Tamia started at ChildTime Redmond at 4 months old. She's about to turn 4.5 years old -- she's…read moregenuinely grown up here. What stands out most is the love. The teachers don't just care for her, they truly know her and celebrate her growth. She came in shy and has blossomed into a confident, social kid who's more than ready for kindergarten. We're endlessly grateful for these teachers over the years, both for Tamia and our own peace of mind!

Personable and caring teachers, we live it here! My daughter and I are very happy with the way…read moreit's going here and look forward to the next year as she gets ready for kindergarten.

My son has had a wonderful experience at this center. The staff is friendly and professional, and…read morethey truly care about the children. I highly recommend this center to other families.

My two kids (toddler and preschooler) both go to this center. I trust the safety and healthy food…read morethey provide. The teachers are all nice, and are happy to work with parents. I recently worried about the teacher stability about my younger one's classroom, as my son did not do well with unfamiliar teachers. The management team has well communicated with me on my concern and resolved my concern with the lead teacher staying in the classroom as much as possible. I appreciate their opening to listening to parents' concern and try their best to meet all parents and kids' need. I would recommend this center if you are looking for a safe place with good teachers/management.

I don't know why it's taken so long (about four years) for me to review this place, but it deserves…read moreabout five-star "as good  as it gets" review.  My boy was there from about 18 months until almost three years old, and really appreciated the place, particularly after mixed experiences with a subsequent Montessori school. It is open to children from 15 months to 6 years old.  The facility is the basement of a large residential home. The owner-headmaster of the school (and a much school in Issaquah) lives upstairs. The entrance is around the back, shielded by the house from the street noise of Bel-Red Road. Access from the parking lot is by a nicely landscaped boardwalk.  The schoolyard is securely fenced, with lots of forested natural scenery outside the fence. The highlight is a stream called Country Creek, through the corner of the school's property. (It starts near Cascade View Park and flows into the Sammamish River.) The city has it marked as salmon spawning habitat, but I haven't seen its salmon run. Indoors, there's a toddler school room, and preschool room, and some office and other private space. Both classrooms were brightly lit and cheerful even in the gloom of winter. They were spotlessly clean -- and our boy was there before pandemic. It was well equipped, with learning materials organized Montessori-style.  The teachers were dedicated and caring, and because of the small classes they always had abundant time for the children. And because the owner is a Montessori teacher who lives upstairs, a familiar substitute was always available when teachers needed days off.  Communications were excellent: a simple form with a few little status updates, written notes about anything unusual during the day and scheduled events ahead, plus availability to talk about any concerns at pick-up time. (They weren't champions with e-mail, but better at it than a subsequent school.)  A highlight event (scheduled well in advance so parents could see their kids' delight) while our boy was there was a visit from a mobile petting zoo. A truck (maybe more than one) arrived one day with rabbits, goats, sheep, assorted other animals -- and a pony. Their staff set up cages and hand-wash stations, and let the kids interact with the animals. In the parking lot, kids took turns riding the pony. Now I want to look at my photos and videos and share them with our boy.  The tuition was very affordable. In part, that's probably because it shares overhead with the owner's house. But it's also due to the place's one inconvenience, that parents had to send lunches when dropping off the children.  A note about Montessori schools in general: the learning style is exploratory and largely self-directed. Budget permitting, I think it's ideal for most toddlers and preschoolers, except for some with special needs. But it's not such a clear choice for elementary school and up; if a child absorbs a strong sense of self-motivation to work at school, it's superior. If not, a conventional classroom with stronger guidance may be a better fit. But Prime Time enrolls kids during the early years when Montessori is best for most children.  In retrospect I wish we had kept him there until he was too old, but we had previously wait-listed him at another Montessori school (which provided excellent lunches). Our reasoning had been to transfer him while he was little, to get the disruption of changing schools over with earlier. But as it turned out, the pandemic was a vastly greater disruption to children (and adults) of all ages.  After all that praise -- and the observation that the inconvenience of sending lunches was balanced by the very reasonable price -- I feel comfortable giving Prime Time a five-star "as good as it gets" without any concerns about grade inflation.

