It has been over 1.5 years since my last review, and we love the school as much as we did when our…read morechild started school 2+ years ago! Everyone on staff has been incredibly easy and pleasant to collaborate with, and responsive to my questions. The school expanded over the summer to add 2 more classrooms, so that Burkard now has 6 classrooms: K/1, 2/3, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7/8th. Having experienced a few private schools and a public school between my 2 kids, I am confident this is the best environment for my child, for both academic differentiation and SEL support. It's often lamented that parents have to choose the least bad educational option for their 2e kids, but I truly believe this is a great option. We were fortunate enough to be with his amazing 2/3 teachers for 2 years, and have a new set of teachers we love this year, too. Speaking with parents across grades, they also think highly of their teaching teams. My son continues to thrive academically (measured by his overall engagement, as well as MAP testing), and we are very happy with the math differentiation he receives. Each year, I have been pleased with the attention and care the staff takes to make sure he's challenged at the right level. They take great care to plan engaging lessons across ELA, science, social studies and SEL, and incorporate hands on projects regularly to extend their learning. My son regularly shares interesting facts he learned in class! Math is a subject he continues to be passionate about, so I reach out to the school annually for math acceleration. He is given math assessments at the start of each year to determine the appropriate placement, and is given the option of joining a higher level class, or doing independent study in his classroom. We opted this year to have him join the higher level math class on a modified schedule, and we are grateful for the ability to choose the right option for him. The daily SEL teaching is also very well done. Many schools don't have the ability to go in-depth with SEL, but our BT has devised fun games and exercises for the kids to put their SEL knowledge into practice. It was so sweet to hear that my son's 4th grade class taught new recess games to the K/1 class! The BT's keep a close watch throughout the day, so the students are able to learn and play in a physically and emotionally safe environment. When conflicts arise, the staff is there to help the students resolve the issue in an appropriate way. We get daily reports, and twice monthly newsletters sharing what he's learning, so I know he's receiving a high quality education. If your child is at a school that is not meeting their needs, I encourage you to tour the Burkard School. It is truly a gem of a school!

We found TBS about three years ago and it is quite surprising that there aren't more schools for…read morebright kids who have significant social & emotional challenges, including mood disorders. We unfortunately found very little real understanding and expertise along the way, moving from program to program, from school to school, in every case deeply involved with the IEP process. Then we decided to try TBS. The results have been nothing short of amazing. Our student's self-esteem and emotional intelligence started to grow from the start and has continued to grow ever since. No more calls asking us to come quickly, the benefits to our entire household have been pretty incredible, across parents, siblings, and friends alike. When your student talks to you about how the kids at school are 'just like me', when they express a sense of belonging and common purpose to thrive in the face of big emotions, you can only smile and reflect on the journey. ...and imagine what it's like for other parents to understand you, understand your child, and understand so much of the details of the journey. The TBS community, made up of students, teachers, and parents is one that sees your child as deserving, powerful, and good.

Their customer service is awful and they advertise 2 day shipping for a very high cost, but they do…read morenot mention that they can take up to 10 days to print the book so your 2 day shipping is actually up to 12 days. When I reached out they said the book wasn't printed yet. Then I asked for them to change my shipping to regular since it would not be delivered on time and then all of a sudden the book wasn't printed yet printed and no changed could be made. Worst customer service and refuse to help when you reach out and they advertise 2 day delivery with no comment of 5-10 day production of said book. Save your money I highly suggest that schools choose a different printer for the yearbooks.

Taxes are easier to do than navigate this software . I am so glad this is my first & last year…read morehaving to use this software. No one has time for this .

Assi is amazing. He's calm, the lessons are appropriately paced, and I felt his pricing was fair…read more He taught both of my boys the fundamentals and both passed their test with flying colors on the first exam. I have also recommended him to a few other folks and their kid's also had great experiences and passed their first time. That all said, I think there are some expectations to set. Assi communicates via texting. If your expectation is a fancy online school where you can book your hours via self-service, etc...this is not that. You text Assi, he replies, you figure out your lesson, he shows up and the work gets done. So...I think if your expectations are great lessons from an experienced instructor without the frills of websites and booking systems, then you found your driving company.

If you have an anxious kid, there is absolutely no other driving teacher to consider…read more Period. Thank you for your kindness and patience

