AHB Community School Reviews

My experience with AHB started 7 years ago when I first toured with my daughter. Unfortunately while AHB felt like a great fit, the shorter school week was not going to fit with our work schedules. We opted to join another school and were very happy for several years. However as my daughter got older and my son entered school, I realized the joy of learning for both of them was non-existent. In fact, they were coming home weekly telling me that they "hated" school. I went back on the hunt for something we could all love! It was then that I rediscovered AHB! My daughter was so in love after her shadow day we transitioned her mid year. She thrived at AHB last year and this year my son has also joined the AHB family. They have not once used the word "hate" to describe AHB. It is quite the opposite, they actually have said they wish they had school on Friday's to be with their teachers and friends. AHB has a a teaching style that is unlike most traditional schools, but I can attest that the kids are learning not just math, English, science and history but there is also an abundance of social emotional learning for all ages. My children are currently thriving and I could not be more happy with our new school!

A few years ago my 3rd grader was struggling in public school and absolutely hated school. We tried everything and realized it just wasn't working. We needed to make a change. I had heard about AHB through friends and decided to move him there. Now he is so happy and actually looks forward to going to school. He loves the smaller class size and the friendships he has created. AHB was a lifesaver for us. You can tell that the teachers are happy to be there, enjoy teaching, and love their students. The community of families is wonderful! I only wish we had moved to AHB sooner.

This approach to learning should be the standard. Coming from a play based learning pre-school, this is the natural progression to cultivate future growth in all aspects of a child. I feel lucky to have found AHB and will be happy to have my next two little ones join the school when they old enough.

This was a great school, for my kiddo, where I felt a part of his education, and he was excited to learn.

AHB is a kind and welcoming environment. We love the theme-based learning, where children are encouraged to wonder and explore and create.

AHB has been an amazing educational home for our children. The four day structure suits our family’s needs. It provides an immersive leaving experience that I think very few schools offer.

Our family is thrilled with AHB because both of our children adore it. AHB provides a creative and collaborative educational alternative that fosters curiosity, creative problem solving, and hands-on learning. Our kids are excited to attend school each day! The teachers are not only kind, but they also know how to actively engage our children in the learning process. The AHB community as a whole is exceptional, and we feel fortunate to be a part of it.

Our daughter loves the elementary school. It’s a gift to have such a small tight-knit community in a large metropolitan area. We couldn’t be happier with AHB!

My kids are currently attending their 5th year at AHB. We have been very happy overall with the school but what we love most is the community connections and feelings of warmth and support we get from other parents, teachers and administration. My kids adore learning through doing. They get tons of hands on experiences and very few worksheets. We also really love having Fridays off. We schedule play dates or excursions on Fridays or we can travel and have long weekends if we want.

AHB lands right in the education sweet spot. Our daughter has a classroom experience where teachers make developing a love of learning their number one priority. No curiosity is overlooked and there is time and space for wonder and making learning personally meaningful so that the kids truly internalize and own what they are learning. After Covid launched us into rapid fire homeschooling for kindergarten, we learned that we actually loved many aspects of that lifestyle. But we didn’t want to keep going it alone. With the condensed schedule (shorter hours, and 3 or 4 day a week option), AHB offered a hybrid schooling option for our now first grader (Alpha class) that gave our daughter a classroom structure and friend community while also leaving time for homeschool magic, real world experience learning outside the walls of a school, and time for extracurriculars without being exhausted from long school days 5 days a week. On our home education days, we find so many ways to extend the learning. While not 100% necessary to do so since the teachers are covering so much and so amazing, we really like doing it. For example, while studying a unit on the Human Body and the circulatory system, on a Thursday while most kids were in school my daughter went with me to donate blood. She got to meet a phlebotomist, learn about the blood donation process, think about the community service act of donating, and learn why we need to give to help people who need blood transfusions. The conversations that came out of this were amazing. On another recent “out of classroom” day, we ditched such intentional learning and sat at a coffee shop for two hours while she figured out how to sew a Red Crossbill bird stuffie by hand. She practiced this skill meticulously (which also helps build stamina for writing). She also met a child with special needs who was sitting nearby and had a wonderful interaction. It gave us a lot to talk about afterwards (why people’s brains affect how they move or talk, how people with disabilities are treated differently and why it was meaningful that we treated her as an equal). These are skills and conversations that would be harder to make time for if she was in class 5 days a week. We love AHB!!

I have seen such a shift in my child's disposition since beginning AHB that choosing this school may honestly be the best decision we've made as parents. She has become optimistic, confident and outgoing. I can only hope that growing up in this environment leads her to be happier as an adult! The warmth from teachers, students and parents, alike, really creates a community where kids and families feel like they belong. The curriculum is fabulous - it's engaging and hands-on, and great at encouraging critical thinking skills and creativity. She is ahead of her grade on most common core standards without the distaste for school that I hear other kids her age expressing. Couldn't be happier.

We couldn’t be more pleased. Our bright, creative kiddo is growing into a confident, responsible, self-directed learner. What more could a parent want?