Programs
“There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place where colors are brighter, the air softer, and the morning more fragrant than ever again.”
– Elizabeth Lawrence
Before and After School Care
Dragonfly Club (AM/PM Care)
Brooksfield provides before and after school care, carefully designed to provide a home-like setting with activities that are fun and social in nature. Activities include arts and crafts, cooking, field games, movement and more! For our elementary school-age students, time is set aside for homework with the help of our trained staff.
FCPS Elementary Students:
For students enrolled in Chesterbrook, Haycock, Lemon Road, and Kent Gardens Elementary Schools.
Monday through Friday
7:30am – 9:00 am
3:00pm – 5:45 pm
Brooksfield provides transportation to and from Brooksfield for certain FCPS schools each day.
AM includes bus service to Chesterbrook, Kent Gardens, Lemon Road and Haycock Elementary schools.
PM includes bus service from Kent Gardens, Lemon Road and Haycock Elementary schools.
Children from Chesterbrook Elementary will ride the FCPS bus to Brooksfield School each afternoon.
Space is limited! Please contact the admissions director for more information by calling 703-356-KIDS (5437), ext. 2, or by e-mailing sarah@brooksfieldschool.org.
“CARING, RESPONSIVE, & LOVING”
After having spent 4 years at a Bright Horizons, we were simply shocked and amazed at how caring, responsive, and loving a school could be. Our 3 year-old is thriving, and our 5 year-old attends the before and after care program and is bussed to/from public elementary school. The teachers are simply wonderful and make both our children feel special, especially our kindergartner who is excited to start and end his day at Brooksfield.
– S. S., Brooksfield parent
Learning After School
Having a low-pressure educational environment gives your elementary student a place to process and apply what they’ve learned without fear of failure. We know most students feel less stressed in an informal environment; it’s part of the Montessori Method we practice every day with our all-day students.
Getting homework out of the way before the child returns home gives our parents one less thing to worry about that night and lets the student keep their school life and home life completely separate.
In this way, the Dragonfly Club and its trusted tutors help children develop discipline and responsibility outside of the structured school environment. Learning how to handle tasks independent of a parent or teacher is an important part of a child’s development, and students who learn this early will have a leg up on their studies.
The greatest sign of success for a teacher… is to be able to say, ‘The children are now working as if I did not exist.’ – Maria Montessori
Carefree Transportation Solutions
For Fairfax County Students.
School schedules never line up the way we want them to. If you work 9 to 5, you’re likely way out of sync with your child’s schedule, which could range from 8 to 3.
With Brooksfield’s before and after care, your child’s schedule can more closely match your own. You won’t have to worry about leaving early to pick your child up from school or plan your morning around dropping them off at precisely the right time.
Brooksfield before and after care takes friction out of your life and lets you settle into a more standard routine. Don’t spend your time waiting in the pick-up or drop-off lanes. Get rid of the hassle of the intense traffic that builds up near schools at drop-off or pickup time. Let us handle it for you.
If education is always to be conceived along the same antiquated lines of a mere transmission of knowledge, there is little to be hoped from it in the bettering of man’s future. For what is the use of transmitting knowledge if the individual’s total development lags behind? – Maria Montessori
Independent Play Helps Students
It’s a sad fact that schools are cutting back on recess. States would rather that time be spent preparing for standardized testing. Are they making the right call? Absolutely not!
Study after study after study show the benefits of unstructured play on students’ academic success and their overall wellbeing. Play improves academics outcomes, “while also facilitating social development and contributing to overall physical activity and its associated health benefits,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Montessori play time puts students in an active, but nonstressed frame of mind. They choose their recreational activities and have the freedom to quit whenever they want. This keeps them engaged actively in their task. This is valuable time for students to discover new skills and practice them in a low-pressure environment.
Let the children be free; encourage them; let them run outside when it is raining; let them remove their shoes when they find a puddle of water; and when the grass of the meadows is wet with dew, let them run on it and trample it with their bare feet; let them rest peacefully when a tree invites them to sleep beneath its shade; let them shout and laugh when the sun wakes them in the morning. – Maria Montessori
