We've had such a wonderful experience with Lexie (Alexandra) from the time she was our lactation…read moreconsultant during our stay at CPMC Sutter through sessions at Newborn Connections post-delivery. She has been so kind, patient, and open to our million questions as first-time parents. In the hospital, her warm presence helped me feel calm despite not knowing what I was doing at all with breastfeeding. Even after leaving the hospital, we knew we wanted to continue seeing her and drove all the way back just to see her. She's helped me with my baby's latch, pumping volume, and most importantly, our feeding plan, helping to adjust based on our needs and goals. She's always encouraging and never makes us feel rushed. If only she was available for in-home sessions! The space at Newborn Connections is also great in that the store sells everything you could need at a reasonable price, and there's a community room where you can feed and weigh your baby. My only gripe is that parking is expensive.

Terrible customer service giving my Wife who is 4 days postpartum a hard time when it comes to…read morerescheduling appointments. Thank you for that Michael S.

TLDR; YES if you're a first time mom considering Kinspace, you need to sign up. It might seem…read moredaunting (another thing I need to do NOW?) but trust me it's worth it. My baby and I started at 2 months postpartum, have done a full year of Kinspace, and just "graduated." We've learned so much! Susan is phenomenal. The community is amazing and supportive. You'll meet local moms with babies of the same age, and together tackle a bunch of parenting "firsts" in the first year. I can't imagine going through it all without Susan and our mom group.

Hands down, this was the #1 best thing I did for myself and my baby postpartum…read more Susan has created such a safe and welcoming place for moms to meet other moms and learn about all things motherhood. Motherhood can be incredibly lonely and isolating and meeting up with the other moms weekly was truly a blessing. We learned so many tips and tricks and Susan always answered all of our questions. I not only came out of the group with so much knowledge but now I have a whole group of mom friends and friends for my son! I am so incredibly happy I joined Susan's group and I encourage every new mom I know to do it too.

I had Rebecca come to observe me and my daughter (4 1/2) twice. I have to admit, I only signed up…read morebecause I was required to as part of my custody agreement, but I'm so glad I did. Her observations were spot on, and she was able to communicate her thoughts clearly and gently, along with very practical advice for how to do things in a better way. My daughter can be a handful, to say the least, and Rebecca's strategies are already yielding fruit. I definitely recommend her to anyone who wants to be a better parent.

Rebecca Walsh, the director of Early Childhood Matters, is a client of mine. I spent a lot of them…read morewith her and her then three year old (and her husband Justin) when they were buying a home. They bought a fixer so we weren't always in the safest places, so keeping him out of trouble and happy was a big deal. Joey was the best managed three year old I have ever seen - very engaged and a great listener. My son was then about 9, and I remember thinking how much I wished I had been able to interact with him the way she did instead of my own "style" which tended to be much more "because I said so," in the end. I have twins boys who are now six months. I am looking forward to taking some of Rebecca's classes about toddlers, so that with the twins I can up my game. The woman has some serious skills.

Update: Our daughter is now graduating from Modern PlaySpace. On her first day at her new school,…read morewhen we asked what she wanted to put for "what I love" on her first-day-of-school board, she said, "my old school," referring to MPS. I think that says everything about how much she loved her time there. We're so grateful to Sandy and the MPS team and will miss them so much!

Wow, I can't believe it's been over 6 years! I met Sandy at…read moreher original location back when my nephew use to attend Modern PlaySpace. Fast forward to today, now my son attends Modern PlaySpace at the new location! Sandy has not changed, always so warm and friendly. All the new teachers I've met are just as amazing. Modern PlaySpace is always so clean and organized. When you walk in, it's so inviting with all the toys and colors. There's so many fun activities for the kids. My son is within autism spectrum and at Modern PlaySpace all the activities are so supportive of his needs. They do lots of sensory friendly activities and the kids practice living skills. Not to mention we have been accommodated with having my son's therapist arriving to give him his session there. All of my son's therapists love it at Modern PlaySpace too. We're honestly so grateful to be at Modern PlaySpace working with Sandy and all the teachers. Never in all my years have I ever felt pressured in any way. I truly feel comfortable having all the children in my family attending Modern PlaySpace. If you want a safe, clean, fun and small group setting for your children to attend, then I highly recommend Modern PlaySpace.

