Our daughter is almost 3 and has been going here since she was 2.5 and we lovvvve WMI. We toured 9…read moreother preschools including 2 other Montessori programs and this place has everything we were looking for!!! First- the teachers. No matter where you go or what type of "program" a school says they base their teaching strategies on its honestly all about the teachers and WMI has some of the most caring and nurturing of people around. They are so caring welcoming they make your child feel safe while allowing them to be independent and respectful and have some ownership in their learning and school. The students- AMAZING. They are the most well behaved group of kids you will ever meet... And happy!! Because they model after each other and the teachers are good at modeling discussing/explaining reasons for why we respect each other and act the way we act everyone is happy and just respectful of each other. I had a friend tour who was weirded out and Said it wasn't natural to be this well behaved almost cult like... But it just shows you kids can be respectful playful well behaved little people if they are expected to be. The friend actually toured and did an "experiential day" with the school and actually has her daughter starting end of the month!!! The director- joy is amazing and really caring for her student.. They all love her to pieces. I will say honestly she sometimes is a little disorganized with parents (forgets scheduled meetings with parents from time to time) but never lacks with the children. I think she just has tons on her plate teaching/training/running and amazing school that things fall through the crack sometimes. She really wants the family to be really involved in the community which is great. She is also very easily reached/available and in constant communication with parents. The one negative that I can think of is they don't help wipe the kids if they are potty trained. They want them to be independent and do it on their own. My daughter has come home multiple times with skid marks because I just don't think she can reach that far. I have mentioned it before but not seriously talked to the school about it. Honestly though... There is no other school that I would trust with teaching the right morals and learning how to interact in a community to become fully functioning little people than WMI. You will not regret your decision for going....

I love love love the infant building they are absolutely incredible we got the privilege to have…read morems.Katelyn as a teacher and she is truly amazing in every way I could really tell she cared about my child and I felt very comfortable and confident in her teaching and just overall being highly recommend, we are now in the toddler side and it's a bit more strict on drop offs makes it a bit hard as a single mom having to take transportation currently but they really value the time with all the children they do beautiful arts and crafts, going to the park and teaching use of glass cups which was super scary at first but we've had zero accidents and my daughter is doing so amazing!!! We have a new teacher ms.Roxana and she very wonderful and great with my daughter especially now that she throws her little toddler tantrums cause she has to leave her mommy but they handle it with grace and offer to looks at the fishy's in the other room I love everything about this place they have good secured doors only parents can access which makes me feel very safe they also take erdc for anyone looking for that. Really blessed and grateful we have found such a nice school to call a second home. I really value their work and effort :) thank you WMI

Two years ago we chose Little Fruit Farm because Ms. Lauren spent a lot of time building trust with…read moreme. Through many conversations, she emphasized her caring approach, her years of experience, and how uniquely qualified she was to work with young children. Based on those assurances, we believed this would be a safe and nurturing environment. Unfortunately, that did not turn out to be true. We were part of the school 2023-2024 for about six months. It is also important to note that Ms. Lauren was the sole teacher and only adult in the school, even though she had told me before we enrolled that she would be bringing in an assistant. There were early and ongoing red flags that I should have paid better attention to. One time, for instance, during drop-off, she was cleaning in the bathroom and expected me to simply leave my child unattended. I told her I felt uncomfortable doing that and she agreed. Another time she asked me to keep my child home from school during a state inspection. At the time, I had been taken aback. She said my kid had been acting out by jumping around and being loud during circle time. She later backtracked on this request. These and other incidents were extremely concerning, but they were minor compared to what ultimately came to light. One day at pickup our child told me that his teacher "squeezes my arm and it hurts." We spoke with Ms. Lauren that same day. She denied ever hurting the children and instead suggested that we consider having him assessed for developmental issues such as autism or ADD. A legitimate concern, however, one that should have been expressed in a separate conversation. Also, two years later, no other educator or therapist he has worked with has expressed the same concerns. The following day we received a message from another parent at the school. Their child told them that Ms. Lauren had been spanking my child or smacking him on the back with an open hand when he "misbehaved." The parent shared that they asked their child multiple clarifying questions and that he was able to consistently describe what happened and even reenacted it. We then spoke directly with those parents, including the child's mother, who incidentally worked in a professional capacity with children. They confirmed their concerns and also shared that Ms. Lauren had previously asked her to stay after drop-off to "observe" our children for signs of autism or developmental issues. This was something Ms. Lauren had never discussed with me. Of course, after this, we immediately pulled our kids from the school. We also filed a police report and a report with OR Health and Human Services, which is documented on the state child care portal with very little detail, but it does state that she used corporal punishment. I highly recommend parents review any child care center here: https://findchildcareoregon.org. Many, if not all, of the other families at the school at this time also withdrew their kids. This was not an easy thing to come here and express. But, I am hoping it may help other parents have the information they may need to protect their kids.

