Mills College Children's School is an absolute gem and a truly transformative environment for…read morechildren and families alike. The teachers and staff are incredibly supportive, creating an inclusive and diverse community where every child and family feels welcomed and valued. Their ability to meet each child where they are--both in terms of needs and abilities--is unmatched. The educators here are first-rate, highly educated, and deeply dedicated to their craft. They foster an environment where children can blossom socially, emotionally, and academically. Every child is seen, supported, and celebrated, which allows them to build confidence and thrive in all aspects of their development. The care and thoughtfulness that go into every interaction and every element of the program are evident. I feel so privileged to have my child--and myself--be part of this extraordinary community. Mills College Children's School is a place where children and families grow together, and I cannot recommend it highly enough!

My child is in their first year here and we are blown away by the thoughtfulness the teachers put…read moreinto every detail of the students' surroundings and the variety of creative activities my kid gets to choose from in following their interests to see where it leads. This school really does feel like a community that's aligned with our values as a family. I also appreciate that parents at MCCS are encouraged to participate in making learning fun and helping in different ways. I've guest read books to the children and am planning to lead a craft activity in a few weeks. My kiddo looks forward to those moments together. I also really appreciate how I can tap my kid's teacher for advice on how to handle different challenging behaviors when they arise (as a fairly newbie parent). I'd recommend the school again and again.

My daughter attended Treehouse from age 3 through 5. Treehouse is such a sweet, supportive,…read morewonderful school. We are not religious, but chose Treehouse due to the great reviews, nice campus, and lack of teacher turnover (pretty much all of the teachers have been there for many years), and are so glad we did. Every member of the staff knows all of the kids by name, and the love they have for the children, and the children for the teachers and staff in return, is palpable. Treehouse is a perfect mix of fun play and deep learning of important life skills, expected behavior in the school environment, and academic curriculum. We are sad to have aged out of Treehouse for now, but look forward to returning with our younger child in a few years for the two year old class.

My son attended Treehouse for 2 years and my daughter attended some of their summer school…read moreofferings. I cannot say enough good things about this school. 1. The campus is beautiful. Classrooms are clean and beautifully decorated. It is set in the trees so it feels like a real retreat. The playground is beautiful and fully equipped with all kinds of toys. 2. The teachers are beyond! Each one is so loving and kind and fully invested in loving and supporting the kids. They got to know my entire family - grandparents visiting, siblings, etc. and took a vested interest in our entire family. They are kind, engaging, joyful, energetic, and professional. Most of the teachers have been there for several decades and I know that is largely due to the incredible warmth that Principal Jan and Kayla set as the administration of the school. There is truly no place I have ever visited with the same warmth and kindness. 3. The curriculum is impressive! I am shocked about how well my son is prepared for TK. They are doing kindergarten level work in preschool. But of course it is mostly fun and playing and art. I am amazed by all the creative projects he comes home with and the patience and attention to detail it must require from the staff. I truly cannot say enough good things about this wonderful loving environment and cannot encourage families enough to send their kids here.

TLDR: Highly recommend this Daycare + Preschool, Strong Kindergarten (&TK) preparedness, Friendly…read moreStaff, Great Value (especially for this quality level). Was very pleased with the overall experience here for 2 years, and my student loves the teachers, their school friends, and the facility. Without going into a crazy long monologue, here are a few things that made this daycare/preschool great from my perspective. - My soon to be TK student already has 95%+ of his Kindergarten academic preparedness criteria met. They love telling me about the basic addition they are learning, and they love showing me their schoolwork papers when they get home. - The curriculum includes age appropriate social centered curriculum like noticing others' emotions and changing ones own behavior based on it (most noticeable when they ask their friends or visitors at our house if something is wrong, or what made them happy today). - Enrichment curriculum includes germinating plants, learning animals (including on-site animals), children's yoga, numerous art project styles etc. - Super cute performances!!! The Mother's Day performance was spectacular with actual singing and age appropriate choreography - The local parent community is reasonably active with play dates, and school centric activities. Was very easy to find parents within a short drive of the school for playdates and birthday parties etc. Easy to find parents on private Facebook community, and easy to share and access pictures from school - Staff has been great during our attendance here. Very responsive and my student loves them. Highly recommend checking this school out.