Aki has been a regular speaker at our Co-op preschool. I really enjoy listening to her talks and…read morelearning new parenting tools from her. She is an engaging speaker. Recently I had a question that I thought of after one her talks and I emailed her. She promptly replied, asking that I call her. We played phone tag a couple times and I finally got a hold of her. We spoke for a few minutes. She provided some concrete advice about how to go about handling my issue. I am happy to report that her advice was on spot. She even emailed back to follow up. Aki is awesome!!

Shout out to Aki! She is just wonderful. I first came across her on a Mama FB group we are all a…read morepart of, and she was hosting a webinar on figuring out the "preschool puzzle" that exists in SF. Right away I loved her energy. She is friendly and enthusiastic about parenting and all that comes with it, which is so necessary in the face of the challenges that come up. i was impressed with both her knowledge and her totally impartial attitude, giving us mamas all the room in the world to make the choices we wanted to make. Recently, I ran into a challenging situation in my family, and when I was contemplating who I could speak to about this, she came to mind. she was very responsive and we set up a phone consultation immediately. The second we got on the phone, I felt relieved. I explained the situation to her and she was SO compassionate and non judgemental, reassuring me while also addressing the challenges as something to be dealt with. She gave me some great information about how my son is developing at his age and how the challenges would impact him, and some concrete ideas of how to improve the situation. I left the call feeling so much better, lighter, with specific actions to take. I highly recommend Aki's phone consultations- they are easy to set up, you do them from the comfort of your home, and you get top notch support. Thanks Aki!

Absolutely amazing class! Had so much fun learning and taking this class. Left feeling less…read moreanxious, reassured and with a birth plan! Would 100% recommend for first time moms, such a great experience.

Felicia is absolutely the best. This class is very informative! I'd say the best part is Felicia is…read morealso my birth doula, which I'm extremely grateful to have her. She helped with me the best birth experience I can ask for. I'd strongly recommend every expecting mama to take this class AND hire Felicia as your birth doula if you are considering a doula!

My husband and I took Lisa's class this fall. It was great to have a community of parents to talk…read moreout parenting strategies and issues. Much more useful that just reading a book. She is a great resource and we continue to follow up with her. I feel confident now that I have more tools to address parenting struggles.

My husband and I took Lisa's Positive Discipline course together and we both found it to be…read moreinvaluable. I have a four year old son and I had read "Positive Discipline for Preschoolers." The theories resonated with me, but I was having a hard time putting the theory into practice. When I heard about Lisa's class, I was apprehensive about the time commitment (seven 2-hour sessions), but I decided to give it a try. I think that was one of the best decisions I've made as a parent yet. The 7 weeks flew by and by the end, I found myself craving even more. Through role playing and a series of really powerful demonstrations, Lisa taught us about parenting with kindness and firmness (as opposed to being authoritarian or permissive). We covered a wide range of options for non-punitive solutions to common parenting/behavior challenges. We also learned about teaching our kids self discipline, problem solving skills, responsibility, self-reliance and cooperation, among other things. Some of the concepts that most resonated with me: "Asking vs. Telling" ("Where do your shoes belong?" instead of "Put away your shoes."); "Connect before Correct"; and especially the idea that children do better when they feel better. I hate role playing, but it was unbelievably powerful to role play being my child and also to practice different parenting techniques. The classes have transformed the way that my husband and I interact with our son. We all enjoy each other so much more now and there's a lot less conflict. This doesn't mean that we're letting him get away with more. We're just involving him more in problem solving and making him feel like he's a contributing part of the family. Things certainly aren't perfect and we certainly still experience non-compliance and temper tantrums, but we feel more much prepared to deal with these challenges now and we're less likely to get angry. I'm really appreciating the progress we've made and I'm enjoying the journey of parenting much more now.