It has taken me way too long to write this review of the Little Fruit Farm Montessori school my son…read moreattended in our area, but this morning I woke up with an overwhelming feeling I had to write this. Honest review from what happened to our family. I don't want other families, and more importantly, kids, to go through what we went through there. I would not recommend this school at all. We had to pull my kid out within a month and a half after we joined. My son was at this school over a year ago, around when he was 2.5. He was the youngest there. There was just the one teacher, the owner, watching the max kid ratio allowed at the time we attended, which is a lot of kids for the ages she had. Our experience wasn't great, the teacher did not have patience with the kids whatsoever and until this day I wonder what my son went through while he was there. The teacher seemed overwhelmed with all the kids and irritable. Just learned she used corporal punishment on kids! There's a report out on the incident! Make sure to look that up. This isn't a safe place to send your kiddos!!! As my son got to know the route to her place, he hated going and would cry as soon as we would turn into her street. I thought it was just because he was getting use to it, but I quickly learned things were not great there, so we pulled him out. The first days were okay. As the weeks went on, it changed. We were expected to leave our son there without seeing her present to greet him. She told us to just open her screen door and push him through the door to "drop him off". We did not do that and she got annoyed with us over that. My son was not potty trained at the time and the arrangement we had was I would go change him if he had an accident. She also said she could assist us in potty training him, and charged us an extra fee for that, which fine, we paid. She did not help him learn to potty at all. I think what she would do was just ask if he had to go potty because my son always had a dirty diaper when I picked him up (he was there 2 hours, 3-4 times per week). I remember once my son went number 2 and the teacher called me to come change him. When I got there, she was waiting outside with him so her house wouldn't smell! I just about lost it there. The teacher also told us once "the money makes it all worth it" when we paid our tuition. That was super uncomfortable for us. She for sure gave vibes she just does this for the money. She basically expects the kids to act like little adults, not kids. I understand it's Montessori, but this isn't it. There was another family that also left shorty after us with a bad experience, but I don't think the bad reviews are published. If the mom is this group, please messsge me! If you can avoid this school, I would.

Ashcreek Playschool has been such a life changer for my kids, and myself! The community a co-op…read moremodel brings us amazing and getting to be in the classroom in the front row of your kids education is priceless! We have been apart of Ashcreek for 3 years and we absolutely love it. I couldn't imagine my life without it!

I cannot praise Ashcreek enough! My daughter started with their summer camp in 2022, continued with…read morethe school program, and is currently on her second school year. She was born at the start of the pandemic, and it was SO hard to build a community as a first time mom. I wanted part-time care to have a break for myself, but I also recognized that we both needed socialization and connection. Ashcreek offers the part-time, hands-on structure that we needed, as well as providing a safe and welcoming environment. I was especially impressed with their covid precautions. The school is an inclusive space with an emphasis on social and emotional learning. I have learned so much from all of the teachers and the other parent volunteers!

I have had three children now be with Kindercare, starting as infant through PreK. They continue to…read moreimpress with their authentic care of each individual child, diverse programming and excellent hours. Knwing my child is safe and growing in their exploration of the world allow me to work without worry and be completely present with them when home. Communication about programming and our children is above what I could have hoped. Now that some kids have started older school, I have greater and greater appreciation for kindercare. Thank you to everyone there, Director Rubi and PreK teacher Meredith.

