After touring 5 preschools when it was time for my daughter to attend Pre-K, I selected SWEL. We…read morehad previously been at a very high quality preschool in another part of Seattle, but we were moving so I needed a new spot. I was immediately impressed with the natural lighting, reggio inspired philosophy and loved that my child would have access to learning a second language without full blown immersion. What we ended up loving even more was the in-house cook, the food is very healthy and taught my daughter to expand her tastes. The teachers were just as warm and attentive on the last day of school as the first. Very high quality facility. In fact, my daughter is now in second grade and my son is attending SWEL for preschool, camp and Pre-K this year and next!

I am not sure if this is really a tool that people use to search for schools but after seeing the…read morereviews of my children's school- Three Tree Montessori, I would like to share my opinion. I LOVE Three Tree Montessori! I have a 4 and a 5 year old boy who have been at this school since 18months. The 5 year old boy is in his last year of "primary" which technically is his kindergarten year. I always pictured us transitioning to the public school as we are in a good school district after primary, but not anymore. I have seen amazing things with the development of my children and I can't imagine sending them anywhere else. It is an AMI certified school and to my knowledge the only AMI school in WA with a toddler program. This means it is held to very high standards. It does not mean it is cold, old fashioned, behind the times etc per some of the reviews below. AMI schools have the most rigorous and difficult to maintain certification. You know what you are going to get at an AMI school in terms of the academics/materials. What truly makes Three Tree standout is the staff. They provide a very warm, caring and welcoming environment. I fully trust each of the individuals there with my children. My children love to go to this school. Referring to the negative review below, it is just one person's interpretation and I have not seen anything but respectful, comforting and loving interactions between the children and the staff. This is an incredibly dedicated group of individuals who have been there for a significant amount of time, many of whom also send their children. I have seen my boys being given the independence and respect they deserve starting in the toddler age in a way you don't see very often. From being freed from diapers, learning to manipulate their clothing and dress themselves, put on their own shoes, to flower arranging, water pouring, food prep and countless other things that toddlers want to do but we don't always have the patience for. It is frankly a toddler's dream room. Everything is their size, even the toilets...or potties if they like them better. They now are in primary (roughly age 3-6 combined) and one is about to move into lower elementary next year (1st-3rd grade combined ages). I never would have thought that having a 3 year old and 6 year old in the same room could work, but it actually works out in their benefit. The older child gets to learn to be a leader and the younger child learns so much by observing the older ones. I also have been amazed at the versatility of the materials in the room, how the children can start using it in a simple way and expand on it in endless ways as they develop. The classrooms are beautiful and peaceful. They lead their own education within safe boundaries and move through materials as they are ready. There are no limits for them if they are ready to move on. The guides (teachers) are so good at observing the children and knowing just how far to push them and when to back off and when they are ready for the next step. Their intuition is remarkable. I can't tell you how happy this makes me that they are not held to an average pace, but can follow their own inner drive. They are learning respect, grace, manners, how to talk to people...so much of what is missing in society today. They are being allowed to grow, not stifle their innate curiosity and inner drive to learn and think for themselves. They are learning self responsibility. My 5.5 year old is reading, doing multiplication, division, addition, subtraction of very large equations thanks to the materials that allow him to touch, see and feel it...to really understand and not just memorize. He is much ahead of his peers in other schools academically from what I have seen. He is doing self led research projects and writing reports on birds of prey..because this is what is interests him. My just turned 4 year old in another primary class is doing exactly what he wants to do...cooking, practical life, focusing on tasks for long periods of time and working on fine motor skills to get him ready for writing and reading in the near future all at his own pace. On a side note, my youngest was just diagnosed with hearing loss and had to get hearing aids at age 3 which was a shock and incredibly difficult. The school is going above and beyond to accommodate him and provide what he needs. I have been so impressed by this. I really can't say enough about this school and found like we really have a hidden gem in Burien that I am so grateful for. Thank you Three Tree!

TTM is a pedagogically-observant Montessori school, which will come as a relief to those parents…read morewho believe in the method and seek something more for their kids (and their expense) than a glorified day care. The classes are appropriately sized and more than adequately staffed with Montessori-trained guides & aides, and feature a full complement of beautiful wood, metal, and fabric Montessori-specific works arranged to allow curious minds instant access to meaningful, self-directed learning. The administrative staff is exceptional, led by a 20+ year veteran of both Pacific Crest Montessori & Northwest Montessori School. While transparently placing the student experience first (as they should), this administration takes great pains to accommodate the needs of parents by being respectful of the scant spare time available to most parents, and by reaching out to parents with lots of pertinent information & updates. The building itself is a high-security cruciform arrangement where toddler, primary, and elementary classes are housed in their own wings. It appears to be a former hospice or nursing home, the practical upshot of which is wide hallways and doors, bright sunny rooms, and lots of 'safety' hardware in common areas. The outside play areas are securely fenced (with locking, key-coded gates) and include play structures, gardening, and opportunities to get messy in real dirt in the time-honored tradition. The location is a quarter mile off WA-509 in Burien at 160th Street, just down the street from Highline Medical Center. We make the drive from Capitol Hill every day in 20 minutes. The location is also served by several bus lines from downtown Seattle (#131 & #121 pass 1/8 mi. to the east @ 160th & 1st; #123 1/8 mi. to the west @ 160th & 4th).

