There is no better place for children to start out their educational and social/ emotional journey…read morethan Jean Lyle. My family spends nearly an hour in the car every day to get to Jean Lyle and we would gladly spend twice as long to go to this incredible place. Our daughter has blossomed under the expert and loving care of teachers many of whom who have been teaching here for decades. The student teacher ratio is amazing and the community of parents and kids is the kind of inclusive and welcoming space we all need and deserve. I don't write google reviews but Jean Lyle is pure magic and every parent should be lucky enough to be able to send their child here and watch them take flight.

Jean Lyle is a stunning gem of a school targeting children ages 3-6yr old. There are three areas…read morethat set this school apart from the rest for me: (1) Play-based philosophy: fundamentally, this is a SCHOOL not a daycare, with extremely low (like 1:4) teacher:student ratios often with student teachers and parent helpers on top of that. Children get to PLAY while they learn. With 45 years in business, this school was originally Macalester's "lab" school pioneering a caring and play-based learning philosophy that has continued, at its core. Curriculum if often driven by children's interests (oh you want to learn about sharks?) (2) The people: you know that one friend you have that makes you feel warm and heard? ALL the teachers here are like that friend. They really, individually, understand and love your children. (3) The facilities: many of the competitors i had toured sit in a small room most of the day. Jean Lyle has a huge gym and one Sunshine room dedicated to Art. Take a tour!

If you love 7 a.m. meetings, rigid staff, and be assigned homework to talk to your three-year-old…read moreabout being a three-year old, this is your place. (e.g., "We really need you to discuss the importance of naps with your child.") Ed, the head of the place, has caused high staff turnover and is unreasonable. He also subjected our kid to pseudo-interrogations. This is the place where the Valley of the Dolls Stepford children go to not learn anything. No thanks. It's less work to watch your child at home than to deal with these folks.

Have a back up plan for this Montessori school. I was so shocked by our experience that I had to…read morewait a week to calm down and write this review. When I was pregnant a year and a half ago, we toured all the Montessori schools near our home and work. We decided to enroll our son in the fall of 2015, once he was over his stranger danger/sensitive period. We hired a wonderful nanny in the meantime. She and her husband planned the birth of their own firstborn around our son's 2015 fall enrollment. Mayflower was our top pick and their toddler teacher came highly recommended by an old friend, another Montessori teacher and Children's House owner in the community. We signed up when our son was a newborn, 14 months ago, and waited. We were excited for visiting day this past month, but shocked to learn we were not actually enrolled. I'm a first time mom, but based on my own research and tours of other toddler programs, this was highly irregular, so I reached out for confirmation. The response from their director Nanci was very canned and left me stunned, "Thanks for coming to Visiting Day. Our application process is continuing and we will be making final decisions for enrollment in the next few weeks. There are many factors we take into account to make our decisions and we balance the classrooms by age and gender. You will hear from us by Friday, March 27. Thanks, Nanci Olesen Director Mayflower Early Childhood Center" Rumor has it there were only 4-7 openings for fall 2015. The visiting day we attended last week was an absolute carnival with 40 families and toddlers! I feel the number of attendees was very misleading for so few openings. I hope that this was an isolated incident. We may have fallen through the cracks since we signed up on recommendation from a Montessori teacher before the toddler program even began at Mayflower. We are still really disappointed and terribly inconvenienced by our experience. We are now scrambling to find an acceptable daycare for our happy, healthy 15 month-old boy. Every place has a year wait. Any insights or advice are most welcome! Our amazing nanny will be on maternity leave and we are really stuck!

I could not recommend this school more. The teachers, leadership and support team truly care for…read moreand love our child. The curriculum is the perfect mix of fundamentals, life skills and free play and it truly brings a warm feeling in my heart to see how much our child enjoys their time here. Leadership is open to parental feedback and questions and they actually act on feedback to ensure that the whole experience is seamless. Not to mention, they use an app that sends pictures, video and update throughout the day which makes me feel connected to our child even though I am not there.

TLDR: The Gardner School is an amazing daycare and I could not recommend it more highly! The…read moreteachers and administrators are wonderful and there is no one I would trust more with caring for my child. Long review: My wife and I enrolled our child in the toddler program at the Gardner School ("TGS") after relocating to Minneapolis from Manhattan and having a lackluster experience with a lower cost corporate/chain daycare provider in Minneapolis. (In NYC, our child attended a large, national chain that provided OK care for an insanely high price.) The difference between TGS and the MSP chain daycare is night and day. At the old daycare, classrooms had a 7:1 student/teacher ratio, though they often would combine three different classrooms for morning activities. (While they technically were "in ratio," having 21 toddlers supervised by three adults was chaotic.) Children received almost no individualized attention and the facilities were messy and disorganized by the end of the day. Communication between the teachers/administrators and families was practically non-existent and we often had no idea who would be watching our child at any given time. Some of the teachers seemed to be overwhelmed or otherwise incapable of caring for the children. No efforts were made to formally introduce our child to classmates or my wife and I to the other parents. At the Gardner School, the ratios are much lower (5:1) and children receive an incredible amount of individual attention. The facilities are impressive and immaculate. Most important, the teachers are extremely professional and personally invested in the students. We get detailed updates on how our child is doing every day, including developmental milestones. The food is actually healthy (and not just carbs and sugar like the old daycare). The curriculum is important and not simply an afterthought. The teachers and administrators know all of the parents by name and are helpful, professional, organized, and friendly. We are greeted by name and with a smile when we come and go every day. Any changes or upcoming events are communicated clearly and in advance. Though the tuition is meaningfully higher than the other daycare, we have found that it is well worth the money. TGS has exceeded all of our expectations and we couldn't be happier with the care and service they provide.

