Morningside Immersion School

Morningside Playcare has been such a wonderful experience for both my son (age 4) and our family! Their staff is so experienced and truly cares about each and every child. They honor their school's philosophy but also respect your choices. They understand what it takes for children to thrive and provide amazing parent/children check-in points! The most thorough we've ever had! We wish we could stay with them forever!

My son goes to Kindergarten at the Forest School and I have nothing but wonderful things to say about this program, the teachers, and the director. My son used to beg me to stay home from school and now he says he loves school and wishes he could live there! I have never seen a school that understood children and their needs better than the Forest School. My son and his classmates in Kindergarten spend 70% of the week outside exploring, investigating, learning, and sharing. They learn how to appreciate and respect each other and the environment. His teacher Ms.Iannuci encourages the students to ask complex questions, to be attentive observers, and good neighbors to the community that they spend a lot of time exploring. Since the school has small class sizes Ms. Iannuci can spend time individualizing the work while cultivating strong teamwork between the students. Every week we get detailed reports on what my son has been working on with pictures of his different adventures. In just a few months my son has built worm homes, studied crickets, watched Red Tail Hawks in Central Park eat lunch, played in the mud, worked on his math, improved his writing, and made meaningful relationships with classmates. Dr. Gail Foster should be very proud of what she has created here. This school is absolutely magical, and I am excited to hear the Forest School is planning to serve all of the elementary school grades. I am so happy that my son has started his educational journey in a place that makes him love school. Forest School is a special place that makes kids feel special.

My son was in their Dual Language PreK last year. He loved it. He matured a lot. What a sweet and wonderful community of parents and teachers!

My son was in there doing language pre-K last year. He loved it. He matured a lot. What a sweet and wonderful community of parents and teachers!

We love MPC and its commitment to language acquisition, nature exploration, yoga & meditation, healthy food, and no screens. Our child has attended for the last two years and enjoys the daily routines and rhythms. We greatly appreciate and admire the school director who is very approachable, kind, understanding, reasonable, and reflective. When we have a concern, we feel heard and supported. We are very happy to recommend MPC and be part of its wider community!

As a parent who values quality education, cultural enrichment, and a sense of community, I am happy to share my overwhelmingly positive experience at MPC. The multilingual approach (Spanish and Mandarin) is what initially drew me to MPC and I have been pleased and amazed at how quickly my daughter has developed the ability to speak and a reasonable level of understanding in these languages. I love the fact that the students go to Central Park for play every day (except when it is raining), to foster a love, curiosity, and appreciation for nature. My daughter now loves to go searching for worms in the park and points out every insect in her line of sight daily. I love the sense of community and "wholesomeness" that the school fosters in activities like family nature walks, picnics, and parent gatherings. MPC has actively involved us in our daughter's learning journey, keeping us informed about her progress. But the real evidence that MPC is a wonderful place is in my daughter's excitement and joy about going to school every day. I wholeheartedly recommend MPC to any parent seeking a nurturing, diverse, and academically enriching environment for their child. The dedication of the teachers, the multilingual education, and the celebration of cultural diversity make this preschool a hidden gem in the heart of the UWS. I am grateful for the positive impact it has had on my daughter's development.

Thank you to all of the wonderful graduating families who helped us build such a wonderful community at Morningside PlayCare over the years! May you and your children continue to celebrate diversity, and thrive in all that you do.

MPC has been a wonderful place for our daughter for the past year and a half. Her teachers are warm, loving, and fun and she's looking forward to seeing them every morning. Some of the aspects we most appreciate from MPC are that kids learn through play, daily nature exploration, and arts. They are exposed to full-time Mandarin, Spanish, and English in a multicultural environment and they are also introduced to yoga, stretching, and breathing exercises every week. The Director makes sure the food provided is nutritious, varied, and high quality, which is also very important to our family. The school moved to a beautiful new location by Central Park and despite there having been certain setbacks with city regulations, we really appreciated the strong bond within the community of MPC parents and teachers that supported each other during that transition period. We are very happy at MPC and looking forward to continuing with them in 2024.

Our son has been enrolled at MPC for 6 months and we have been quite happy with the program. Despite the lack of a multi-lingual environment at home our son has picked up a good amount of both mandarin and Spanish speaking skills. The teachers, students and community surrounding the school has been amazing. Highly recommended.

Our two kids have attended this daycare, our daughter is still there. We love the culture and the curriculum (and that everyone takes off their shoes!). MPC offers what we valued the most: outdoor time on a lawn in Central Park every day, a dual language program (Chinese/Spanish), and a play-based approach to learning. They organize a lot of activities outside the daycare hours so the families have the opportunity to know each other and create community. Our kids love the teachers. We couldn`t be happier!

Our daughter has been at MPC since she was 9 months old - about 1.5 years now - and though there were some administrative bumps in the road as the program transitioned to its current, brand-new space, our overall experience has been wonderful. The program has an incredible vision for multilingual education supplemented by play-based learning, healthy meals, and daily exploration of nature in Central Park. The teachers are excellent and caring and make really special connections with the children. We feel so lucky to have found MPC, and plan to stay through their Pre-K program.

Our child has had a wonderful experience at MPC for the past 2 years. The bilingual immersion program seemed like the best gift we could give her since we don't speak a second language at home. And it's remarkable to watch her development over the last couple of years. She's clearly formed close connections with her teachers despite the new languages. The teachers have been very caring and supportive. They are able to recognize and meet her individual needs, from the transition to daycare when she started as the youngest in her group, to keeping her challenged now as the oldest in her group. We love that they spend much time outdoors in Central Park, focused on nature-based play. And it's great that they serve really wholesome, quality food, so I have one less thing to prepare for the day, and so my child is more likely to eat the healthy food that all her classmates are eating. We really valued the director's vision as she was growing the original 2 room daycare into the program it is now. Even as the program grew, we still felt connected to the community thanks to her efforts. And we are thrilled our daughter gets to stay another year through the UPK program!

Our two daughters are at MPC and they receive a truly holistic day of care and learning. They both come home loving yoga -- a daily practice at MPC -- singing songs in Mandarin and Chinese, and talking about their favorite teachers. You can trust that your kids will be well cared for and well fed (organic lunch) and in a multi-cultural environment. The founder and staff go the extra mile with family days and bring a lot of thought (nature leaders, interactive sessions) to the extra curricular programming. We like that they are "all-weather" and the kids go outside into central park (and not a playground) to have 'in-nature' experience. It is a small business facing the challenges of many small businesses -- city policy changes, communication challenges but nothing out of the ordinary. The website and how they represent themselves are accurate. We are really pleased with the language acquisition of our girls. The MPC team also went the above and beyond with us for kindergarten apps this year. We highly recommend MPC!!

Morningside Playcare has been an unbelievably wonderful place for our son to grow and learn. The teachers and the staff are warm, loving, and nurturing. My son spends each day exploring Central Park, doing yoga and practicing mindfulness, speaking in Spanish and Mandarin, painting, reading, singing, and playing with his friends. He talks about his feelings and how to be a good friend, as a result of the guidance and prompting he gets at MPC. Our only wish is that our son could keep going to MPC for kindergarten and beyond. But there are good dual-language options for elementary schools in the city, and MPC helps parents navigate that transition. We can`t recommend Morningside highly Playcare enough!