My son is a a VERY busy (and nuerodivergent) 6 year old boy who struggles at many camps. The Ninja…read moreRepublic staff has been AMAZING with him and most of all, the camp activities for getting him all the sensory input he needs! He comes home happy and exhausted! The owner is truly awesome and really cares about supporting kids and their families!

Owner is really nice and go with the flow which makes the experience even better. The staff took…read morecare of everything, from helping bring stuff in, setting up, wrangling the kiddos, cleaning up, taking things to my car! This place was perfect! Every party has the entire place to themselves, kids just running wild and trying their luck on the warp walls! Something for everyone, even the small 4 year olds enjoyed it! A buddy signed up their kids party in Aug on the spot!!

So as with most of our summer camps, I have to go by what my daughter tells me and try to glean…read morewhat's going on based on minutes of being onsite during pickups and dropoffs. Our 7-year-old was here for a week this past summer. This camp seems to have a SimCity/Lego crossover thing going on, which I can totally get behind. Every day my daughter would talk about adding new buildings and bringing home a score sheet summarizing the state of her town (population, approval rating, money in the treasury, complaints and accolades from the townspeople). I came in one morning to find some escaped criminals holding up little speech bubbles. Looking around at all the little towns, there were some seriously impressive structures. After the week I downloaded Cities: Skylines (the computer game) and am looking forward to playing it.

My 8 and 10 year old daughter both loved this camp! Every day I picked them up, they were so…read moreexcited to show me all the things they had built. They seemed to really enjoy the civics nature of the building and telling me about why they had built particular structures to help their town. I was quite impressed by this camp that it turned out to be a great learning experience. I highly recommend it! I was a bit concerned when I signed up that this would be a mostly boy camp -- my daughters had some girl friends there with them and I noticed a few other girls there who we did not know. It seems like @ 30-40% girls that week, in case you are wondering. Though it didn't really make a difference as they work in small teams anyway.

It's the Y. It's not a fancy schmancey, hoity-toity, lala gym. It's a neighborhood gym for normal…read morepeople. Average Joe's if you will. And I love it. We left Crunch after 17 years (well, technically it was Gold's before but you get the point) because I had a female stalker and Crunch wouldn't help me (even with restraining orders). I was wildly unimpressed with their non-assistance. We went to Equinox bc it was supposed to be nicer and it was only a 1 mile walk from our house - fantastic. While it looked nicer, it was not nicer. It's old, outdated and limited. It's stupid expensive. And the hours really, really suck. So after a year, we left Equinox and we were wavering on going back to the Bay Club or joining the Y. Our kids really wanted to work out and the Y was a great option for a family plan. So we joined for them. While testing it out and thinking we might bounce out to the Bay Club, we ended up loving it. They recently upgraded all the equipment to smart equipment and I'm diggin it! I haven't seen these machines since I was at an upscale gym in Houston a couple years ago! I love the price ($185 for all 6 of us, plus it as daycare vs $230/mo at equinox per person and no kids are welcome) I love the normalness of the Y too. I may make great income, but I don't want to be with the stiffs. I want to be where my roots are.

I am looking to complain to this YMCA about its unreasonably hard pool lane dividers in which one…read moreof my pinkies was injurred this morning but since I'm here I'm going to be fair, give a rating of 4 stars, and refute to several cranks here. I've gone to this and the Mission Valley YMCA for years. I find the complaints about the front desk to be frivolous. There are no towels except small ones for use with disinfectants and thus that complaint is frivolous. This is Yelp and it draws a lot of defective people to complain.

My 4 yrs old and his 2 cousins go there. Love the place! Definitely got the money worth. They also…read morehave nice camp sessions!

I recently had a terrible experience at this facility with my daughter. After reading similar…read morereviews, I realize this was not an isolated incident. My daughter has attended several classes here, and she has complained to me about the constant switching of coaches, which has made her feel uncomfortable. At her age, she wants to have some familiarity with her coach and build a relationship with them. Completely understandable. The coaches appear to be young, with some being attentive while others seem disengaged, even using their phones during her class. This is understandable to some degree with teenage coaches, but the lack of proper management is alarming. Initially, I wasn't sure who the manager was, and when I asked to speak to one, I was told she was unavailable, handling something in the office. I politely waited, but after about 20 minutes, she never came out, so I had to leave. I was given the manager's name, Charisse, but she appeared to be laughing and joking with others while I was waiting, making no effort to address my concerns and come out to speak with me. The worst and most unprofessional part was during my next (and last) visit, when I made a point to speak with the manager, Charisse. She demanded I speak with her outside, for reasons unknown (maybe to avoid being in front of other parents). She was incredibly rude and unprofessional, refusing to listen to the concerns my daughter had the courage to bring up. Instead, she mocked me and belittled my daughter's skillset, claiming that if she didn't like the coaching changes, she should look elsewhere because they didn't need our business. I was shocked by this situation. I strongly urge all parents to reconsider entrusting their children to this poorly managed establishment. As Charisse advised, please look elsewhere - this organization does not need YOUR business. (This happened a while ago but held off on posting a review in hopes of improvement.) I also know of a ton of families who have switched gyms for similar situations. Management needs to address the unprofessionalism of this manager and begin to have a more routine coaching schedule for the gymnasts to feel comfortable.

