Love the staff at Kama'aina Kids St. Mark's. The director is very responsive and caring. My son…read moreloves going here and he is always happy and singing songs in the car that he learned in daycare on the way home. Of course daycare costs an arm and a leg but we are glad that our son is in good hands while we are at work. The kids all look happy at drop off and pick up and the teachers know all the kids names even if they are in a different age group. If you're looking for a daycare option then I would recommend this location.

I am not only very thankful to all teachers but also leaned a lot to be a good parent at this…read moreschool. My son went to this school from 3 to 5 years old. We checked out many schools in town and tried couple for few weeks but this school was most fun, loving and caring as well as had good discipline and academics. Ms. Tammy quickly realized my son was behind in writing. She told me not to pick him up till 4pm so she could work with him more personally. A couple of months later, I realized that my son and his classmates were lot ahead in academics from other kids in their age. She said she wanted kids to be confident by being ahead so they would always do well in school. Now my son is in kindergarten and has been always the top of the class in all subjects. In fact, people often asked me which preschool he went to. Ms. Tammy was also very fun and planned many activities even on weekends. She brought a whole class closer and many of us had quality time and memory together. When she taught dodgeball to kids, not only parents but also teachers jumped in to play. We got scoldings for being so loud by too much laughter :) We had so much fun. Another difference I noticed was teachers are more realistic and sustainable. Unlike other schools that focus on fancy wooden toys and recycle papers, they use the back of used papers and make many things from cardboard, fabrics and plants. I was very impressed how creative they were. What I love most about this school was all teachers were very loving, caring and fun at the same time they give good disciplines to kids. They were very nurturing and experienced mothers, they know names of all kids in school and what's going with them each day. As soon as I walked in to pick up my son, the first teacher I saw always told me how my son was. The office lady even the director were often helping kids in the classroom. They are not only sweet but strict in a good way too, and children have good understandings and behaviors. Watching how they deal with kids, I learned how to be fair to kids. Lastly, the director and teachers were very understanding and lenient with our complicated family situation. They were always there to listen and give me good advices, and I felt very supported. I referred many of my friends to this school and they are all happy. The school helped my son to be kind, strong and smart and me to be a good mom. I highly recommend this school!

Our 5 yr old daughter learned more in a half year at Chaminade University Montessori Lab School…read morethan she has in her previous 4.5 years of life! OK, I may be exaggerating a bit, but I really wanted to sing the praises of the incredible staff at CUMLS. My daughter comes home and asks when she can go to school next. She's constantly amazing us with her vocabulary. She actually taught me the definition of an archipelligo. Maybe she can teach me how to spell it too? What's truly important too is that this year's current crew of teachers are so loving to our kids. I can feel how much they care for the kids as if they are all Ohana. They grow herbs in their garden and my daughter brings home kalo chips, hummus, and other wonderful things that were from the things grown on campus. Extra Kudos to Kristie Sakai who provided a safe space for our keiki and gave us the flexibility to stay distanced during Covid and welcoming us when we were ready to go back to in-person learning. The logistics and coordination are not taken for granted. I'm especially emotional about this fine school since this is our daughter's last day and she'll be moving on to a different school. Our many, many thanks to Ms. Claire, Ms. Megan, Ms. Veronica, and Ms. Kristie for their love and care of our most valued treasures. We will miss CUMLS!

Our third son just finished his last year of preschool at Chaminade University Montessori Lab…read moreSchool and our fourth son is going to be starting this upcoming school year for 2019. All four of our sons will have attended preschool here - which shows clearly how much we have appreciated everything about the school, including the teachers, the program, the campus, the fun night events where parents are invited to visit the school and see students' projects, the security, the shaded and safe playground, convenient school hours, ample parking, and the beautiful view from the classroom and school grounds. The classroom is well organized, clean, and full of amazing educational materials. As other reviewers have noted, the curriculum is Montessori, so no complaints there. We think methods used to teach learning and skills to the young children really works and it's easy to see the progress each month. Some of the other specific things I really liked about the curriculum and how this school instructs the children, is the teaching of practical skills and shared responsibilities like cleaning up and preparing food together, or taking care of the younger children in the classroom. During this past year, our third son looked after a couple of younger children and in turn, was befriend by an older boy that took him under his wing. He couldn't wait to go to school each day! Other things my wife and I appreciated about the school, included all the educational field trips to a variety of places around the island, including historical sites, organic farms, and holiday events. While the teachers and the head staff have changed since we enrolled our oldest son five years ago, the ratio of teachers to students has always been high. We have also liked all the teachers and thought they were caring and attentive and did a great job of communicating about our sons and their progress, including providing us with photos of them learning and doing projects at school. At the end of each year, the students work hard to put on a graduation show that includes music and singing, and a potluck lunch. It's always been a little sad to leave at the end of the school year, which means I highly recommend Chaminade University Montessori Lab School!

