My eight year son has been studying with Oclef the past few months and truly enjoys it. The method…read moreis so innovative and modern compared to our old traditional methods. He happily plays every day versus before he hated it. I am so happy that Oclef is in our life.

Before my older son joined Oclef 10 months ago, he had already spent four years on learning piano…read moreand was about to quit. :( All piano teachers he had before used a similar approach. They mainly focused on correcting notes, rhythms and dynamics during private lessons, and assigning pieces for my son to practice at home. Over time, my son lost his interest in piano and started refusing to practice. Thankfully, one of my friends introduced Oclef and Mr. Julian to us. In our very first interview, Mr. Julian immediately pointed out that my boy's piano learning was at a bottleneck as his sight reading and piano theory were way behind his playing level. Mr. Julian has a great vision on how a child should learn piano. Just after several lessons, we quickly noticed my son changed his attitude toward piano and had regained his interest! Oclef is totally different from any other piano teachers or school we know. They offer Kaizen classes so my son can practice piano under the teachers' guide everyday. All the teachers there are professional and wonderful. They also offer theory classes and organize performance seminars. Now my son can perform every piece he learns. More valuable, their performance seminars provide kids the opportunity of not only performing but also sharing critiques together. I will for sure send my younger boy to Oclef to learn piano once he is ready. This is my first time giving a review on yelp. Oclef is definitely a five star piano school. I hope our experience could help you and your kids.

Just in case Natalie will explain my review from below in a long and overwhelming format. But you…read morecan always give me a red heart after you enrolled you kid and really learned about what I said in a hard way. And, you are welcome. We enrolled our child here for a few months and experienced so many problems that we decided to withdraw. Honestly, it's hard to put everything into words. If I had to sum it up in one word, it would be chaotic. The management is extremely disorganized, and it shows in every aspect of the school. They promise everything during the tour, but nothing is actually realized. For example, my son's potty training regressed while he was here, yet on his very first day at his new school, he was completely successful again--clearly showing where the issue was. Staffing is a major problem. The school feels understaffed, and instead of hiring enough people, they move teachers around constantly. Teachers are pulled from classrooms to cover the front desk, which leaves children without consistent caregivers and disrupts their sense of safety and stability. Sometimes multiple teachers sit at the front while classrooms and playgrounds remain short-staffed. When teachers are missing, children may be moved into other classrooms without parental consent or proper camera access. The facilities and environment are also concerning. The classrooms and floors are often dirty, even in the morning when children are first dropped off. The food quality is very poor, meals look like leftovers, often just cereal porridge with tiny bits of vegetables or meat, and not the organic quality that was promised. Supervision is lacking both indoors and outdoors. There are no cameras outside, and playgrounds are regularly understaffed. Our child was seriously injured outside and no report was provided. During one unannounced visit, I even witnessed children crying hysterically with no teacher comforting them, while other teachers raised their voices harshly at kids in full view of parents. Another disturbing concern is the culture: the school head's own child is in the school and acts as a bully in the classroom without intervention. Other staff members' children also receive special treatment. If teachers dislike your child, they may even allow or encourage other children to mistreat them. To make matters worse, they openly supports physical punishment, something every other preschool we toured explicitly prohibited. Unfortunately, our child experienced this firsthand. He was two years old, but punished in a harsh and rude way. The teacher had segregated and neglected him during nap time. We are contacting the agencies for the abuse. Hopefully they'll get punished soon. Communication with management is evasive and never provides reassuring answers. Overall, this school fails to provide the safe, nurturing, and trustworthy environment that children need. I cannot recommend it.

Our kids have been to Birch Tree (BTA) over the past 4 years. We've had an amazing experience, and…read morerecently realized how exceptional it is compared to other daycares. We took for granted the high quality care and high standards set by the management and staff. We took a short break and moved our youngest to another daycare for a month just to be closer to our house (national chain daycare in Kenmore), and it was literally night and day. The other daycare was subpar in quality and extremely short staffed, even though the tuition was comparable. We decided to move them back to Birch Tree, and drive the extra miles. What we love about Birch Tree is the management, warm and caring teachers who give lots of hugs, home cooked food, facilities, quality education, classroom camera and Bright Wheel App. Despite the locations expansion, BTA still feels locally owned and the owner Natalie and head of schools Jessica are very much involved in all of their schools. You will still see them in-person floating around the different locations. They generally know all student's names, and the local staff are always friendly and greating parents. They hold their staff to high standards and also expect the same of parents. Kids are well behaved, they wear inside vs outside shoes. Food is better than my home cooked meals, classrooms are modern with high ceilings and large windows, and all teachers have open communication with parents via the instant messaging feature. The admin staff is also on top of communication, and they have an abundance of teachers and admin staff. They also offer weekly PE, music, and Spanish classes which are all included in the price. They also offer parents night-out occasionally, and host events and weekly summer field trips for pre-k. You can do 3, 4, or 5 days a week. Speaking with staff, they enjoy working there and say that there's opportunity for them to grow and take on different roles within the school or office. Other parents we've met have moved from other daycares to go to BTA and seem very happy with BTA. They have well prepared our oldest for kindergarten and we are so thankful. None of these things we observed with the national chain daycare.