Bloom Preschool is top notch! I am the type of parent to keep my kid home rather than send her to…read morea preschool that I'm not sure is great. With Bloom, I feel GREAT about the program and teachers, and have full peace of mind when I take my daughter and drop her off. Stacy (the owner) is very experienced and level-headed. She's great with kids and is always calm and collected while simultaneously showing enthusiasm for the kids. Stacy has developed curriculum that is fun, multifaceted and holds my daughters attention. I like a balance between play and learning and I feel Bloom gets this right. Bonus: my daughter brings home adorable crafts matching the weekly theme. My daughter attended during the 2020-21 school year. The owner Stacy told me at the tour that she was going to try and find a transparent shield for her face so she could pull down her mask and smile at the kids. She couldn't imagine not being able to show the kids facial expression. **Okay, I don't know about you, but this is exactly the kind of teacher I want for my child. One that sincerely cares about the emotional and social development of her students. ** She would give the parents periodic updates regarding Covid safety rules but she didn't ever appeared frazzled by the changing protocol of Covid mandates. There was one Covid exposure risk during the year and Stacy did a A+ job of informing us and keeping us safe with an appropriate closure and re-opening. Honestly, Bloom was a major "silver lining" for an otherwise CHALLENGING year. I'm so grateful to Stacy, Nicole, and Amber for a fantastic first year of preschool. I am now counting the days till summer vacation is over and school starts back up!

Words are not enough for expressing how I feel about Bloom. It has been a wonderful 2 years for my…read moreson and I am truly sad that he graduated this year. The teachers are really patient and kind here and I never ever worried about him being here. They are really reasonably priced as well. I am so glad that I found Bloom and that my son's first school experience was so great. I highly recommend Bloom!

I'm not sure if I am too quick to jump on and review since I technically am not enrolled yet at…read moreBright Horizons but I thought I would share my experience. My husband and I are expecting our first child in late May and we had recently relocated to W Seattle. We were researching daycare and naturally, Bright Horizons surfaced as an option. I looked at Yelp naturally but there was only one review that was almost a year old. This made me nervous as I didn't feel that was a strong outing. So I contacted BH myself to setup an appointment to check out the daycare as well as to find out pricing (as they won't tell you over the phone) and it varies based on location. I discovered that this location is fairly new (a little over a year and a half old) and it's in a convenient location for us. There is ample parking out front for dropoff/pickup which is limited to 30 mins or so in the mornings/evenings to help keep folks moving. I find this to be extremely helpful when you think of trying to battle parking and weather while trying to juggle babies and diaper bags. The building itself is secure and you either have a code as a parent or you are buzzed in by reception. I learned the hard way that if you come before 8am though that no one is at reception and so you either hang outside or sneak in behind someone dropping off their kid (which is not what I would recommend). The daycare is broken into several 'rooms' based on the child's age and they have different schedules and activities based on that. The "Teachers" in each room get more kids as the kids get older to where the max is one 'teacher' to ten children. They do feed your child a few times a day and unless you state so, they will give them what they give everyone. There is a menu which you can see what is being served and if you have any reservations, etc. I do like that the smaller kids are held and have cribs to sleep in vs. having swings where they would not be able to be 'comforted'. They have playgrounds outside for the older kids and they do seem to encourage outdoor time each day even with bad weather so rain gear was evident in the kids bins. We decided to go with BH and be on their 'waiting' list for the summer/fall after the visit. The fees aren't cheap and you don't really get a 'break' once the children get older but I will say that I do believe you get what you pay for. I did like that there is no real 'dropoff' time or pickup for penalty. There is a open window so if you are running late you don't have to worry about being charged $1 a minute or whatever fees it is that some daycares charge. They also are only closed a few times a year that most places would be closed (Memorial, 4th July, Xmas, etc). I find this to be extremely helpful as I have a coworker who goes to a nearby daycare and they are closed the last two weeks of December. That's not very convenient nor would you be able to get off work that long in a row. So technically I haven't used their service fully yet but I wanted to share the experience and insight that we saw while touring the campus. I think it's a great daycare if you can afford it financially as it's not cheap but I think you'll be happier picking up your child from a clean and secure daycare where the children seem happy. And most of all, it was clean and the children always seemed to be learning and doing activities.

