Every day I am more and more amazed at how caring,professional and sincere the teachers at…read moreMainspring School are. My granddaughters are both under three years old and look forward to going to school every day. When I pick them up they tell me they had a great day and they say that every day.

Mainspring is really a special place…read more There is a strong sense of community that comes from all areas -- parents, teachers, staff and even the kids. The school and parents regularly organize after-school and weekend activities for both social and educational purposes. Many of those activities include outside experts and are designed to teach parenting best practices. My wife and I have attended many of these sessions. Those activities really underscore the staff's commitment to the families at the school. They are involved and invested in every family's well being, and every parent knows that they can go to the staff with questions and advice whenever needed. How many other pre-schools have a dedicated family services director? The kids are in great hands, too, of course. Our son has attended the school for the last two years, and every day he comes home with new words, knowledge, songs, dance moves and personality traits. And he loves being there -- the school is like his second home due to caring teachers who pride themselves on impactful, activity-based teaching. There is actually a curriculum, determined jointly by the teachers and a dedicated education director. The kids are clearly well prepared for kindergarten when they leave Mainspring. The school also has a full-time food director who prepares balanced, healthy, high-quality meals and snacks for the kids throughout the day. The team has even helped prepare alternatives for our son, who has a milk allergy. If you are looking for a pre-school, we can't recommend Mainspring highly enough. My wife and I -- and our son -- are thrilled to have found it.

We are so lucky that we discovered Mariposa when we were first looking at schools five years ago…read more We have had nothing but the greatest experience that you could ask for in a place to educate your children. Both of our daughters have been through the school, from the Nido Community (infants) to the Young Children's Community (2-3 year olds), and continuing through the Children's house (3-6 year olds). Our favorite teachers are basically like family at this point, from Miss Kristen, to Miss Virginia, and Miss Jennifer and Miss Meryze. They have been so instrumental in the upbringing of our girls and we couldn't have asked for a better school.

Not a cheap school which isn't the issue. The issue is paying so much for Montessori education and…read morethe school is not even credited for it. They lost their licensing two years in a row and are scrambling to try and get it back. All the teachers are burnt out and the head of school is very out of touch with reality and is playing a role she cannot live up to. This school is all about optics and money.

My experience at Parkside was challenging. The admin was changing over and there was little…read morecommunication, and more than a bit of aggressive interactions with admin. We had a new teacher who was enthusiastic when the students were perfect, and utterly overwhelmed and clueless when the students had challenges. My son has ADHD, and despite telling me they has experience with 2E kids, the teacher thought my son had severe emotional problems when my son would self sooth by going in a corner to be alone for a bit. They also did not communicate in any way the depth of the problems my son was having in school. I finally realized the extent of his issues when I began attending daily to see for myself. They were often rude and childish in response to issues or complaints. They had a history of keeping teachers even after multiple complaints of abusive behavior. Their insistence on parent interaction was amazing, and the singalongs were fabu. But it doesn't make up for the severely subpar teaching, the reusing of the same curriculum every year, the nasty admin, and the overall confusion of vision with a high price tag. Do not recommend this school beyond kindergarten at all!

Our daughter is three and a half, and she just finished her first year of preschool (Primary) at…read moreParkside. We couldn't be more pleased to have her attending this special school. From top to bottom, it's an excellent program with marvelous staff and leadership, and a wonderful community. Some of things we love most about Parkside: it's uniquely and authentically Montessori, which was important to us when we were looking at schools. The teachers (called guides) are loving, creative, and thorough in their teaching methods. We were blown away when barely a month in, our daughter came home singing about all the continents of the world! The 12-acre campus is beautiful and well maintained. The kids get lots of outdoor time and often take hikes together as a class. They learn to value and sing about nature, including our new favorite song, "Chlorophyll" written by the founders. Music is a big part of Parkside life, and at least 1-2 events a week are organized around it (parents are invited to participate as well). We've enjoyed all the opportunities for families to get involved at Parkside and we've made some great friends already. Even through the craziness of the pandemic, Parkside staff led the way with through health protocols and regular communication with Austin Public Health to keep the kids safe and allow school to continue. In short, we've found Parkside to be an amazing, friendly, beautiful place that is nurturing our daughter to her full potential. We highly recommend it!

I attend this school. It makes learning fun, and we don't spend the entire day taking boring 180…read morequestion test, like I had to do at the public school I used to goto. I enjoy going to school in the morning, and the teachers a very nice. We spend at least 2 hours outside each day. Overall it's the best school I've ever been to.

Toured the school and submitted application and fee. Received absolutely no communication in…read moreresponse even after following up myself.

What a terrible experience. We just pulled her out mid-year because it got so bad. The director is…read moreso awful to deal with. It's her way or the highway. You will get yelled at if you try and have any questions or concerns. Good luck!

By far, the BEST Montessori school around! Silvia and her teachers are an amazing, caring and…read moreenthusiastic group! My son looked forward to going to school everyday and learned so much! I truly believe they helped to set him up for success in his future schooling!

Waldorf is such a wonderful education. Unfortunately if the teacher is not great (or going through…read morepersonal crisis and has a large and demanding class) your child will suffer. Steiner's view was to nurture the soul of the child and unfortunately Austin Waldorf is seeming more budget focused and the teacher for our grade certainly really let us down and did not even have the care for us as a family to speak with us directly. I would avoid this particular Waldorf.