This review is for the toddler room, but I imagine that many of the issues that bugged me are also…read morepresent in the other classes. I had two kids in their toddler room for 6 months, and then I pulled them out after being fed up. Now, after putting my kids in a different daycare I can see clearly how bad it was at Kindercare, I am still dealing with guilt that I didn't I pull them out sooner. Here is the good and the bad I experienced at this center. Good: - The outdoor space is big and beautiful with tons of toys to play with. - Teachers were really good at changing diapers quickly and my kids never got diaper rashes while there. - The front desk was always welcoming and greeted us with a smile. - There was always someone picking up the phone and they were always open to go check on your kid right away if you asked them. - They are not cheap but they have a good discount for intel or ohsu employees and they offer sibling discounts too. - They use a pretty nice app that informs you of the diaper changes, food consumption and photos shared. You can also message teachers and director via this app. - They have excellent hours that secure care for your little one even when you have a long day at work. Bad: - Generally the teachers were not engaging or showing much interest or affection to the kids. They were mostly standing around passively and often talking amongst themselves instead of the children. Sometimes kids would be wailing in the corner and no one would pay any attention to them. I witnessed this regardless of the time that I stopped by to pick up kids, or drop off anything for them. - The toddler classrooms are tiny! They have sectioned a big room into 3 little rooms that probably barely meet the min square footage per child. The rooms are always crowded and in a disarray with toys laying everywhere. They don't teach the kids to clean up and there were always (dirty) toys spread around on the floor that you would step on as you dropped off and picked up your kids. - the food is DISGUSTING. Don't be fooled by the menus they may show you. It may look good on paper, but first of all, the food served almost never matches what is printed on the menu for that day. "Fresh fruit" comes out of a can! Cheese and meat is processed. Bread is stale and white. Nothing is truly cooked there. It's all just thawed and/or warmed. I wouldn't eat any of that myself. - The kids were taken to play outdoors twice a day during summer, but even though we had a very mild fall and winter, but they did not take the kids out a single day from Oct to Feb. And after parents called to complain they took them out only occasionally when the weather was very nice. Their excuse was that some kids do not have warm clothes?! They kept the kids in the tiny tiny classrooms crawling around all day, and my boys would get horribly sick every other week. - They constantly move the kids around among toddler classes. We would always drop off our kids around the same time, within the allowed drop off time and around breakfast time and in their designated classrooms, but they would already be at capacity in that room and have to move some of the kids out to accommodate our kids. Sometimes they would take kids that were in the middle of eating their breakfast and have them walk to another room. It was always chaos and a lot of teacher/student switching once we arrived. - I had a kid that drooled a lot and I would give them extra bibs so they could change them out during the day, but despite asking a couple of times and sometimes even messaging about it they would forget and on his drooly days my kid would often go home in a wet shirt (with dry and clean bibs sitting in his cubby). -They had serious staffing issues and had to close their classrooms unannounced several days during fall and winter! Once they emailed us at 7am that they could only take 8 more toddlers that day, and first come first serve! Other days they would ask us to pick up our kids earlier due to staff being out. - There were also a lot of little less important, but annoying, things as well such as not removing the kids shoes for nap time, not being stocked with age-appropriate educational toys like legos, building blocks etc., not allowing food from home, they would play super loud music non stop in the evening, they tossed all the water bottles in a cubby all week and never changed the water or cleaned the bottles until parents pick them up at the end of week and clean them, they would not provide water to the kids during the day only at specific times (my kids were sooo thirsty when we picked them up because they couldn't speak and ask for water or they did and were ignored). All in all, while there are a few positives, I would never recommend this place to anyone who wants the best for their child. I have even heard teachers working at that center discouraging parents from putting their children there! That should be telling enough...

I cannot say enough good things about A Child's Place. We were referred by family friends whose…read moredaughters all attended. My daughter started when she was 3 and loved it. She made so many friends and we saw huge leaps in her speech and social skills. They also learn so many fun things and she would come home and sings songs about the planets, water cycle, a trees life cycles, continents, states and more. It was so fun watching her learn. I would recommend anyone looking for a great daycare to A Child's Place.

A Child's Place has been wonderful for my kiddo! The staff from the top down are simply the best…read more They truly believe in investing in the kids and it shows! At a previous school, my kiddo would cry at drop off and be so relieved at pickup... at A Child's Place, it's a complete 180! Drop off is a breeze and we can hardly get our kiddo to go home at pick up because there is so much fun to be had! I am so thankful for the school and the staff - my kiddo feels happy, safe, and loved at school!

My three year old had no previous school or childcare experience before Woodhaven, so we were…read moreanxious at how she would adjust to being separated and in a new environment. She has absolutely flourished during her first year in this co-op preschool. She finds joy and confidence in the daily rhythm, open free play and time in the forest. Seeing her smiling face at pick up, which is often covered with mud from a fun filled day outside, is such a gift. Watercoloring, baking bread, making candles, learning beautiful songs and stories that celebrate the seasons and encourage connection to nature are just a handful of things that make up the daily rhythm. Most of all, we feel grateful that the majority of time at school is spent outside with exceptionally kind and inclusive teachers and children. We love being part of the co-op and her education. Five stars all day long to this beautiful school!