I've seen people say great things about this place but I did not have that great of an experience…read more Note also I never participated in their services or activities. I brought my daughter who is two to visit and check things out and being a two year old she was acting unruly and noisy (yes, immaturity is the definition of being a toddler). One of the ladies there gave me a very unpleasant expression and outright told me that my daughter needed better manners and discipline. In my head I'm thinking, who are you to define what a two year old needs? Should I be complaining about your urinary incontinence and constipation problems when you have them, you old hag? Go take your osteoporosis medications. I left immediately and I've never looked back. I expected much better in a city of acceptance such as SF. My review is just a population of 1, so I'm sure that many reviews here hold true and am happy others have found a good experience because as parents, all we want is a good environment for our children to be in.

I used to take my son to the wednesday morning drop-in play group with Jenni Clancy, and we both…read moreloved it! Jenni and the other parents/nannies were were all really friendly and welcoming. The play group has unstructured play time for the kids for about one hour, and then a short circle time with songs, puppets, and bubbles. We haven't been for about 6 months due to a conflict in our schedule, but my son still sings and loves the songs he learned from Jenni's circle time. The play room is small, but I never felt like it was too crowded, and they have plenty of toys and activities for the kids to play with. I would say that the ideal age range is from 6 months to about 2.5 years. This is a great place to bring a crawling child because of the size and layout of the play space. It is also a bit cheaper than many of the drop-in play groups when you get the 5 time punch card.

I am a HUGE fan of Hand in Hand. From one generation to the next, societies learn to be more gentle…read moreand loving as parents. Hand in Hand is the next huge wave of goodness to wash over the important work of parenting. I thought I was a pretty-darned-good mother before I took the Building Emotional Understanding class through Hand in Hand. I had no idea how much I could improve! I am so much more accepting and understanding toward the difficult feelings my girls experience now. I appreciate the full range of feelings that children and parents experience and understand how important it is to feel them all as fully as possible instead of stuffing the harder ones and welcoming only the happy ones. As a result, my girls really tell me what is going on in their lives -- the happy things and the hard things. And they both have amazing courage to put themselves out there in the world and try their best at whatever they do. They know they can count on me to listen to them if things don't go well instead of judging their efforts. More and more they are trusting in their own ability to figure things out. More and more they are feeling their own power to make positive change in their own lives.

The principles are not complicated and make sense, that a child can't hear your advice when their…read morebrain is in a storm of emotion. After they unload that, their innate goodness and desire to connect guides wise behavior. They just need your acceptance and faith in them during the storm. Your child may feel diminished by focusing on consequences, as if they deserve to be punished for normal fears and instincts. The classes help you practice, answer your questions and vent your worries. Also they help you notice any resistance and envy if you were not raised with this kindness. Sure some ideas are in other books, but you'll appreciate the assistance in applying them.

I took the 3-day birth preparation course with Amelia, and I couldn't be happier with the…read moreexperience! Her energy is truly unmatched. She explained every concept in simple, practical terms and made me feel so genuine cared for and we laughed a lot. While I expected the course to focus primarily on natural birth--and in many ways it did--it was completely free of judgment regarding medical interventions.

I reached out to Brilliant Births to find a birth doula. They offer a matching service and…read moreconnected me to 3 doulas who work independently (not employees of BB). We were really fortunate to find our birth doula (who we love!), but the other 2 candidates were not very impressive. The first doula missed our appointment with no follow-up communication. We were initially confused and thought she was the coordinator for BB, because she only communicated by text. The actual meeting was just by telephone so there was no face-to-face interaction, which felt strange. We could've easily FaceTimed or Zoomed. So communication and reliability were not great. The second doula abruptly canceled our half-hour appointment when we were 10 minutes late for a 30-minute appointment due to my husband wrapping up a Zoom meeting. During our appointment time, she was responding to my emails (in which I apologized for being late), but insisted she could no longer meet with us. I thought this was a really bad sign about what she would be like to work with - labor and delivery is rarely precisely timed and some flexibility is needed. In addition, her email said that she lives in Portola Valley, but we live Berkeley (also where Brilliant Births is located). This also struck me as strange, because it would take 1.5 hours for her to arrive to meet us at the hospital, which is not ideal.