My kids have attended this school for several years. Teachers are caring and they are following…read moregreat safety protocols esp during covid. We are so happy to be part of this community

This hurts a bit to only give 3 stars, I was a 5-star thinker about this school initially. And…read morethat's the problem with this place in a nutshell - GREAT at making a first impression, but it didn't quiiiite hold up for us. The turnover had been a problem - our daughter had three directresses within a single year in her room. Only one of the four primary classroom teachers was the same when we left as when we started. Only one of four teachers stays for two years?! I think this kind of defeats the whole purpose of the multi-age, multi-year classrooms that are so central to Montessori education. Entry-level staff was constantly being sent to training, and people were moving up fast. It's a great opportunity for an entry-level child-care provider at this school, since you might be #2 in a room in two years if you don't make a huge mistake. But, the school maybe should be doing better at recruiting, hiring and training and addressing the underlying cultural problem that seemed to push teachers away. We were there for two years as our two kids were 3- and 4- years old and had a really solid experience. The kids were well-cared for, basically safe, had great materials and facilities and loving staff around them. Problem is, I don't think you can execute on some of the most basic ideas of a true Montessori education if you are always changing over kids and teachers in the classrooms. What's amazing is how well they handle it and maybe the kids are learning some valuable lessons by going through change. But it's not what we expected when we came in with such a brilliant first impression and when we paid such brilliant tuition and made a brilliant donation at the big brilliant fund-raising event. This seems to be a boldly for-profit school, and essentially still a fast-expanding start-up. That might be the core of the long-term challenge. I *love* the people, top-to-bottom, and I wish them well. Your kids will be safe and well-cared for here, and it is a convenient place to drop kids off on your way to the Loop every day. They've nailed parent convenience, safety and peace-of-mind. When they get the Montessori child's and teacher's experience a little better polished, this place might really be special.

We couldn't be happier with the decision to send our daughter here. After having nanny for two…read moreyears, It was a big decision for us to go the daycare route. After a few short months our daughter grew leaps and bounds. There's only one location and the owner is present and actively onsite on a daily basis. This business is her sole focus as oppose to there being multiple locations and a watered down level of service. As a result, the teachers are also amazing. Right when you walk in you'll also immediately feel a difference in the daycare by the skylights, plants, and overall setup which includes a science center.

We have been part of the Magpie community since my son turned 15 months old. We were looking for a…read moreMontessori program and this was a perfect fit-- from the teaching philosophy, to the teachers, and the space. The teachers and program director are not only top tier in terms of qualifications, but also deeply invested in the development of each child. They keep parents apprised of daily activities through pictures and it is a delight to see the variety, creativity, and the thriving children. Notably, the community and the teachers persevered through Covid and were incredibly creative teaching through Zoom, a real feat with toddlers. My son has recently returned in person because we are comfortable with the Covid precautions at Magpie. We have already seen a tremendous change in his behavior and communication since he has returned to Magpie and we credit the teachers for facilitating the transition, easing him back into the program, and working closely with him. If you are considering a daycare in the area, look no further. Magpie is much more than that--it is a supportive educational community that truly completes our village!

I highly recommend this school especially the Spanish primary program with Ms. Mirella and Ms…read more Laura. My daughter learned Spanish program for more than a year. I can see her Spanish went from 0 to an independent Spanish reader and writer. Under this program, she also became an independent girl and a child who loves to help her classmates. During the COVID-19, the school took great precautions and made sure the students have social distancing with each other. Ms. Maura, who works in the management team, always reply to our questions in a timely matter and is very patient to listen our requests. Thank you Ms. Maura! Our family loves Intercultural! Thank you very much!

We absolutely love this school! Our kids are happy to go to school every day. In addition to…read morelearning another language, they are learning to be good citizens of the world. They have been at the school since pre-K, currently on 3rd and 5th grade, and planning to continue all the way to 8th grade! I wish they had high school!

I equate my experience with this center as a bait and switch. During the tour and enrollment…read moreprocess, communication was reasonable and staff were responsive. There was no wait and I was able to enroll and start my child within a 2wk timespan. Unfortunately, after starting care (2nd day after) I received an email saying their tuition policy changed. Two weeks after that, I received another email stating their monthly activity fee would require annual payment. These changes directly contradicted the enrollment paperwork I literally completed 2 weeks prior. In addition, they lost a full unopened sleeve of my child's diapers and pack of wipes. All they offered to correct their error was a useless apology. Furthermore, the front desk is often unstaffed during peak pick up and drop off times. The center has a bug problem and months after I've terminated care, I've yet to receive a refund for the fees they wanted paid annually.