My child has spent 2 years at Daisy and we are so grateful for the love, care, and instruction that…read moreFey, Irfan, Mandy, Ron, Tim, and Nancy and all the teachers have provided over the years! We feel confident that our child is ready for TK and beyond, both from a social and academic perspective. Daisy isn't for everyone, and that's ok. There are definitely some quirks in communication, information, and structure. You won't get a student list, parent contact info, or a daily schedule, but you will have a safe and loving environment where your child is cared for and nurtured. One of the things I loved best about Daisy is that every adult takes time to genuinely interact with every child, and make them feel heard and valued. All the teachers (even the ones for other classrooms) knew our child and interacted with him in a positive and respectful way. Another thing I loved about Daisy is that the kids get A LOT of outdoors time which worked great for our family. We know he had a good day when we pick him up and his clothes were covered in dirt and his shoes were filled with woodchips. We know this isn't for every family, but our active kiddo thrived because of it. There are also goats, chickens, birds, and a turtle. Most importantly, our child loved going to Daisy. All the days where he would run to join his friends in the big yard at drop off, and blurt out all the stories of how much fun he had throughout the day at pickup made us confident that we made the right choice for him. Other pros: * They do music on Mondays and yoga on Tuesdays. * There's plenty of parking for easy drop-off and pick-off. * They focus a lot on social skills, and our child has made a lot of friends and frequently talks about them. * Though academics aren't their stated focus, our 4-year old can count to 20+, recognize numbers and letters, and identify words that rhyme. At 3, our kiddo knew all sorts of shapes, colors, etc. * They take hygiene seriously and the kids seemed pretty healthy (there wasn't ever a widespread outbreak of lice, COVID, etc. and our child I think only stayed home once or twice for being sick over the 2-year period. I think the outdoor time helped keep germs from spreading as well.) * They foster independence and teach kids to track their belongings. I remember thinking it was ridiculous that my 2-year old was supposed to track his own water bottle, but he learned to do it and at 3 he learned to navigate his lunchbox on his own too. Other helpful details: * The youngest age they take is 18 months. There's a separate smaller yard area for younger children. * There are many different family structures at Daisy. * They are flexible with start and end dates. * They generally follow OUSD's school calendar for days off with the exception of summer break (there's thankfully no summer break at Daisy). * They don't provide lunch, but they do sometimes provide snacks and your child certainly won't be hungry if they didn't have a great breakfast or won't eat what you packed them for lunch. * Onboarding was a little rough on our schedules as parents (our child started with shorter days for a few weeks so that he could ease into the new routine and space), but I think it set us up for success. * They occasionally post pictures to Facebook.

Both of my kids attended Skyline preschool. One of the things we've always loved is the outdoor…read morespace. It's beautiful, really spacious, and the kids have plenty of room to run around and play. The large parking lot is also a huge plus--it makes drop-off and pick-up so much easier! And of course, the teachers are the best part. They're warm, caring, and really attentive to the kids. We've always felt comfortable leaving our children in their care.

We've had such a great experience with Skyline Preschool that we're getting ready to send our third…read morechild there! All of 3 our kids have loved their time at Skyline. The teachers are caring, supportive, and truly get to know each child. It's a warm, welcoming environment where kids can learn, make friends, and have fun. We're so grateful to have found a preschool that our family keeps coming back to year after year.

Our daughter Mabel was at OMS for about 2 1/2 years, from 2-5. It's no exaggeration that OMS was…read moreone of the best parts of our life during that whole time. She has thrived there, making friends, loving her teachers, learning independence, learning about the world and just plain having fun. We looked at a few different Montessori schools as we were thinking about preschool, and a huge part of why we chose OMS was the amazing outdoor space. There are two separate classrooms (one for 2 year olds, one for 3-5) and they are separated by a huge outdoor space, so rare to find in urban preschools. It's fully fenced, safe and provides for children to have so much room to roam, explore and play. From the time she was two she was able to explore and have real independence. It was a very special part of her time there. The teachers are also wonderful. They are kind, caring and make the kids feel taken care of and safe while also giving them space to form friendships and choose what appeals to them. We'd frequently talk about how our daughter was a 'little citizen' at school: the manners they teach them, the ability to be in a group and interact with others, the skills to sit in a circle, pay attention, be heard, share. As she gets ready to go to kindergarten this year, we are so grateful that our time at OMS prepared her for this next phase. She is on the young side for K but we feel confident that she is ready for it and a HUGE part of this is her time at OMS. We'd recommend this school to anyone.

We pulled our two-year-old daughter out of this school within two months of her starting…read more Other negative reviews of OMS on Berkeley Parents Network and Yelp mention the same sorts of things we experienced. We regret not fully reading those reviews before enrolling. This was not our first preschool experience or our first Montessori experience. Our daughter was happily enrolled at another Montessori preschool in Oakland for a year. We had no real issues with that school, and our daughter seemed comfortable and engaged there. We moved to another part of town and wanted to switch schools to avoid a long commute. I was wowed during our OMS tour by the outdoor play area and the promises made by one of the school leaders. In reality, this school can be unsafe, unstructured, and understaffed, especially in the toddler class. Two good toddler teachers left within two weeks of the start of the school year and told parents they had been bullied by school leadership. Reviewing old reviews on BPN and Yelp, it seems this is not the first time good teachers have left in questionable circumstances. In the teachers' absence, a parade of substitutes came and went. There was very little continuity of care for the youngest students for weeks. One day, we saw a teacher roughly grab a child's arm in an inappropriate manner. The boy was not in danger, putting others in danger, or doing anything that warranted this treatment.  We ultimately pulled our daughter out after repeatedly seeing kids unsupervised near a gate atop a steep flight of stairs--a gate they could open. At one point, we watched a toddler unlatch the gate independently and go down the stairs without a single OMS staffer watching him. We informed them as to where he was, and no one seemed to take it seriously. At pickup, the kids sometimes seemed to be left to their own devices largely and sort of roaming around aimlessly. We know Montessori involves a lot of independent play and exploration. That's great and an approach we intentionally sought for our kid. However, this felt more like understaffing and disorganization. Our daughter frequently talked about kids crying at school and missing their parents. We didn't put excessive stock in this; toddlers say lots of things and aren't always reliable narrators. But we saw it with our own eyes at pick up. Kids were crying, and no one was appropriately responding to them or helping them through their feelings. The response was sort of clinical and rote. Since moving to a new preschool, she talks about fun things that happened at school and says sweet things about her teachers. She never talks about kids crying and missing their parents. Basic communication with parents was awful. Emails were confusing and haphazard, and critical scheduling information was poorly communicated. The only positive thing I can say about the administration is that they returned our full deposit and unused balance. In short, do your homework and really look into this school's online reviews before enrolling your kid here. It's a shame that this beautiful campus isn't better run.

We love Sequoia! The pandemic has kept my twins pretty isolated and struggling to socialize. We…read morejust finished our first year and I couldn't ask for more- the wonderful and caring teachers, play based learning that promotes creativity and independence, beautiful, open wide outdoor space, and an amazing group of families that became our community. We loved it so much that we're opting out of TK and staying another year :)

Teachers Margo and Susan are so gentle and effective with the kids. Our child has really enjoyed…read moretheir time with the other kids and the teachers. We see growth and are excited to see how much is to come by the end of the year. The school is managed by the parents and follows an organized model for how teachers & kids are supported in the program. It's a beautiful school and we're happy with our experience and truly welcome others to visit and see for themselves.

Our daughter has been at Bay Sky for 2 years, and we couldn't be happier with the experience. In…read morethis time she's blossomed into a smart, confident and happy girl, ready for kindergarten. Her Mandarin is spectacular. She has no problem maintaining conversations with native speakers, whether they're close friends/family or chatting up total strangers at the playground. But most of all, we appreciate the warm, caring environment that Grace has provided for all the children. I just wish we had found them earlier so that our older kids could have also attended Bay Sky.