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 loved this camp! He learned how to make Minecraft mods. This was the first camp he happily…read moreattended.

Our 8-year-old daughter had a blast at Type, Coding & Minecraft Camp…read more Aside, we signed her up for her first Minecraft account this past weekend. Hopefully, she can do it again next summer if schedules permit.

My 14 year old son has been going to the Coder School for half of his life now: he has had weekly…read morecoaching sessions with Teacher John, who has been awesome and incredibly patient in teaching him all sorts of computer coding and languages - from Python, to Java, to C++, and nowadays they talk about AI and construct projects for him to do that feed his intellectual curiosity. John has been so helpful and creative, and he has maintained a balance between answering my son's myriad questions while also having him execute complicated projects. John has been a constant in my son's life for seven years, and the school is very organized, responsive and helpful whenever we need to make a change to the schedule. I HIGHLY recommend!

Great way to get kids into coding they started in the Palo Alto location and now go to San Mateo…read more My son and daughter both do weekly coding lesson and it has been a great experience. The staff are really top notch and take the time to make sure the kids understand what they are doing and also try to make it topical to games they might play Learning Scratch, python, java etc My kids love making their own games and are looking forward to summer camp where they might make mobile apps

My kids have loved their summer and winter camps here! The teachers are highly skilled and I love…read morethe variety of media and techniques taught in the classes. My kids have gotten to do watercolors, chalk pastels, india ink, printmaking, sculpture, and more. They are able to use high-quality supplies and the class sizes are good.

This review is for their summer camp. The kids eat lunch on the curb. No attempt is made to take…read morethem to a playground or a park or even an adjoining grassy area! They can perhaps talk to the church authorities close by for use of their grounds or take them to the end of scenic way (4 minute walk) and use the grassy area there! There was no ice-breaker so the kids shy to talk to each other and there was little or interaction among the kids! Classes start at 9 am. Break is from 10-11 an and lunch is from 12-1 pm and classes end at 3 pm! I will update this review if things change!

My husband and I took a chocolate tempering class. The class was very beneficial. Rosaura was…read moreknowledgeable and fun. She answered all our questions happily. And they had high qulaity baking tools that we bought after class. We will definitely be booking another class with them.

Wonderfully detailed class - their hands-on instruction is the best in the bay! I've taken most of…read moretheir offerings and all can easily be repeated at home.

We are incredibly happy with our experience at Huntington Learning Center. Our first grader was…read morestruggling with reading and I felt lost in terms of how best to support her. She just couldn't seem to focus and was falling behind. In the 4 months since we started, I have seen great improvement in reading skills, but most importantly, an increase in her confidence and reading is less of a battle with us. She is happy to be there, loves her tutor, and most importantly, enjoys reading. More recently we have had to switch to online tutoring given the Shelter-in-place order. I was very worried that our successes would come to a halt. It took some adjusting but the tutors and center have been creative in finding ways to keep her engaged and focused during our video sessions. We have our good days and our not so good days when my daughter is less engaged, but the best is when she tells her sister about how fun Huntington is.

I have never written a negative review before because it usually feels like a waste of time, but I…read morewanted to share our experience to warn other families about what to expect. We went to Huntington Learning Center to have our 7-year-old son assessed because he is behind in reading. The assessment itself was thorough: two 1.5-hour sessions, followed by a one-hour in-person meeting with the parents to go over the results. They gave us a detailed presentation showing where our son was behind, which we appreciated. We asked the woman several times whether she would send us the presentation afterward, and she assured us that she would. Because of that, we didn't take detailed notes during the meeting. According to their assessment, our son, who is at the beginning of 2nd grade, has a solid understanding of the kindergarten curriculum but significant gaps in the 1st-grade curriculum. Their recommendation was 130 hours of tutoring in one-hour sessions twice a week. However, we were told we would need to commit to and pay for the entire 130-hour program upfront. They offered the option of paying in two installments, but we would still have to commit to the full program. At twice a week, that essentially means signing up with them for well over a year before even knowing whether their tutoring is a good fit for our child. We also asked whether he would consistently work with the same tutor. They said they try to provide consistency, but it is not guaranteed, and we could not meet the tutor before committing. The 130-hour recommendation also included math tutoring, even though math was not what we came to them for. We found these terms unreasonable, but we were still open to discussing a different arrangement with them. What bothered us most happened afterward. We emailed asking for the assessment results/presentation we had been promised. Instead, we received what was essentially another sales pitch. We followed up multiple times asking for the results, and they still were not provided, despite the fact that we had specifically been told in person that we would receive them. I could perhaps understand withholding a detailed assessment as part of a free consultation, but we paid $195 for this assessment. We paid for them to evaluate our child and provide us with information about where he is struggling. To then repeatedly avoid sending us the results they had promised was extremely disappointing. The assessment itself seemed thorough, and the presentation was helpful. Unfortunately, the way everything else was handled left us with a very negative impression. If you are comfortable committing upfront to a large tutoring package without first trying the tutor or knowing whether your child will consistently work with the same person, this may not bother you. But if those terms are not aligned with what you are looking for, I would recommend understanding exactly what you will - and will not - receive from the assessment before paying for it.