Riverdales After School

I'm a parent of 2nd and 4th grade students at Chadbourne Elementary. With my 4th grade child, I've tried many after schools in Fremont, but none of them were as good as Riverdales in 'homework help'.

There is hardly any instance, which I can quote to state that the day's homework wasn't completed and checked. The teachers and management have been very responsive as well. When you have two kids, and the whole year you come back at about 6PM, there is no way that parents can sit down with kids to help them finish their homework. The least that an afterschool should do as a service to the parents, is ensure that the daily homework is completed and checked.

In fact, when I had come to Riverdales for registering my children, I had shared my problem with them and asked for a commitment on homework help and completion. They responded to me by offering two week trial. Again, no other afterschool has ever offered a trial period to me, they just enroll and lock you for the whole year. So, I did take the trial offer, and thereafter my kids have continued at Riverdales, now for about a year.

And I'm pretty happy with Riverdales. I'll recommend the afterschool highly to any parent.

I moved from one of the Chinese afterschool to Riverdales after school essentially because of their infrastructure and the quality of the program. One thing which I am not happy about is their last pick Up time which is only till 6.30.

In the earlier program, there were occasions when I picked up my child at 7/7.30 but in Riverdales, we have to reach by 6.30pm. Coming back daily from San Francisco and with my high pressure job, I wish they provide the flexibility to pick up late. Though the management is reasonable, I wish they do more about this policy of the pick up time.

In the chinese after school program, there would always be 10-15 kids waiting for their parents till 7.30-8.00pm. I am sure they will be able increase their business if open till late.

I registered my daughter for Riverdales Summer Camp in 2015 for 8 weeks. I had registered my daughter early on, sometime in March, and I had also gotten discounts, but sometime in July my travel plans changed and I needed one additional week of summer camp.

I was denied this one more week, and the reason given to me was non-availability of spots, and that they were full capacity, and couldn't take any more students. It caused me great inconvenience when not only did I have to look for another summer camp, which was far from my place; my daughter had to readjust to one more place, and I had to pay all the extra fees of registration once more. Shouldn't this be the responsibility of a summer camp to accommodate a student, more so when the child is there for as many as 8 weeks. There is a strong aspect of children developing their relationships and friends during the summer, and switching the same for one week, is just not fair to the child.

I do believe that they should have accommodated my daughter for one additional week. My daughter was in 2nd grade.

My 8 year old daughter first attended the Summer Camp at Riverdales in 2013, and loved every aspect of it – field sports, global awareness, field trips and music comprehension besides the academics. While she plays badminton regularly, it was good for her overall athleticism to play a variety of sports – soccer, basketball and baseball etc.

She had a blast with the sports. The positive impact of global awareness was very much evident when she would ask me if I knew that China was producing most goods in the world or if I knew that a robot reached Mars and was exploring it. Right from the beginning, the focus on communication and presentation skills were manifest in the kids and they were encouraged to interact with a room full of peers whether to introduce themselves or to explain how they would convince their parents to buy them an iphone etc.

The founders have great ideas on how to engage, entertain and educate kids; The professional business background, creativity and passion they bring to Riverdales is bound to make it a preferred destination for kids’ afterschool care in Fremont. I've experienced my daughter benefit from Riverdales’ enlightened approach to after-school care

I wanted my son who is in 3rd grade elementary school to go to Riverdales After School. My decision was based on the reference of my neighbor, and after my tour of the campus.

I do wish that they had pick-up from Patterson Elementary school. I waited for more than a month, for them to get back to me and make the pick-up arrangements, but they could not arrange for the pick-up.

If I could drop my child to their center in late afternoon, then why would I send him to an after school program. I wonder why would they will not have pick-up arrangements from almost all schools in the city.

Because of lack of a decent after school near my place, I had to hire a nanny, who now picks up my son, brings him home, but then I have to sit late in the evenings to help complete the homework. Being a single mom I need every minute of the day be put to good use; either I should be playing with my son, Or I should have time to relax and do my work.

Why don't people and businesses understand the need of single parents? They can have pick-up from Niles Elementary and NOT from Patterson???

I've been a parent at Riverdales for more than 6 months now. My son is in 1st grade and enjoys the after school.

Incidentally there outdoor area is an attraction for the children and my son likes to play basketball / soccer everyday, which is typical of times between 5:40-6:30, the pick-up times. On a particular day, I was a bit early, and my son was busy playing; being a father who is not interested that his son plays video games for too long, I decided to wait there and let him play for half hour more, and so I decided to wait. I noticed that his classroom teacher was around, in the play area, and I thought of inquiring about my son with her. After about 5 minutes of such conversation, I was told that the teacher was on the yard duty, and I should refrain from getting into a conversation with any teacher when they are on yard duty.

Well to me all kids looked safe, playing inside the school boundary, and busy with their play; how was it wrong if I wanted to inquire about my son, and so have a short conversation with his teacher... we parents always do not have time to schedule such meetings in advance.

In fact these unscheduled meetings can provide us parents more information about the child. I wouldn't like to withdraw my child because of this incident, since my son enjoys the school; but I do feel there is no harm in a parent having an impromptu small conversation with a teacher when kids are playing outside and are safe.

My son has been going to Riverdales Afterschool for almost a year now and, based on my experience so far, none of the comments mentioned above apply to my family. Varun and his wife have always been very nice to us as has the rest of the staff.

My son's teachers are very nice but they definitely don't look young enough to be high school students. As for fees, I have looked at quite a lot of afterschool programs in Fremont and Riverdales are average. Finally, regarding strict discipline with the students, we have never had any complaints despite the fact that my son is quite a naughty boy. We actually moved my son to Riverdales from the afterschool he previously attended because we were asked to find another place for him because they said they didn't have the resources to handle his energy.

So far, we have never had an issue at Riverdales.

I am glad we chose to disregard the very negative comment above and trusted our intuition and went ahead and signed him up to go to Riverdales. So far, Riverdales is the only afterschool we have found where kids get to play outside (other than the onsite afterschool in our public school that doesn't work for us for several reasons including their closing time).

Hello Families who are seeking after school care for your kids, I would definitely NOT recommend Riverdales! The owners are money minded individuals who only hire high school students and under pay them as well.

The man who manages it, partnered with his wife, is extremely rude to both his staff and onlookers. He is not friendly, and expects strict discipline from the students who attend there after school hours , and are already really exhausted.

They charge a lot more than they should, and I don't feel like my children get individual attention either. The man, Varun Mohan also tries to maximize his profits by employing high school students who are forced to find time in their schedule to fit the need of the after school program.I am positive that any other organization is better than this one.