Bay Sky is a gem of a school. Grace does an excellent job supporting the whole child--socially,…read moreemotionally, physically, and cognitively. Mandarin is the primary language used in daily routines, songs, conversations, and play-work, and the children all seem to gain real comfort and confidence with the language even if the household is not Mandarin-speaking. The classroom environment encourages independence and hands-on activities and exudes warm calm. We've seen our child develop solid skills in emotional regulation, social interactions, and self-confidence. Highly recommended for families seeking authentic Mandarin immersion in a thoughtful Montessori setting.

I sent my child here for less than a full school year, from the age of two to close to three years…read moreold. It's a beautiful school with great teachers. All that you want out of a Montessori education is here. He got a lot out of it and usually wanted to stay at the end of the day. He learned many interesting skills and they took good care of him. The only reason we left is that we had to move far away. Why 4 stars? In a word, it's expensive. The tuition is really high. It costs more than college. One kid at the age of 2 going full time was $1791/month. Add to this various fees. Also add to this that they are closed usually several times a month, and you have to find alternate child care or sometimes they have alternate care for $80/day (!) on top of the regular tuition. If you want to pay for a lunch through their program, it costs $6. Granted, it's organic and locally sourced, but seriously, $6 for a 2 year old's lunch that consists of a few steamed vegetables and a tiny slice of pizza? It was a drawback for me.

I really was impressed with this school for the two years my daughter attended. Her teachers worked…read morewith her, especially when her behavior got squirrelly during the worst days of my divorce from her abusive father. I LOVED this school. I raved about it to anyone who would listen. However, what happened at the end of her second year has led me to give them this negative review. My ex was on the hook for school fees per court order so he went in to the headmistress Helen Campbell and the business manager Nancy Haskins and told them I'd forged his signature. They had just offered her a 66% scholarship so she could finish her kindergarten cycle and prevent even more upheaval in her life. Rather than talking to me about it, they broke the contract and categorically removed her financial aid and dropped her enrollment. I could have straightened the whole thing out, even provided them with a copy of the forensic document examiner's report that I got after the fact showing my ex had manipulated them, but they weren't interested. To add insult to injury, they knew they were in trouble for breaking the contract so they made up a bunch of stuff about me in a letter to Community Care Licensing and distorted events that had actually happened to make me out to be a problem parent and that was why they broke the contract only weeks after they'd signed it. They provided a copy of this letter to my ex, who used it in custody court and then proceeded to make life even more miserable for me and my children. I was never informed by the school exactly why they'd dropped me. I just got a short, hostile phone call from Nancy Haskins that said it was all my fault and I could have prevented it if I'd wanted to. I didn't hear the "real" reason until my ex filed their letter in court as an exhibit in a pleading. During the first year that I was struggling to survive after leaving my husband, and dealing with his reindeer games, my daughter's teacher was very sympathetic, telling me that if she "had to choose a side, it would be mine." She compared my ex to Hans Reiser, whose children with Nina Reiser had also attended GLM. I can't help wondering if they treated Nina Reiser like they did me, and pulled their support from her when she needed it most. Sad to say, this teacher also ended up writing a distorted letter about me and that betrayal hurt the worst of all. I'm pretty sure I glimpsed her at Summitt Hospital last week; when she saw me, she turned around and walked the other way as fast as she could go. So at least she has the grace to be ashamed of herself. An apology would be nicer, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm most angry with this school and their unprofessional treatment of my child because they completely dropped us from alumni lists so we don't get invited to things like the Back to School Carnival, and all the parents of my daughter's friends started avoiding us and wouldn't set up play dates with her. I think it's despicable that my poor kid, who needed stability in her life, lost not only a stable educational situation, but all of her beloved friends in one fell swoop. This is after taking thousands and thousands of dollars of her savings for her education the previous two years. I guess once the money ran out, their concern for her welfare ran out too. They made all this noise about wanting only what is best for my child, and then stabbed her in the back in a most despicable manner. Nancy and Helen, if you're reading, you ought to be ashamed of yourselves. I hope that all parents reading this review think long and hard about getting involved with this school. The underhanded, malicious behavior of the administration of the school is something that should be avoided. In a word, sleazy. There are schools just as good for less money.