When my 14 brother came home sounding like a proper musician, I knew that His teacher Eric Snyder…read morehad the ability to help adjust my novice player tendencies and make me a much more well rounded guitarist. After only a few lessons I understood that Eric was one of the most capable,accomplished, and accommodating guitar teachers in the area! His skills are up there and he has the patience to adapt between beginners level to very advanced-- Extremely accommodating with setting up scheduling for practice times as well. Amazing once in a lifetime teacher --

I'm really impressed by the people at the School of Rock. My son just had his fifth birthday and…read morehe's been banging on toy bins (emptied of their toys, of course) with Tinkertoy sticks or whatever else he can find for the past three years. With no sign of the "drumming" abating, I went to the SoR to see about real drum lessons for Felix. We had an honest and friendly conversation about how most five-year olds are not mature enough to learn much from drum instruction yet... they come in, bang on the drums, have a fantastic time, and maybe they will remember the names of the drums and cymbals. He said that with that info, if we want to enroll Felix, he's sure the drum instructor would be glad to have him and would do his best to help Felix have fun AND learn something... but don't have high expectations. He suggested an awesome alternative that they offer just for preschoolers... their eight-week Little Wing program (awesome name, btw). Skilled preschool teachers walk the kids through an intro to music, an intro to guitars, an intro to the bass, making their own guitar, intro to the drum kit, making their own drum kit, intro to the keyboard, making their own keyboard, intro to voice, recording their voices, sound detectives (headphones), and band rehearsal. They have small class sizes and at $160 for 8 one-hour sessions, it's a real bargain. I was so glad that they suggested this more age-appropriate program... he could have sold me a month of lessons for more $, and we would be less happy in the long run. Once Felix is old enough for proper drum lessons (age 7 - 8), if he's still interested, we'll be back at the School of Rock.

I have so many positive things to say. I looked for a long time and visited, interviewed and…read moreconsidered many options before selecting this academy. The curriculum is advanced and individualized to a degree you won't get in public school. The staff takes time to ensure all children are taught how to learn, learn, and (most importantly) to enjoy learning and staying curious. I won't say more about the academics, you can look up how great they are online. But I will say they don't break kids like other aggressive academic private schools, they make them love learning. The nutrition is top notch. They feed them "home cooked" healthy organic meals 4-6 times a day. Allergies accounted for. No cakes or sweets allowed and each child gets a classroom bday celebration. Arts are built into the curriculum: culinary arts, painting, music and dance with performances, gymnastics and you even get a speech therapist. Kids are with two teachers: English speaking and Russian speaking. This was a major deal for me in terms of importance. The school is high in security and cleanliness. I know my kids are safe and I get photo updates of their time here. The school doesn't teach religion, politics, or gender stuff. That stays with the parents. I love this. It's one of the main reasons I'm here. But they are still teaching kindness, diversity and are strict on anti bullying. The school has hundreds of options for after school programs and care inclusive of science, robotics, musical instruments etc. But most importantly... I love the people. Everyone knows my kids from the daycare to the administration to the cooks to the director of the school. It feels like a warm and safe home. My kids feel comfortable and safe. They are welcomed with kindness. And I feel like they really care. The director of the school called me on the phone to tell me about my son's Iowa test and how she was concerned that someone as smart as him wasn't trying harder to take it. That level of care is so impressive to me. Hands down one of the best decisions I've made for my kids coming here. It is expensive! But very comparable to other private schools in the area. Only thing I can say is I wish the big school events (like graduation and festivals) were a bit more seamlessly organized.

Sarogini is THE BEST HOME AWAY FROM HOME DAY CARE/SCHOOL! My granddaughter Elise spent 3 years…read moreattending that day cre! I'd like to express my sincere gratitude for the love they showed my child and for always being there for her and other kids throughout the years. You won't find better place with wonderful program for the young students, highly educated staff, and great administration! Thanks to Masha Sarogini, for all you do for our children! We wish you all the best!

Went for introductory lesson for my kid. We were very upbeat but soon it faded away, as we were…read moreplanning long term enrollment. The instructor was rude and impolite dealing with a kid. She was visibly irritated with how my kid was playing the instrument (who is a beginner) was she expecting the child to play the instrument fluently? The instructor did very little to boost confidence and made the child realize that the notes were not being played correctly and was wrong is so many ways. Thanks for that behaviour I was saved from taking a longer commitment.

