At The Goddard School, with locations in Forest Hill and Bel Air, learning is a priority — but so is fun.
“Goddard is a high-quality preschool with degreed teachers,” explains Amber O’Brien, owner of the Forest Hill school. “We do our best to make learning fun and to give these children a good foundation.”
The local community embraces that balance between fun and education, she says. “The people in Harford County value education and at the same time, they know how to look at the whole child. We have a really good partnership with the parents.”
In O’Brien’s hands, that balance means play filled with traditional games, like “Duck, Duck, Goose” and “Ring Around the Rosy,” and plenty of emphasis on reading. “The theme of our school is ‘the joy of reading,’” she says. “We teach them phonics and surround them with great literature. I go into the classrooms and read out loud.”
These tactics work, too. “I love seeing when the children want to take home books,” says O’Brien. “They are so excited. They want to read!”