I have a child one of the 2 infant rooms, and I am so incredibly impressed with the…read moreprofessionalism, friendliness, and generosity of the staff at St. Peter's. His two lead teachers are former elementary teachers and the environment is inviting AND ridiculously clean. Everyone I have come into contact with at St. Peters has been both competent and kind. I also really appreciate their high-tech security/check-in system. I would not hesitate to recommend St. Peters for anyone looking for child care.

My child recently started in one of the infant rooms. We signed up when I was in the first…read moretrimester and the wait was 11 months but it was well worth the wait!! If you are pregnant, get on the waiting list asap. When we toured St.Peter's we knew right away this was where we wanted our son. The facilities are beyond anything you will find for child care. It is clean. They have a HUGE gymnasium where the kids can have recess in the winter or when it's rainy. There are balls, toys, trykes for them to ride, etc. This is something we didn't find ANYWHERE else. And in Minnesota, a space for kids to run around indoors is so essential. They also have a muscle room for the kids who are just learning to move around. There are safe objects for them to climb on. Often times at pickup I will see kids riding around in the buggies down the halls just for a change of scenery while they wait for their parents. I think in the summer they walk back and forth outside on the sidewalk out front. The infant room has volunteer grandmothers that come and rock babies, our son gets a ton more attention than he did at the daycare we used while waiting for his spot at St.Peters. The grandmas enjoy holding him when he naps at times, even though it's not necessary, they just like to. I drop in sometimes and visit my son. Most of the times I've come he's being held or he's playing and happy. (they do not ususally know I'm coming) The atmosphere is inviting and the staff and volunteers display so much love for the kids it makes my heart happy to witness. In the short time he's been there they have done multiple art projects. The kids go to chapel on a regular basis as well. Tonight is a christmas concert that the children are putting on for the parents. They have parent aware nights where you can meet other parents and everyone does some type of volunteer activity together. The last one was making meals for people less fortunate. When we started we received a welcome bag with lots of fun stuff including a hand made knitted blanket. I mean I could go on and on all day. This place has exceeded our wildest expectations and knowing what childcare can be like elsewhere I sometimes have to pinch myself that this is real life. Since starting, my baby boy has not giggled and smiled so much in his entire life. I can tell he is truely happy here.

Love this daycare. The teachers are fantastic and there's a lot of green space for the kids to play…read moreoutside. Both my son and daughter loved it too.

*** Let me preface by saying I did not actually use Edgecumbe Montessori for my child care needs…read more This review is purely based on my experience calling and emailing them in consideration of using them for childcare. *** When I called the school to inquire about rates, etc. I have no idea who I spoke with - I could barely understand her, I even had to question whether I had dialed the right number. She could not answer any of my questions and simply told me to email them through the website. So I did. My emails were responded to casually, slowly, were not signed so, again, I have no idea who I was corresponding with. Sometimes I would go a week without receiving a response at all, and when I finally did my questions were not even addressed. To me, it showed a lack of organization and care. They were the most proximal and least expensive of the dozen daycare facilities I contacted, which are huge pros, but how can I possibly send my kid to a place that rubbed me wrong every step of the way? UPDATE: Th director of the school emailed me back (nearly 8 months later) apologizing and saying my message "went to the spam folder and got deleted". Since my emails were in direct reply to their own, I don't know how that could have happened except by someone tagging it as spam (perhaps by accident, but either way only reinforces the disorganized impression I have of this place)

Good information on site. Wonderful location…read more Great teaching practices for children. I so love nature base education.

I sought out The Forest School of Minnesota because my son loves being outside. He's now been part…read moreof the school for 9 months. He loves it. He always comes home happy and shares his experiences of the day. He has learned better manners than I would have taught him at home. We have had only positive experiences with the teachers at the school.Having an older child, I've had a few interactions with preschool faculty in Minneapolis. I've been more than pleased with the honesty that Michele has provided me in regards to my son's abilities and personality. It is a very good fit for our family. The environment is supportive of reaching one's full potential. There is also a reverence for imagination and childhood all while preparing kids for kindergarten.

I have had issues with the staff changing my kid more than once a day. It got better for about a…read moremonth after I complained, but there was no follow-up with me and then it happened again. They lied on the daily sheet about how often they changed him, and since I cloth diaper I know how many times he is changed. If they are lying on my sheet, I'm sure they are lying on other kids sheets as well. The staff is nice enough to talk to, but I have no trust in the quality of care my child is receiving.

With personalized care and learning experiences for all the children, you can feel confident your…read morechild is getting the guidance they need while they grow into young boys and girls. The music class they offer especially gets our son excited to come to school! We love everything they've done with him and can't wait for him to have more adventures here.

This is our 4th year at LCS and it is such an incredible school, staff, and community! While the…read moreacademics are at the core, they are in a place where learning is seen as fun and exciting and keeping a growth mindset is important. Plus, minimal tech, computers, and screens is worth a lot!

We have a child in Children's House (pre-K) and a child in Elementary (1st grade) at Lake Country…read more We love the individualized attention and support each of our children receive from their guides, the assistants and the rest of the staff. Both children are excited to go to school and are proud of the work that they do and what they are able to accomplish. We also love the sense of community the school fosters, including that younger students are paired with an older student mentor. One of the biggest differentiators is access to the land school in Wisconsin -- what a treat for city children to get to explore, work with animals and gardens, and have overnight opportunities with their peers. Every time my children bring up equity or social justice issues or demonstrate a deep understanding of a topic that seems beyond their years, I am reminded of why we choose Lake Country and am thankful for the opportunity.