This center offers three different services: Basic testing ($750 at time of writing), Individual…read moreService ($995), and Comprehensive ($1375). We selected Comprehensive because we were hoping for clear educational recommendations for our child and thought this would give us the clearest picture (which we made clear beforehand). We encountered two people through our experience with this center: Ann Smith (Gifted Councilor) and Christine Pearston (Psy.D.). Ann is very nice and our son enjoyed working with Christine, but we have some very serious issues with their service and do not recommend them. You would be much better off going with a cheaper basic service elsewhere. First, the additional personality assessment included in the Comprehensive plan is a joke. It is not based on any kind of interview with the child, but simply a parent questionnaire. We did not even discuss this reportduring the follow-up meeting. If you continue down to the next cost level, the Individual Service is only different from the Basic Testing in that they meet with you afterwards to discuss the results. From our discussion with them, most of the time was spent just discussing what the individual elements of the IQ test mean, and this was pretty self-explanatory from the report given. Any other information provided can be found online. The most troublesome and frustrating part of this experience is that we basically ended up with nothing at the end. Rewinding a bit, in our initial discussion with Ann, she was making suggestions on which test to give our son and threw out the name "WISC-V". We have no idea what this, and she offered no explanation or warning, so we Googled it and found a handful of example questions (about 5 questions total). We showed our son to see how he would react, and he seemed fine, so we went ahead and scheduled the test. During the test, our son told Christine that he saw questions like this before and asked me about it. I told her the above and send her the link I found. She said it was fine, but when we received the report, she included a section basically saying the test is invalid, specifically including the line "It was shared that he engaged in preparatory behaviors including practice questions from an online source." I explained to them multiple times that this line is very exaggerated and not true. They repeatedly told me they believe me, but would not change it. I also felt they were very misleading when speaking with them about the actual validity of the test, due to this line. Essentially, do not purchase anything but the Basic Assessment as this center. And if you are purchasing just a basic assessment, there are cheaper alternatives out there. These people seem very nice, but they do not adequately prepare you for the test and you may end up needing to go someplace else, anyway.

Lisa and Brad are top-rate professionals. We were very pleased with the quality of their…read moreassessment services. They also did a great job of following up and providing useful advice.

Future Valley is at it again even though we spoke about this and they promised never to do it…read moreagain. Another driver is blocking the same driveway, the van is completely blocking the driveway if the home of an elderly woman. The front bumper is also in a red zone. He was parked here when I arrived and still there 15 minutes later when I left. Do better Future Valley!

This is a review for the school day craft camp and summer music camp that my son went. He is a huge…read morefan of the camps. He learnt several Chinese songs (with some dance moves) and English songs from the music camp, played Ukulele and went to parks to have lunch. He also got himself a playdate from the camp (he is not even 4). The best part he claimed is they have a play area downstairs that they are allowed to be bare feet and no one push him to take a nap. Because of his normal school does not allow bare feet and nap is required, he always talks about the camp now and wants to go back to the camp soon. Thank you, Future Valley for my kiddo to have a great summer time.

This is the second year my son (10 years old) has been in the program. Before he started the after…read moreschool program, which runs 2-3 hours each day 3 days a week, we used to cut school/work on certain Fridays to go skiing and snowboarding. Now that he is in the program, he never wants to miss school and I have to wait till the weekend to ski and snowboard with him :-(

The program component being reviewed is the mandarin class that comes to the school providing an…read moreafterschool program. It is okay to good. The ability to learn a foreign language is needed more than 1x a week and this institute needs to push the public schools more to bring them in more days per week. The material provided is ok, but not always relevant to building a language foundation. The best part is the accompanying CD which sounds out the words. The teacher we experienced is nice, runs the entire lesson in mandarin and works well with the kids. Class size is very small -- a bonus.

I ordered a book I needed for US History at SLCC online from this company. Not only was the quality…read moreof the website poor, but the lag while trying to read it was worse. I have topnotch internet and bandwidth. It is not a problem on my end. I tried to resolve my issues with coursesmart, including a refund - which was within the deadline timeframe-but I was just "passed" from one person to another. All stating I will need to escalate your "ticket". It was the worst customer service! I will may twice as much money, at the college, for my book before I buy anything from this company again. *******edit 9/24/2010 The customer service manager contacted me after seeing this post and asked me to reply back with an email address to allow the opportunity to view the "tickets'. I receieved a refund the very next morning. I did not get a reply back from this person, but atleast a manager was aknowledging that I was not happy and appeared to want to resolve it. Thank you. I am still not sure I would want to deal with this company again but validation can go a long way.

First experience and it was BAD. So I was looking for an…read moreeBook online and I ran into CourseSmart which seemed to be good at first, but quite the contrary. I was looking online for my business book to see if there were any editions of the book with supplemental materials or online exercises and I thought I found it, but it was not, which I later found out. It was the eBook with the "MyBizLab". After purchasing the book it turns out that I could not access the book because this type of eBook is only used for classes that do the classes online. This information was not listed whatsoever in their description of the product page, which I made very clear to them over the phone. The reason why I believed it cost a bit more than the regular edition was because it had supplemental materials. Well, the only way I could access the eBook was by having a course code, which an instructor teaching the class would be able to provide. My teacher isn't teaching the class online, so you can see how this is a problem for me. I requested a refund and told them the aforementioned, but they refused to give me a refund. What bothered me the most was that I was never able to input the code to gain access to the eBook in the first place. I do not have a reasonable explanation for why they would not issue me a refund. Total waste of money! Note: PLEASE READ The iOS and Android versions of the CourseSmart app are not very good. And I'm not just saying this because of my frustration. I tested the app before knowing I didn't have acces to the book. I had not even logged into my account and the app was all ready jittery and force closing. This app is not updated frequently and is a hassle to use offline from what other online reviews mentioned. Tip: Order all ebooks through the Amazon Kindle store. The delivery is instant to your iPad or other tablet and most, if not all ebooks have a full free tiral version of the book. It's a nice quality app, fluid, stable and the books are all accessible offline. Because its Amazon, they are always keeping the app up to date. If you want to avoid a pain in the arse, save money, and bad customer service go to Amazon. Even if it's a little more expensive, which is hardly ever the case, you'll be happy with your ebook purchase or rent. Trust me.