When my daughter was born, I decided to stay-at-home with her during the first year and a half…read more When she turned 18 months, it seemed like the right time for me to enter back into the work world and for her to begin socializing. That being said, I was very nervous and anxious for this transition in her life. After a lot of research and tours, we decided on Lily Pad and began with a practice "drop in." This was the first time I left her in someone else's care. Needless to say, she cried a lot BUT it was the staff that made me feel at ease about the whole situation. I know they could sense my apprehension, and they did/said everything they could to assure me that the transition would take time. Their calm demeanor made me feel calm! And I really appreciated that in the first couple weeks. Now, my daughter walks into her classroom happy and ready to play! When we ask, "Are you excited for daycare?" she says "Yayy!" They are very attentive to her individual needs, and often give her extra care i.e. sitting on the teachers lap or holding her if she's having trouble going down for a nap. In the beginning, I called a couple times a day to get an update. And even if she wasn't having the best day, I received the reassurance that they had it handled and she was in safe care. They provide three organic meals a day. The facilities are always well-kept, and clean. They do lots of sensory play including arts & crafts, sensory bins, bubble wrap play, and outdoor adventures. They also have an amazing app called Tadpole that they update with pictures, and a daily report of what she ate, how often they changed her diaper, etc. This gives my husband and I a lot of peace of mind. On one tough morning, my little one cried pretty bad at the drop off - which is gut wrenching for any parent to walk away from. However, when I got to my desk at work, I had a picture of her reading a book and smiling. I appreciated that the teacher took the time to put my mind at ease. I highly recommend Lily Pad to any parent looking for a safe, nurturing space for their child!

It really pains me to write this review as my previous reviews were 5 stars! Guidepost was such a…read morespecial place to our family, but things really went downhill over the past year and we ended up leaving the school very quickly in May. Our oldest daughter started in Young Toddler and did not leave until she went to full on school, all her classes and teachers were wonderful. My son had a great experience in Nido and in Young Toddlers, but Toddlers was when things started to go south. My infant was also in Nido with the best guide ever, Miss Ale. Starting earlier this year, the whole school was experiencing a pretty severe staffing shortage. The Toddler classroom had extreme turnover (even more so than normal for daycare) and there were several days we had to pick up both our kids early because there was no one to care for them. This was pretty crazy considering that Guidepost is INSANELY more expensive than other schools in the area offering better staffing coverage and less teacher turnover. My son was grandfathered into a lower rate, but my infant we were paying an arm and a leg for. I kept quiet for awhile, but the last straw was that someone was able to walk in off the street and steal a staff member's purse from the front desk. Because there is such limited staffing, there was hardly anyone ever at the front desk, which just made me feel really unsafe. After we left, there has been a mass exodus of teachers and students (our favorite teachers that we were really sad to leave in the first place!). It's really sad because we loved the school, but they need to get their act together and I do feel like I should warn future families that this is happening right now.

The teachers, staff, and administration are so supportive. Our daughter is thriving here.read more

As first time parents, sending our then 7 month old into an unknown space for the first time was…read morehard for us. Even harder was doing so in the middle of a pandemic. We received great support from the Kids&Co staff, especially the director Ms. Katrina, to help us through the transition and everything else thereafter. Top three reasons we picked Kids&Co over others in west loop (1) Flexible schedules - when we started off we wanted flexible days of our choice, so our baby and us could take the transition slow. Kids&Co was the only one offering that option (2) Attention to parents asks - When we got the tour of the place, we felt confident that our requests will be taken care of (3) Access to classroom cameras - this was a big winner for us Top three reasons my now 16 months old continues to go to Kids&Co (1) She enjoys and thrives in the class - She looks forward to daycare. The fun part is, if we go to pick her up early when all her classmates are around, she refuses to leave (2) Everyone is so affectionate - Not just her teachers, but the entire staff is so affectionate, including Ms. Simmons from the kitchen. They know the kid and her needs so well (3) Providing the best possible in current times - With daycare closures, staff rotations, holidays, and so many unknows, the place is still run very well. It is not easy to keep-up and keep-going. The entire staff is committed and motivated to keep the child safe and help families thrive

We originally enrolled our son was he was 6 months old and were there for 2 years. For the first…read more1.5 years, it was great but it has steadily declined since then. They have a huge problem with turnover and the teachers that are left are less than stellar. In the 6 months that our son was in the Twos class, he would freak out and cry on the way to daycare every single day. When he was there, he wouldn't say a single word to his teachers which was a red flag for us. There are cameras, which is helpful, so we could watch him during the day. It seemed like the class was overcrowded and the teachers wouldn't pay much attention to the kids. The final straw for me was when we started potty training. We potty trained our son and he was 100% potty trained so we were ready to send him to daycare in zero diapers. We had concerns with the fact that he wouldn't talk to the teachers and that we didn't trust them not to put him in pull ups for their pure laziness and unwillingness to partner with us (which had happened to other kids in his class). We had emailed the director of the daycare over the weekend stating that we didn't want him in a pull up under any circumstance and let them know his tells that he has to go potty since he wouldn't talk to his teachers. We had the same conversation with his teacher on Monday morning at drop off. We were watching the cameras closely all morning and saw him try to open the door multiple times to go potty and was displaying all of the tells that we described to his teacher. The teachers were not paying attention and he had an accident. After that accident, they never took him to the potty so he could finish and he had a second accident not long after because he couldn't hold it in. Then they put him in a diaper a little over an hour after drop off against our wishes. I immediately called them upset and explained how angry I was and I went to pick him up and bring him home. After hearing excuse after excuse from the director, and after the regional director decided not to return my email/call, we decided to unenroll him and enroll him in a new daycare. The new daycare is night and day from Kids & Co. It's a smaller class size, more attentive teachers, and is much cleaner. Our son has thrived and in just 4 days there, he is having full conversations with his new teachers, has had zero accidents while potty training there, and is happy to go to daycare every morning. This weekend we walked past Kids & