Welcome to Playmates

A wonderful play-based community that fosters positive growth and development of the children and a great deal of parent involvement with the support of caring teachers, staff members, and other members of the community.

Discovering Playmates was one of the best things to happen to my family in San Francisco. It’s a wonderful community of parents and teachers. The space is great too — you really should visit to see it for yourself. Because it’s a co-op school, parents are expected to do some volunteer hours each semester. Rather than a burden, this has actually been a lot of fun — it’s a chance to get to know other families and become more involved in your child’s schooling as well. It’s been a great experience overall.

I was a little scared of the Playmates philosophy in the beginning. No academics? Give them a choice? What am I getting into? When trying the academics at home, my child had no interest. So I just did it at his pace. Which was never. I was scared that he would struggle in kindergarten and be “that kid with terrible writing.” He was, and I was okay with it. I didn’t push him when we got home from school to perfect his writing. I again did it with him at his pace. He is now doing marvelously! He loves to draw, add, write and try to spell words by sounding them out. We can no longer spell out words in front of him. We have noticed a huge difference. We went from being nervous about him struggling with school to hearing him spelling words and adding up numbers all day long. He also has a sensitive nature and kindness to others on the yard, which I think came from Playmates. I want to thank the staff at Playmates for your great work you dedicated to my child. The Playmates philosophy works, and I stand by it. Thank you, Playmates.