Great school with small classrooms! Loving teachers. They provide a very clean and nurturing…read morelearning environment and really love the kids! The playground area is very beautiful and offers lots of things for the kids to do.

Our 2-year-old daughter has been attending Koala for a while now. She connected with the staff…read moreright away and it has been amazing in helping her social development during COVID (this was a big concern for us since she is an only child.) Also, since the program is entirely in Japanese, so she is learning to speak properly in a social setting. Speaking of COVID, they are very diligent at checking temperatures every day and require parents to act responsibly in limiting their bubbles. That, combined with the small group size, makes us feel very comfortable having our daughter there full time. The staff are excellent at communicating with the parents (they send parents home with notes each day covering what their child did and any notable events.) They also work with parents to coordinate on things like potty training schedules. The other kids are really nice, too. Some of them will come to the door to say hello/goodbye to our daughter and there doesn't appear to be any bullying. We like that it is a mix of age ranges so that she can learn from the older kids and learn to act "mature" with the younger ones. We will be sad when she is too old to come here anymore.

great school. My son loves ELL. The teachers here are very kind. At the start, my boy didn't like…read moreto drink milk, and the teacher helped him drink by himself. When he slept, the teacher would pat him. Full of love here. When he went to Tiger class, he began to learn Chinese words and English, he made great progress here. ELL also offers good food. Teachers here are easy to communicate. ELLs also hold some events such as Chinese traditional culture, summer graduation celebrations, and some nice coffee time. Teachers held one-on-one with parents every school year.

My son has been going to ELL for almost 5 months now and he's loved every moment. Since this is his…read morefirst time, we were worried about him adjusting but the teachers were all great and he got fully adjusted just within a week.

To recommend DWs post from 10 years ago - this is statement is still accurate in 2025…read more This school is fine for easy-going kids who would do well anywhere. They absolutely do not focus at all on the social or emotional development of the children. Any and all problems are considered the parent's problem to fix. They also hire teachers with no secondary education background, and have no business calling themselves a dual accredited school when they can't support a class structure - it's chaos in there

heaven. i attended this school from pre-k up until 3rd grade and it was the best school ever. i…read moremade so many friends and so many memories and every day was a good day. i now have PTSD because in 3rd grade i was criticized by some teachers for having special needs and was sent to a crappy public school against my will that was absolute hell and i also got PTSD from that school. so i have trauma from being practically abused by being transferred to a terrible school against my will but it was worth it

oth our kids have attended Cascadia since PreK. We had heard about this wonderful institution from…read moreour colleagues and were very intentional in our choice. Mrs Keeton's leadership and high bar for the teachers and students is amazing. Cascadia provides our kids with a safe environment (home away from home) where there is focus on academic rigor but also on whole child development. Mrs Keeton and all the teachers/staff genuinely care for the children and set a high bar for them both academically and socially. It is also very well recognized amongst other middle/high schools of the region (Overlake, EPS, Lakeside, Eastside Catholic etc) and Cascadia alum have made great impressions at these schools. If you are looking for a nurturing yet academically rigorous school, this is your place!

My both kids attended Cascadia and we thoroughly enjoyed our journey through Cascadia. Cascadia…read morenot just provides strong academic environment, but also overall development of the child - development in terms of social, emotional, public speaking, creative writing, confidence building, respect for others. The director of the school knows each child personally and involves actively in the child's development. Cascadia is a small, closed, connected community which differentiates Cascadia from many other schools in the area. Some might consider the smaller school size and lack of at-school activities to be drawbacks, but that did not bother us as our kids always had time to pursue their interests outside school as well. Our kids are not at Cascadia anymore, but they look forward to meeting teachers and other kids at every opportunity possible. Even after our kids graduated from the school, parents still try to keep in touch and help each other. We are pretty fortunate that our kids attended Cascadia and thankful to teachers and Mrs. Franklin.