Since I have recently graduated Kaimuki Christian School after being a member of this school for…read morethirteen years, having attended this school from kindergarten to the twelfth grade, I have spent a great deal of time at Kaimuki Christian School, and I still love every single moment. When my parents first enrolled me at Kaimuki Christian, I was nervous, shy, and prone to tears. However, Kaimuki Christian's nurturing environment helped me to expand my self-confidence. The teachers at Kaimuki Christian invested not only in my academic life, but also in my personal life, because every teacher whom I had the privilege to know would always make the time to help me on a confusing lesson or provide advice on an issue weighing on me. The teachers at Kaimuki Christian have always taken a keen interest in helping their students; I have been taught by teachers who would spend hours after school in one-on-one meetings with interested students, even if they were not being paid for that time and were staying until late in the evening, and by teachers who tutored their students for free during the summer. This principle of putting students and their needs first is not limited to the teachers, as this ideal is also deeply rooted amongst the administration of this school. Whenever I possessed concerns, the teachers, as well as the administration, always welcomed me to voice those thoughts, then did their absolute best to address them in an extremely timely fashion. The teachers at Kaimuki Christian not only are overqualified to teach the subjects that they do, holding graduate degrees from institutions the likes of Stanford and Penn, but also, more importantly, have a clear passion for what they do. The teachers are ardent Christians, and their faith has long served as both a guide and an inspiration to my faith. Moreover, the loving environment that they created has enabled me to become the person that I, not others, want to be. Additionally, it was the constant expression of their strong faith that prevented me from being bullied and, instead, accepted. Even though I was offered the opportunity to attend a more renowned institution for high school, I am extremely glad that I never wavered in my decision to stay at Kaimuki Christian. It is because I chose to stay at Kaimuki Christian that I had a myriad of opportunities that I would not have possessed otherwise. For starters, when I started high school, one of my teachers reached out to me about joining the cross-country team; without his encouragement, I would have never done so, much less for four years straight. Moreover, the teachers helped me with projects outside of school. My literature teacher would read the essays that I wrote for both local and national writing competitions, and my science teachers helped me and some of my classmates enter an international science competition. Without them, I would not have won several accolades that I now possess. Furthermore, due to the teachers providing their students with significant personal attention, I continued to succeed academically, and, due to the administration's strong desire to give students every opportunity possible, I was able to attend college classes at Kapiolani Community College. Additionally, the small class sizes helped me to continue to grow, thrive, and make lifelong friendships. Thanks to Kaimuki Christian School, I was accepted to nine top-tiered schools. This fall, I will be attending one of the highest ranking liberal arts colleges in the country (U.S. News and World Report), Williams College, because of what Kaimuki Christian has done for me. Without Kaimuki Christian, my aspiration of double-majoring as a pre-med hopeful at Williams College, my dream and reach school, would have never come to pass. Kaimuki Christian has transformed me into the person that I am today, full of faith and hope for the future. I am blessed to have been a student at Kaimuki Christian, and I am grateful to everyone at Kaimuki Christian. If there were no character limit on this review, I would go on and on about the wonders of Kaimuki Christian School. If I could give Kaimuki Christian School infinite stars on this review, I would, since this amazing school absolutely deserves such a rating.

I went to this school from age 3-18. I love this school! The campus is very clean, the teachers are…read morevery kind, attentive, helpful, and wise, and all my classmates were really cool! We did so many amazing field trips, too, like every year we go to Ice Palace and Wet n Wild. In high school, we did four trips, one per each year, three mission trips and one educational trip. All those trips were such great moments to grow close to my friends and see God's creation! KCS is an excellent school.

I am extremely happy with The Toddler Program as my son's first school experience! He enjoys…read morelearning with his new "friends" as they do so many activities, field trips and I especially like the enrichment program after school!

My son has been going to this school for 2 years now and we love it! He is in the Friendship bears…read moreclass and we love what Ms. Olivia has done with this class. This is her first year here and she updates us every week about what the kids are learning and what they do. My wife and are are happy with our choice with TTP! The classes are small which gives the teachers a better chance on working with the children individually. The school is a small school which makes the parents very close to each other, and a very warm school. I recommend this school to anyone who is looking for smaller classes and the warmth and family oriented school.

