education: 10/10. they spend so much time with you, its directly 1 on 1 and anything you need help…read morewith they will assist you with. the education is so flexible with different teaching methods, whatever helps you learn is how you'll learn it. theres never a boring day and and its never stressful to ask questions or be confused. community: everyone is so kind and nice, its a true community and everyone helps everyone. there is no bullying and absolutely no tolerance for it. unfortunately some kids take advantage of the no bullying and can be annoying, but its overall a really safe community. teachers: each one cares about you, and you can create your own bond with each teacher. they WANT to help you learn and you can feel that. theyre so fun to talk to as a person and teacher, and i love all the teachers there. such kind souls. this school is perfect for neurodivergent kids, or if youre seeking to get away from the stressed out school days and bullys at public school. nobody will judge you and you will find so many friends.

This is the place. If you're reading this, you're wondering what are the right steps when it comes…read moreto helping my child with finding their way in the world. If you're here, you've obviously grown tired of the rote, inflexible education of the masses based on measurements, guidelines, or even politics. If you're considering a different direction and want to know where to find forward-thinking people (educators, parents, and the kids themselves), then you have to give Appamada a good look. It's been said that we live in interesting times and, thanks to a global pandemic, that couldn't be any more true. For our family, as we tried to navigate the challenges that came along with it, we needed to find a school that would work closely our two children, separated by just under two years, and help them learn (of course), grow (definitely), and become the person they were meant to be versus an "institutional follower." Our children are nearly as different as night and day. But, at Appamada, they found individual paths to advancing their education and developing their personalities that we couldn't find elsewhere. This 'home away from home' has been their place of learning for over five years and I can see that the path they are both on, to college and beyond, has been paved nicely, with enlightened thinking, challenges big and small to overcome and learn from, and focused matriculation to help them become the best they can be, but even more importantly, the best they want to be. The staff at Appamada, across all disciplines and includes the program director, the owner, and all associated with the school are truly top-notch individuals whose sole purpose is to help the students flourish. They have repeatedly shown how much they consider and care for the individual student and have demonstrated this through their communications, program adaptation, and customized course scheduling to meet the kids where they are help them recognize where they want to go.

We paid in full for our daughters drivers training course and attended all of the classes…read moreand passed his exam next we were supposed to be scheduled for driving slots and get our permit however Mr Armstrong told us his license to teach had not been renewed due to hurricane Harvey and he cashed my check on 9/18/2017. We contacted him several times and left messages and he always had an excuse. We ARE still waiting and this is ridiculous NOW he doesnt pick up the phone or return calls. The reason my daughter needed to drive was due to my surgery and I was unable to drive and still am having a bad time with recovery. BOTTOM LINE NO DONT GO HERE HE IS ABOUT TO BE SUED AND ON SOOO MANY LEVELS.

GO ELSEWHERE. I would give negative stars if I could. I paid for my daughter's successful…read morecompletion of the classroom course. We attempted to have her take the behind the wheel course, but Mr. Armstrong was never available. After 6 weeks of trying to coordinate our schedules, we gave up and asked for a refund - which he angrily refused to do. I had to take it up as a dispute with my credit card, which I won. We transferred to another school for the driving instruction. Now, Mr. Armstrong REFUSES to release her certificate to to the new school after more than a year of repeated requests - all of which he has ignored. So, I am filing a complaint with the TDLR. We'll see how long that takes. Meanwhile my daughter is ready to take the driving exam, and he is holding everything up. AVOID HEAD START AT ALL COSTS!!

This place was awesome!! We took our 5 year old sons here for their first riding lesson and they…read moredid so well they didn't even need training wheels. Christophe and Hunter are amazing coaches and definitely go above and beyond to make the kids feel comfortable and confident!!

What a great experience! We got our son a private lesson for Christmas and he loved it. They are…read morevery knowledgeable and patient with all ages and experience levels. If your kid is interested in trying out dirt bikes, this is the place!

Flying Fish Swim Academy has been effective, professional and fun for our kiddos. Within a few…read moreclasses they had our youngest able to go across the width of the pool without flotation devices. After a few more classes he was able to swim the length of the pool. Their format is very organized and the instructors have no more than three students each session. We don't have to waste time with signing up for one class and waiting weeks before they can start the next level - even if they're already ready to advance. Instead, Flying Fish has specific goals for each level and each class your child can advance to the next level. Skill updates are provided by email by the Deck Leader during class as each child completes their skill. The instructors will likely be different for each class and they all do a nice job with the kids and follow the same routine. The facility is nice with large observation windows and plenty of chairs to watch outside the pool area. There are also a few elevated tables/chairs and guest Wi-Fi. There is a play area for little siblings to stay occupied or for some playtime before class starts. Showers, changing rooms and restrooms are available for families making it easier to get multiple kids cleaned up and dressed after class. A swimsuit dryer is available so you can spin their suits and not take them home sopping wet. Swim accessories are available for purchase - goggles, swim diapers, swim caps, etc. in case you need something quick. Drinking fountains are available in the changing area and the kids love that they can have a little pack of fruit snacks after class. Thanks, Flying Fish!