Our family has absolutely loved being part of this forest preschool co-op. This is our second year…read moreand we are planning to continue next year when my youngest turns three. It's rare to find a place where children are not only supported, but truly seen--and that's exactly what Ms. Melynda and Ms. Erika bring to this community. They bring such kindness, compassion, and a sense of magic to every day. The gentle, Waldorf-inspired traditions--seasonal songs, nature stories, and rhythmic routines--create a warm, grounding environment the children absolutely thrive in. There is plenty of time and space for free play, and it's incredible to see how creative and imaginative the kids become in an outdoor classroom without toys. Nature provides everything they need. They teach respect for animals, plants, and all living things in the most natural, heartfelt ways. A bug rescue, a quiet moment under a tree, or caring for the forest together becomes part of how the children learn to move through the world with empathy and wonder. We feel incredibly grateful for this community and these teachers who make the forest feel like a second home for our child. Highly highly recommend!

We have sent both our boys to ELM after trying multiple alternatives. Lots of reasons why but the…read moretop 2 that have kept us loving ELM are: 1. Teacher quality/connection - the staff at ELM are empathetic, interested in learning about the individual needs of their children and understand how important trust with families is. They're amazing. 2. Program - Kandy operates ELM with a high level of care, collaboration with parents, and attention to detail. Her excellent communication with families and love for the children of ELM shows. Highly recommend ELM to any family!

Both of our boys have gone to PreK here at ELM. It's always been a good experience and the kids…read morehave learned valuable social skills and found their creative sparks! The staff has stayed the same for the last 5 years which says something too!

Sunny Hills is an amazing preschool. I feel so lucky to have both my children enrolled and been…read moreable to watch them both grow and thrive with the help of the Sunny Hills teachers. As an elementary educator I was very invested in my search for a great preschool. Prior to sunny hills we tried a play school where more of the focus was social. Although this was helpful, I found that some organized learning, group projects, and early learning skills were missing. Then along came sunny hills. Although nestled below a church, they teach kindness, not religious material. I have two kids who both have started at sunny hills. Both were shy to start and nervous about school. The teachers aided in them feeling safe and welcome and now both kids love going to school every morning. I will be honest. I am a total hover mom and Sunny Hills has impressed me every step along the way. They even helped me let go a little knowing my kids were always in good hands. Dropping your kids off somewhere you know they are cared for and safe is the best feeling. The cost of the preschool is so reasonable, especially for what you get. The school also does things like field trips, winter concerts, art shows and other activities to include the parents in. I cannot say enough nice things about the education and care that all three classes at sunny hills have given to my children and our family.

We love Sunny Hills and are thrilled we found this school for our daughter last year. Our daughter…read moreentered as a three year old in the Alder classroom and teacher Julie was such a great fit for our child. Activities are fun and build lots of new skills while being developmentally appropriate. The teacher:child ratio allows for individual attention. The school has a wonderful atmosphere and there is a lot of outdoor time no matter the weather. Teacher Millie runs the school and is the lead teacher for the preK class for the kids who will be entering kindergarten the following year. We love teacher Millie! She is kind, caring, dynamic, and so invested in each and every child. We had the unique experience of being able to interact with Millie and her preK class over Zoom sessions post Covid 19 closure of schools. Millie did three Zoom meetings a week and handled the experience with enthusiasm and AMAZING patience. It was a great way to stay connected with the school; to watch Millie keep the kids engaged over Zoom for at least 45 minutes each session was impressive! She often would stay on Zoom much longer with the kids who still wanted to interact with each other or have another story etc. Millie used the Oregon Zoo's animal spotlight videos as the focus of the lessons and the art project every meeting. All of the preK children seem so well prepared for their transition to kindergarten. Our daughter was in the younger class for the 19/20 schools year and will be going into Millie's class this fall and I'm so excited to watch our child grow with the class. Another bonus is that Sunny Hills has a summer camp program for 3-8 years old, so kids about to enter the school in the fall as well as kids who just graduated, plus their siblings, get to have more time at Sunny Hills! This is what we did with our daughter last summer leading up to her first regular school year in Julie's class. The school is located in their own area on the rear side of a church. The school also borders a smaller THPRD playground, field, and open area which are perfect for outdoor time. The location is a big plus! This school is a hidden gem and I feel so fortunate to have found Millie and Sunny Hills.