Dr. Deepak Sachdev and his team are just phenomenal. I have known of this dental practice for years…read moreand just learned of the dental assisting academy from some of the recent graduates. I went to their open house and was able to learn more about the modern dental technologies they are using and how they train students to understand their roles so they move on to successful careers. It's a beautiful location and learning environment. So happy they are a resource in our area!

Bobbie Perez here, dental assistant for over 30+ years. It was a joy to have a Graduate Student…read morefrom MDS come and help on Saturdays. She was amazing, helpful, hard working. So appreciate her willing to learn how to make the office run smoothly. To know I have her has been a blessing. Thank You MDS. Bobbie Perez

Our daughter spent over two wonderful years at Challenge School, and we are beyond grateful for the…read moreexperience she had there. The teachers are truly exceptional--they are consistently loving, patient, and deeply dedicated to every child. Thanks to their nurturing guidance, our daughter blossomed in confidence and learned so much. Leaving her preschool is bittersweet, but we know the strong foundation she built here will stay with her for years to come. Thank you to the entire staff for creating such a warm, safe, and inspiring environment!

Our son spent two years in the Butterfly class at Challenge School's San Mateo campus, and…read morehonestly, sending him here is one of the best decisions we've made as parents. When he first started, he was a quiet little boy. He'd come home from his old, all-English school and barely say a word about his day, and making friends never came easily to him. That slowly changed here. From his very first days, Challenge felt safe to him, and bit by bit he came out of his shell -- chatting about his friends, laughing more, growing into the outgoing, happy kid we'd always hoped to see. Watching that happen has meant more to us than we can put into words. So much of it comes down to the teachers. He adores Teacher Francis and greets him with a hug every single morning, and there's a genuine tenderness in the way the teachers treat the kids -- right down to the little nicknames they have for each of them. What really stayed with us, though, is how the school shows up when things get hard. Last year our son got bigger and full of energy, and his afternoon nap started keeping him up later and later at night. Bedtime turned into a nightly battle -- some nights we were still at it past midnight, and the whole family was exhausted. When we brought it up, they didn't just nod and move on; they sat down and worked through it with us. They offered to move him to the after-school class, and -- knowing how much his friends mean to him -- suggested he could still spend his mornings with his original class so he wouldn't lose them. His sleep eventually sorted itself out and we never needed to make the switch, but the fact that they were so willing to bend for one family told us everything. His Mandarin has blossomed here, and so has his confidence in English. He mostly speaks Mandarin, but Teacher Hanan gently coaxed him up for Show & Tell each week, and he went from not wanting to say a word to standing in front of the class and telling his story in English. The teachers keep a close, caring eye on the whole child, too -- they check in with us often about how he's doing with his learning, his play, his communication -- and they're always adjusting to help him along. And it's simply a joyful place to be a kid. He's forever bringing home crafts and drawings, he helps look after the classroom plants, and he counts down to every holiday they celebrate -- Easter, Halloween, Lunar New Year, Valentine's Day. We're deeply grateful to Francis, Hanan, Nicole, and everyone at Challenge School. If you're looking for a warm, bilingual preschool where your child will be truly seen and truly cared for, we couldn't recommend it more.

My son enrolled this daycare since he was 8 months. And he is 2.5-years-old now. We left recently…read moredue to a family moving, which is a pity. It was a really amazing experience , and I realize it more when comparing with another daycare we experienced. 1. The teachers here (Ms Coco, Ms Chen, Ms Taotao, Ms Qiqi, Ms Cai) are all very nice and patient. They all love my son and every kid there. My son is willing to go to daycare everyday. 2. A lot of daily photo updates shared via the app, which kept us connected to his experiences and growth 3. Frequently-organized engaging activities (birthday party, farewell party) 4. The one-on-one chats with the teachers were great. Ms. Coco was always on point with updates about my son (非常用心）

We started at Magic Education when our child was 5 months old. I still remember standing at the…read moredoor thinking, "Please be okay." The teachers were warm, steady, and really attentive, and that made a huge difference for us. Fast forward and now he's graduating for Kindergarten, which is honestly emotional. We'll miss Magic a lot. Magic helped our child become a real little reader. He started bringing home "level books," and now he grabs books on his own and asks for the same favorites over and over, especially Pete the Cat Goes Camping and Little Bear. It's become one of his favorite things to do. In the preschool program he loved the routine and the fun stuff, especially Thursday dance class and the monthly field trips. Around age two we hit separation anxiety and the "terrible twos," and the staff handled it so patiently and professionally. They helped him settle, regulate, and feel safe. We also really value that Magic offers English, Chinese, and Spanish. It's been a big plus for our child and for private school applications. We're truly grateful and would absolutely recommend Magic Education.