We love this preschool! Everyone is so nice and caring. It starts from 7:30am and finishes at…read more4:00pm everyday. You only have to pay one fee for the whole day. I know many other preschools charge you extra if your child stays after 2:00pm. You don't have to worry about that here. The school communicates with parents via the Brightwheel app, so you get updates about events, classes, and how your child is doing throughout the day. We love seeing our son bonding with all his classmates and teachers over the past year and a couple months. There are events and field trips to educate the children and they allow parents to interact with their children every month or two. We get to see how our son is learning to do things independently and become more social with his peers. They also have a nice playground for the kids to play at in between classes and after school while all the kids wait for their parents to pick them up. The Director Ms. Nancy and her team of teachers are always willing to talk with parents about what the kids are learning or if you have any concerns.

I've had two kids at this preschool, and although during my daughter's time there (2010-2013) the…read moreschool went through some turnover of teachers, this is still a fairly new school (started in 2008) and I think it probably takes time to find the right fit for things and get the foundation you need for long lasting relationships. I think and hope that their teacher roster has finally settled in, as I love the teachers there now and think each and every one of them are compassionate, creative and have invested themselves in these kids just as a good teacher should. My son is now in the 3-4 year old class and his teacher, Ms. Zyrah is awesome! (His 2's teacher, Ms. Mika, was also wonderful). Ms. Zyrah is so creative and has so many hands on activities for the kids to learn from and experience. We get an email every day on how my son's day went and although last year, my daughter would often get two or three sentences at most, Ms. Zyrah always paints a great picture of my son's day, and gives us not only the standard notes such as how much he ate, if he took a nap, etc, but also provides us with a nice idea of what he is showing strengths in and what he is still working on. For things she works on with him, she always lets us know what works and what doesn't, and this helps us work with him at home too. She also always points out nice things he says or helpful and respectful choices he makes and gives us insight into times in his day that we would love to be able to see, but of course cannot be there to witness :). She also finds time to send us pictures when they go on field trips of participate in special events and we really appreciate that. The school overall is small - which was one of the reasons we chose the school. There's just 6 kids in the 2 year old class and no more than 12 in the older classes. The kids wear uniforms (which I think is great - no hassle in the morning to get dressed!) Each year, they add more to their program and this year, the director even had a shade tent structure built over the playground - which is makes me feel so much better when I forget to put sunscreen on my son! Their playground is small, but beautiful, with nice green grass and a great hill the kids love rolling things down on...even themselves! The director also tries out different things for the special events and this year they are even having an "open mic" for Thanksgiving lunch that lets the kids or even parents sing or share any talents they may have. They also do different things for May Day and even have a grandparents tea party and Sweethearts ball for Valentines day that is so cute...just like a toddler prom! And possibly one of the best things - for me anyway - is that the school is the cleanest preschool I've ever been too! And although their sick policy is pretty strict, as a parent, I appreciate their efforts as I've been to other preschools where half the class has green snot running down their face and the teachers do nothing about it! yuck. I would recommend this preschool to anyone who is looking for a smaller class size, warm and caring teachers and staff, and a strong foundation in Christian values. Last year, I would have given 4 stars due to the high turnover, but giving 5 stars in hopes that the teachers will remain next year as my sons enters the pre-k class!

This amazing preschool and church is located on Monsaraat Avenue. It is the best preschool with the…read moremost amazing, warm hearted, creative, patient, loving staff and teachers! The classrooms all have air conditioning to make it comfy for the kids and staff on those muggy and hot days. Teacher Pat is such an amazing teacher! My daughter loves her like she's a part of our family! The Director, assistant Director, and staff are so creative with their interaction with the children. The children have music days, water playing days, story time, arts n crafts everyday and just singing tunes all day long! I must say that is preschool is one of the VERY BEST on the island of Oahu. I highly recommend that you apply your child at an early age to let them get a head start at socializing and interacting well with other children and adults! The school also has organic meals that parents may purchase for their child/children. Its a great way to introduce new healthy, organic varieties of food! The organic lunch can be purchased monthly. Unity preschool is like our 2nd home away from home! We are so blessed that our child attends Unity preschool! Aloha!