The management at this Bright Horizons is really incompetent…read more I used the Bright Horizons Backup Care program to make a reservation for my daughter at this location. The West Seattle location had availability and confirmed my reservation. On the day of the reservation, when I was getting ready for dropping off my daughter, I got a call from the West Seattle location and they told me that they have no space for my daughter even though they had given me a confirmation earlier. This is not an isolated incident. The same thing happened to me 2 days later. And I had to run around at the last minute to find a daycare option for my daughter. The people working at Bright Horizons West Seattle don't even have the basic decency to give you a heads up 1 or 2 days earlier to let you know that they don't have space for you! I would recommend everyone to stay away from this location due to terribly incompetent management here.

My boys went from preprimary through middle school at this school and I am so proud of the young…read moremen they are turning out to be. I strongly feel that they got more than just a strong educational foundation at WSMS, but a cultural awareness of kindness and caring, creativity and innovation. They are independent and proactive individuals who navigate the world easily. My mother often says that their emotional maturity is attributable to their time spent in this school. I will forever be grateful I made the decision to place them here.

I have 3 daughters enrolled at this school and we couldn't be happier! Warm and caring staff,…read moregreat organization and fun learning environments for all 3. We've never been more excited about school!

Our daughter was in the 4&5-Year-Old (aka Funderkins) class 2009-2010. She had a wonderful…read moreexperience and was very prepared to begin kindergarten this fall. I highly recommend this program.

The Funderkins Pre-K program at the Magnolia Community Center is outstanding! We put our second…read morechild here after being disappointed with another local preschool here in Magnolia. My child loved it! The teachers are really dedicated and they run a wonderful, enriching, entertaining, educational program. I had my reservations because it was part of the Community Center, I don't know why. I was proven 100 percent wrong. My son made friends, went on field trips, took swimming lessons, learned to write his name and other words and his numbers to 100, learned his phone and address, answered a math problem of the day and read a word of the day and so much more. We've compared this program with our child in Kindergarten and are so thankful we made the decision we did as he will be Kindergarten ready, without question. They really prepare them properly and in some cases, my younger son is more advanced than the one in K.

My 3.5 year old has been attending Cove school for over a year now, onto his second year in the…read moreprogram. He has totally thrived in the environment, with past and current teachers, and we've seen such a difference in his ability to express himself, talk through his feelings, and be curious. We even had to go to the ER a month or so back, and while he was scared we asked him to do his big breaths (learned at Cove), he did, and it helped him get through. We were amazed! The parent community at the school is great too. We've met lots of other engaged, wonderful parents that are just great to see at pick up/drop off or even do play dates with. We're so happy we enrolled our toddler here and have plans to enroll our youngest when he gets old enough.

Both of our boys have attended here over the last four years and have had a great experience. They…read morehave helped our kids to navigate their emotions through their focus on social emotional learning and mindfulness.

We have been taking our little one here for over two years now. We even took out our little one out…read moreof community preschool to enroll as a tuition student at Solid Roots. Miss Q offers monthly tuition or drop off options. Miss Q is patient, caring and knowledgeable in child development. Any concerns that we have about our child or goals we would like to achieve she works with us and is always communicating through text and in person during pick up. For example two years ago our son was in pull-ups and Miss Q was on the same page with us about potty training, and now our son is fully potty trained. Currently we are working on preparing him for kindergarten. This summer my husband and I felt that he may not be ready come fall 2020 but within months of setting goals with Miss Q we have seen significant growth in our child. She keeps the kids busy with learning activities and open play. She really knows how to balance the kids schedules. Our little one loves coming to school and is exited to learn. Everyday we pick him up he always comes home with at-least three artworks/activities. She keeps her school clean and organized and I never feel uneasy when dropping my child off. My husband and I are so thankful we found a school that can accommodate our work schedule and provide our child with social interactions with kids his age as well as incorporating preschool activities. We appreciate you Miss Q!

My toddler and I absolutely love this place! I wanted my 2 1/2 year old to have a positive…read moreexperience socializing with other kids while learning and this place has provided both! He goes twice a week for three hours and every time I drop him I see in his little face he can't wait to get in. Miss Q (Evelyn) runs the daycare. My son absolutely adores her. She is very nurturing and caring. He learns new things every time he goes there. She provides the kids with lots of activities to learn and keep them busy. I will recommend Solid Roots to parents that are looking for their child to be in a caring, learning and socializing environment at affordable rates.