If I could give a lower or negative rating, I would! The owner, Robert, is one of the worst. Their…read morepolicies are not consistent and the owner makes it as complicated as possible to reschedule or cancel. He removed lessons from our prepaid session giving a rather ridiculous reason to justify his unethical actions. I wish I had seen some of these reviews before enrolling! I don't understand why the instructors continue to work here, they seem to be good (ours was).

We had gone for a driving skills test for my wife. It also included a 1 hour warm up in our car…read morebefore the test. Sam did not even inform my wife before starting the test. He just evaluated her based on the warm up and failed her based on some mistakes that she had done during that time. In the end when the warm up was done, we came to know that the test was also already over. Both me and my wife were shocked since Sam never informed my wife before starting the test. Overall we had paid $320 for the 1 hour warm up and test. It was just an utter waste of such a large amount of money. During the warm up, he had also called me and asked me if I wanted to take any additional driving lessons for my wife with him. He said that there were some gaps in her driving and that it would take additional lessons to fix those. And for that I would have to again pay him $160 more for a 1 hour lesson. I had already paid him $320 before for the warm up and test. So we refused for any additional lessons. Such a sham!! I feel that if we had agreed to pay the extra money and take the extra lessons then he would have informed my wife before starting the test and also passed her. But because we didn't he had already made up his mind from beforehand that he would fail her and hence did not even inform her before starting the test and just failed her based on some random mistakes during the warm up. Also my wife told me that before the warm up, he had intentionally disconnected our car's dashcam. Now that we think about it, the reason why he had done that is so that his voice does not get recorded in it. So that later we cannot file a complaint against him with proof. He is a corrupt instructor and his driving school should be immediately shut down.

I booked my road test at here. The instructor is friendly and skilled, he reminded me of my…read moremistakes I ignored and also teachered the driving skills I didn't learn at other driving schools. Great experience!

I had been experimenting with eating more of a plant-based, raw food diet when I came across an…read moreoffer through Living Social for a two hour educational class on the subject taught by Pamela. I loved the way she presented her knowledge and I came away from the class with lots of useful information. Whether you are concerned about your health, preservation of the environment or the suffering of animals for food this is a great place to stop in. I will be taking more classes from Pamela! Oh, and did I say that we made ourselves a delicious lunch!

I have really enjoyed Pamela's Raw Cooking Class today. It was very interactive, packed with…read moreinformation and lots of practical advice. The small class size really allowed everyone to get some individual advice and recommendations, whether they were new to healthy eating, already highly aware or just wanted to learn about quick and easy food preparation. Because health is such an important topic, we owe it to ourselves to get better educated and make smarter decisions for our families. I recommend Pamela's class as a great way to help in this journey to being and feeling your best self. I will definately be looking for an opportunity to take more of Pamela's classes.

Super fun place to dance and learn. Rico and Emmy are inspiring and keep things fun all while doing…read morea great job teaching.

Samantha and Johnny are great instructors, very patient and talented. I've taken salsa lessons…read morebefore, but not learned as quickly and easily. They keep the class high energy and active.

Birch Tree Academy is a wonderful place for our family. Our child has learned so much, and has a…read moregenuine bond with her teachers. They have great hours (7:30am-6pm) to accommodate flexing work schedules, and they feed the children delicious meals and snacks throughout the day (no need to prepare food during the morning rush!). We're grateful to have found such amazing childcare.

We sent our little one to Birch Tree academy which is a russian immersion program (no we don't…read morespeak russian) and were impressed by the quality care, strong curriculum, and kindhearted staff. We were looking for a childcare that was both educational and nurturing and Birch Tree has gone above and beyond to provide the best care for children. They also speak english to the kids, but ours can now speak bits of Russian along with English at home. The facility itself is homey and well organized with each child welcomed with their own cubbies for coats, shoes, and extra clothing. The space is great for kids to learn and explore with toys that are well organized and not overwhelming the environment. It allows the kids to interact, develop and form relationships. The staff are well trained and we are always greeted at the door for optimal security. They love children and are always so friendly and welcoming. You can tell they care and provide the best care. The director Stephanie is so organized, on top of everything, and is always willing to help. Her dedication and that of the teachers shows in the positive nurturing environment they provide for our little ones. Shout out to Ms. Ksenia for her big heart, amazing art activities and unique curriculum. Our toddler has learned so much and they helped us with many milestones through noticing his personality and helping him grow emotionally and mentally. For curriculum, the daily routine is well structured and full of exciting activities for the children. On top of daily activities they have spanish and music class which is so fun and great for the children's brain development. They are STEM based which is rare to find in the area. They also take the kids outside frequently which is good for their health and physical strength. The food is made in house and is organic and delicious, my toddler told me it is yummy himself. They offer a good variety of well rounded food, the appropriate numbers of snacks and even a dinner snack. They also keep us updated on any changes to menus which is a bonus. Overall, an excellent daycare/ preschool well worth it as they will provide the best care for your little one. We love Birch Tree!