Our son had a wonderful time at Waiokeola that staff and teachers were wonderful!!!! I can't thank…read morethem enough :)

I'm writing this review in honor of my daughter Mimi's graduation from pre-school! Over the last…read morethree years I've had two of my children attend Waiokeola and I cannot say enough good things about how much I loved my experience. Waiokeola is a little church pre-school that takes children from 18 months up to five years of age. Located right across the street from Kahala Mall, there's a little playground, giant sandbox and multiple class rooms for each age group. In addition to daily class the children also attend chapel on Thursdays and begin their relationship through God with songs and teachings. It's not just daycare, it's a place where your child learns about relationships, respect and their place in the world as a little adult. What I love most about Waiokeola is the wonderful staff and the ideals that they instill in each child. Miss Lily is the head of the school and she's an amazing leader. She's a General of sorts who takes her job as the overseer of little people very seriously. She doesn't look down at the children as some adults sometimes do, but speaks to them with respect and caring. The four different teachers my children have had over the years were all equally amazing and I feel like they really prepared my little ones for the next step of going to Kindergarten. It really does take a village to raise a child and I'm happy that my children began their journey at such a special place.

Central Union is often home to many different things. Punahou Carnival Parking, food drives, and…read moreHabilitat for Humanity Christmas Tree sales. This year we decided to buy our tree here due to my son's school fundraising. It seemed simple enough. We were assigned a date and time to come, although walk-ups are welcome. The process was fast and their trees were fresh out of storage. There weren't many options, but the convenience was easy. They get their trees from Oregon. Prices were the same as other places and go to a good cause. Thank you Central Union for hosting different businesses in your parking lot! It definitely helps the community.

My son goes to this preschool, I like the environment and teachers here. My son likes to go to…read moreschool and see his peers and teachers as well

This is an awesome school! Teachers(they call themselves "guides") are amazing and the kids there…read moreare just wonderful. My oldest got teased at the school she was attending K-2nd grade simply because she was not a fast reader. As result, she quit reading... she refused to read and said "I can't read because I am dumb and color of my hair says I have no brain" . She asked me to dye her blond hair dark so her friends would not pick on her. Talking to the teacher did not help so my husband and I decided to change school... but to where?! Then we found Mo'O school when we were walking around at Manoa shopping center. We looked inside of the school and kids and teachers looked so happy in the classroom. My daughter didn't have any Montessori background but they welcomed her in two years ago and she has been a happy child ever since. I just love the fact that all the children at the school are so caring, helpful and independent. Her friends helped her to start reading again and she loves reading now. She used to watch TV and addicted to iPad but now, her and her little brother never watch TV (I think non of the students there do), not interested in iPad at all. They are either outside making stuff from whatever they find out there, climbing trees or inside drawing, reading, doing board games or sewing something. They help with laundry, dishes and cleaning too! Thanks to Mo'O school, I have two active, happy, motivated and healthy children:-)

The name, Mo'O, is short for Montessori of O'ahu. Mo'o also means "lizard" in Hawaiian, and has…read moresignificance beyond what goes on Yelp. This school is everything I want for my daughter, who is now four and will attend Mo'O until she completes the elementary program, so the next eight years. There's no playground or jungle gym -- the children climb real trees and explore Manoa Valley as a group. There's no homework -- the children have internalized their knowledge and joyfully practice it while they're away from school. There are no massive tubs of cheese puffs, animal crackers and pretzel rods, those preschool snack staples that are all just different forms of enriched flour and preservatives -- snacks are prepared fresh to order by the children, having been supplied weekly by one child's family on a rotating schedule. (A typical snack table has cut fruit or vegetables, some nuts or cheese, and maybe some hummus or other dip and crackers.) The rooms are beautifully prepared with materials of excellent quality; the guides are brilliant, compassionate, and intuitive. As is the hallmark of Montessori, the children do the rest. Uniquely, this Oahu Montessori school fully follows, authentically and carefully, the Montessori method, for children 2.5 through 12. Montessori has no trademark, so anyone can call themselves a Montessori. If your Montessori school doesn't have an uninterrupted, three(-ish)-hour work period during which children choose their work, it's not Montessori. If your Montessori school doesn't have mixed-age classrooms, it's not Montessori. But Mo'O is. I can't say enough good things about this school and the little community that thrives within it. I am so grateful it exists and can't wait to watch it grow.

Our son has been attending KOP since turning 3, attending two days per week. The school is a great…read moregentle entry to a preschool setting for those not looking to go full time, but instead to introduce little ones to school structure and social interactions. Our son absolutely loves the school, his teacher, and classmates.

Kīlauea Ohana Playschool is a hidden gem that we found at the perfect time for our 3-year-old…read more Can't recommend enough to families looking for part time schooling!