I joined Overlake KinderCare a few months ago, and the change in my son has been incredible. He…read morecame from a center where he had behavior issues due to the lack of care from his previous teacher. He had major behavior concerns both at school and at home and was experiencing significant language regression because he wasn't receiving proper care. He would come home angry and frustrated. Since joining Overlake KinderCare, his behavior has completely transformed. He is now constantly talking, using clear words, and can have full conversations with me. He has become a completely different, happy child. The center director Luisa has personally addressed all of my questions immediately, and his teachers are warm and welcoming. Now, he comes home happy and looks forward to going to school every single day. I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you to the teacher Ms. Lilly and the center director Luisa for taking such wonderful care of my son. Knowing that he is being well taken care of, safe, and loved at this center has been a great relief for me.

I could not give Overlake KinderCare more than five stars, but if I could, I would!!! My child was…read morethere for about 3 years and she thrived in every way. The outstanding communication and care shown by both the directors and the staff has set the gold standard in my opinion. I always felt at ease leaving my kiddo with them because I knew without a doubt, she was in safe, capable hands. They offered more activities and fun events than any other center I've experienced and truly care about each child as an individual. Overlake KinderCare meets your child where their at and works with parents and staff to encourage your child's success and happiness while they are enrolled. Incredible values, and genuine, compassionate people. We will miss you guys!!!

Our six year old twins (two weeks shy of age 7) joined the cooking class by express approval of the…read moreregistration desk. We later learned this upset the cooking instructor as the class is for ages 7-10. Rather than resolve the matter by talking to the registrar or contacting parents, the instructor lectured the children in class on why they shouldn't be there and on several occasions throughout the day raised her voice making them cry. Another student in the class noted they were singled out and the instructor seemed angry at them. The instructor confronted us in front of the children when we arrived, shaming us for signing up kids under age 7. Despite noting we were specifically told it would be permitted at registration, she insisted the children could not attend the remainder of the week. Booted from class we transparently registered for, we were left to make other arrangements for our children during their week off school. The most troubling, however, was the demeaning and rude behavior of the instructor toward two first graders who were not at fault for being in class. She didn't treat us any better, though also not at fault. What a horrible example she set for all those children in the class. It is hard to understand why she is permitted to interact with children in this way. We would not recommend exposing your children to this environment.

This review is for the Discovery Bay daycare and preschool…read more I think some of the previous reviews may be for a different program. There is a difference between the extra curricular classes and the discovery bay preschool/day care program. There are a few negative reviews here and although I can agree that some of the extra curricular (after school or sports classes) are lame (we have experience with the soccer class for littles) this is NOT what you will experience in the actual preschool/day care offered here. (I'm referring to the paid daycare, not the free one included with gym memberships.) This has been our experience: Almost every single staff person we have interacted with has been genuine, kind, happy, and truly concerned about our children and the environment they offer. There will always be someone who doesn't meet the staff culture (as in any school or business), and they'll likely move on - but staff turnover has not been an issue since we have been there. We adore our daughters preschool teachers. And 99% of our son's daycare teachers are so sweet! I love picking him up and seeing how they are interacting, and I can feel their happiness with their job and the children. His previous teachers in the infant class were also outstanding. I always felt he was safe in their care. They too went above and beyond to nurture his development. The teachers in every classroom are skilled at both instruction and child development. It is very reassuring. (There are different options for the kids of the same age, and one class was not a good fit for our child's personality, but we switched and she has a perfect environment now.) One of our daughter's after-preschool class (daycare for ages 3-4) teacher paid more attention to her development than I've ever experienced. She was genuinely concerned and attentive to her. She was always looking for how to encourage and support her development without pushing her to hard to conform to a standard. Her love for our child (and the other children) is unparalleled. The front staff is always helpful, cheerful, accommodating as best they can. They always make sure to arrange contact with us if ever our children need anything like extra food, etc. and they will order it for us so we don't have to bring it by. They work with our schedule and genuinely greet our children by name as we come and go. The price for care is very reasonable for the area. And this location is convenient for us. I highly recommend the daycare and the preschool.