dain is also a mother, and is a font of help if we ask her advice on other things.

Her materials are absolutely outstanding.  For example, when the kids play music they use the Yamaha grand piano, a toddler-sized xylophone (stainless steel and tuned to a pentatonic scale), Montessori-style bells (very tuneful), and high quality drums and percussion.  No mindless banging on plastic, out-of-tune instruments!  Sometimes I’d arrive and they were playing with Dain on the piano and a bunch of 1-, 2- and 4-year olds on the other instruments and it sounded amazing.  Likewise, when she’s teaching phonics, she has some large wooden objects that form the shapes of different letters and the kids do songs and dances for each of letter.  

Finally, Dain creates a family atmosphere.  All the kids love her and she helps them to treat each other with love and respect.  I was passing through Pleasanton recently and took my daughter back to visit Dain and the other kids because she enjoyed her time there so much.  When it came time to leave, my daughter started crying and said she wanted to stay there and kept giving Dain hugs!  It was very moving.”  

 

-Steve L.