Beautiful campus with beautiful traditions. It is easy to get swept up in the idea of the school…read more Met the most wonderful, involved, and caring parents and a couple of wonderful teachers too. This school, however has absolutely failed my children academically. If you have a child that is neurodiverse, this school cannot meet their needs. If you have a child that is gifted, they will not be able to meet their full potential. The class sizes are at 30-33 in 1st and 2nd grade! My child's teacher assured us multiple times that my child would get the help they need. In the end my child's teacher, who had been his teacher for 1.5 years "strongly encouraged" us to find a new school midyear, with no warning. All of the previous reassurance, that they had resources for his learning needs, from her swept away. Now the same teacher is asking for parent volunteers to go in and teach children, not their own, to read. She cannot meet the needs of these children, yet you will not hear this, when the class size concern is brought up at parent meetings. You will be reassured over and over until your child has fallen so far behind, they need multiple interventions to catch up to where they should be or where they were before they started this school. My daughter was advanced for her age before this school. She requested to go back to homeschooling. She would sit in class, at AWS, with her hand raised and never get any help. She was quiet and not one of the louder children yelling out for help. She said she could not focus and would get pushed around by the boys on the playground. The school purposely holds children back from progressing "too fast." They have reasons for this. The issue is the class sizes hinder the children from moving as quickly as they need to, given the Waldorf methods, when they reach the appropriate age/grade level to do so; and they refuse to change. You will hear promises of expanding the grades to have fewer children in the classroom. This has been a promise for years. They have yet to follow through and deny any issues, even though there are many. The teachers do not fight for their students. The office staff is sweet, but when you get down to the people truly in charge, they only care about money.

We have absolutely loved the Woodland Schoolhouse. During the pandemic, our family planned to keep…read moreour 4 year old son at home. But once we learned about Ms. Nicole's outdoor school option and small class size, we had to take the opportunity. My son loved spending his days hiking, catching frogs, building forts, and learning about snakes, insects, and edible plants. He came home snuggly, tired, and happy after a full day of adventure and play. The best part of the Woodland Schoolhouse is the positive community Ms. Nicole creates everyday. She teaches children to be inclusive, speak kindly, and set respectful boundaries with one another. She is a wonderful communicator and was always willing to talk with me when we had concerns about our son. Ms. Nicole is a teacher who gives 100% of her best energy and takes the time to really know each child individually. We are so thankful our son was able to spend this year at the Woodland Schoolhouse and look forward to when our daughter can join next year.

We had had enrolled our son in a very popular south Austin preschool right before he turned 3. He…read morehated it. The teacher said he never talked, they rarely went outside and most of the day was spent sitting at a table doing table work. I searched high and low and just couldnt either find a place I liked or had openings. I called probably about 30 places and toured about 10. I came across an alt ed website and found Woodland Schoolhouse. It's run by a lovely woman named Nicole out of part of her home she has converted to be solely dedicated to school space. Words cannot express how thankful we are for Nicole and her teaching assistants. Under her care, I have watched my son find his voice. He loves school and loves Nicole. Some of the things I love about Woodland? Nicole's patience. At this age, so much of the learning is social interaction. She doesn't "deal with the kids", she gives the tools to deal with things on their own. What's the adage about give a man a fish, feed him for a meal...teach him to fish, he eats for life? I watch her patiently teach the kids to verbalize their thoughts and feelings and consequently how to respond to another's. I've watched her model and instruct these little people to have better communication skills than many grown adults I've known. We've frequently encountered another child upset or lashing out (in normal child like ways and not at school). My son has my son has learned to keep his cool and I often hear him telling his friends or family "it's ok, accidents happen." He has also learned to calmly and confidently tell others when he's not ok with things instead of getting upset or walked all over. I love that the kids spend so much time exploring outside. She encourages imagination and independence. My son is learning how capable he is of so many things both mentally and physically. I read somewhere that the core of a child's personality is set by the age of 5. With this in mind, I took it very seriously who I left my son with. I wanted someone who I felt could offset our weaknesses as parents to help develop a well rounded little person. Both my husband and I couldn't be happier and only wish we had found her sooner. We will be forever grateful for the time our son did spend at Woodland. While we are excited to see him enter kindergarten in the fall and having another son whom is 17, we know we will never have it as good as Woodland again.

Our family loves it here! Our infant had a terrible experience at another school (daycare) about 3…read moremiles away. ACM has taught us that infant rooms are not chaotic. Babies crying all day is not normal. ACM has natural lighting. They spend a lot of time outside with all ages. They hold and comfort our 9-month-old baby. He has no trouble sleeping at ACM. The guides seem to love the children. Our baby has really started talking and eating more. He is much happier now that he is at ACM! As our the parents! We have learned to trust our intuition and it is all good at Austin Children's Montessori!

ACM was fine for babies but not for toddler boys. The owner is the type to push families out…read moreinstead of relying on early childhood development expertise to help kids with a lot of energy be successful. The final straw for us was when she told me, a first-time mom who at the time didn't know any better, that my 3 year old had caused 2 teachers to leave ACM, including one who left the profession. Really? A 3 year old caused a teacher to leave the profession? What kind of ECD professional says something like that to a parent. And other parents had similar experiences at the time. My son went on to be beloved by the teachers of our next school who supported him to the point where he is recognized as a model student now in elementary school. Ms. T is a bully. Don't let her make you question what you know deep down to be right and wrong. I've noticed that many of the negative reviews have been removed. Not sure if it's an algorithm or what but if you are a new parent considering send you your kid here just know that.