I can't say enough good things about this place. We've been here since my son was 11 months old and…read morecan't imagine going anywhere else. They teach water safety in a fun and age appropriate manner. My son looks forward to this class every week, and so do I. All of the coaches are amazing, we especially love Anya, Niko, Cristina, and Emily. The makeup policy referenced in other reviews is pretty standard with any other memberships/classes we've taken and is extremely reasonable, we've never had an issue.

I had joined the 2nd cohort at MakerSquare in fall of 2013. Prior to MakerSquare, I had tried…read morelearning Ruby and JS on my own, through countless books and online tutorials. Having completed a few guides, I realized that my ability to learn "how to code" was hindered simply by my style of learning. I love interactive q/a style learning, which is what led me to MakerSquare. Of the different programs out there, the one thing I would urge others to consider is that they place a heavy amount of weight onto prework completed (how much work you've done ahead of time) and community-fit. If you're a solo worker and not a fan of collaborative environments, you may want to consider other programs. Anyways, long story short, I would whole heartedly recommend this program. As classmates, I had former programmers, retail store workers, a professional photographer and even a former elementary teacher. Out of the program, each of the students were working as professional front-end engineers (junior developers) within weeks of graduating. So safe to say, MakerSquare has a great professional network, and they know how to teach code. The classroom environment (the location on Congress ave) was a bit cramped at times. But from what I've heard the class size is now capped at 18, vs. 30 or so when I went through. All the 'issues' I had (space constraints, less than ideal student:instructor ratio, and focus on advanced concepts (algorithms and data structures) has been completely addressed. According to the staff, Cohort 5 is operating on an almost night/day difference of curriculum than what I had. So not only do I give the program 5 stars, I would (and likely will) retake the course to take advantage of their newest curriculum.

In short, I'm very happy! Though I'm not programming on a daily basis, I was able to get into the…read moreSt. Louis startup scene which was my main goal before enrolling at MakerSquare. I've also built a really awesome network of programmers and startup gurus in St. Louis and I believe that's thanks to MakerSquare! :-) I joined in Winter 2013-2014 (Cohort 3 Represent!). My reason for joining originally was not initially to become a software/web developer. Rather, I wanted to be able to communicate better with programmers that I worked with. I wanted to gain better access to the startup network. And most importantly I have a lot of ideas that I wanted to explore on my own - I didn't want to have to rely on finding a developer to build my ideas and turn them into a reality. I came out of the program having learned web-development with a strong emphasis on solid software development skills. Here's what I loved about MakerSquare: Curriculum: I was impressed by how much I learned. I literally had no experience in programming and I can now build web applications that ACTUALLY work. Not just simple interactive sites, but fully dynamic applications that work heavily with javascript on top of a rails framework. Moreover, all of this was taught with a very clear emphasis on test driven development (from the beginning) and solid software development principles. Instructors & Culture: They actually cared about the students and our progress and they were just all-around cool people. The culture at MakerSquare was actually a huge focus in the organization. I think what I loved most was learning how to learn all over again. I gained a new confidence that I've never had. The energy was also great, everyone had awesome ideas - from students to staff. Feedback: I would have liked to have more experience with Ruby and really learning how to code w/algorithms and such vs. w/Rails which is just teaching you the framework. From what I gather, Rails is now being treated as a detail vs. a core of what we learned. When we learned rails, it was about utilizing the framework for its ActiveRecord and quick-to-web functionality. MakerSquare still teaches web development (rails/mvc, http, javascript, etc) but now only after teaching other concepts that are applicable not just to the web, but to all software (test-driven development, SOLID principles, application boundaries, decoupling, databases, interfaces, software architecture, etc). I would have loved a deeper problem-solving skillset through exposure to algorithms. Looks like I was one cohort shy of that. MakerSquare now integrates algorithms and algorithmic thinking from day 1. Finally, MakerSquare was split into two nearby locations (Congress & Brazos). The extra space was nice, but it felt disconnected and I think it kept our cohort from being as close as some other cohorts have been.

Super fun. All ages from 3 to 103…read more Great to do on those super hot days or cold days. Took our teens to get away from electronics and be in the moment and creative. Were they thrilled? Nope. Did they have a lot of fun. YUP. Depending on where you are coming from its up the hill right as you enter hill country off of 290 from south austin. If you are coming from the west off 290 its headed towards south austin about 20min from Dripping Springs a few min past Belterra strip mall food area. Plenty of parking. Lots of seating on a Sunday around 12noon ish Thanksgiving weekend. No time limit on doing your chosen art. I tried glass making for the 1st and it was fun and challenging l. Instructions by the staff very useful! Friendly. Helpful. Welcoming. We each chose something different. Plenty of items small, med or large to chose from. Pottery comes with whatever pain you want, glass area there are easy and complex projects. You pay, they fire/bake the pieces and you show up about a week later to grab your pieces. We each got something around 40.00 or under. Time flew by. We were there for maybe 2.5hrs. My teens were not on their phones once. Engaged, creative, good family time. Come visit, bring a friend, spouse/partner, day date, just yourself. Thank you for having this space for folks to be in the moment and creative with things that open their mind, heart and soul

Alaina was fantastic teaching glass fusion and with pottery paint suggestions!! Love my pumpkin…read moresalt & pepper shakers!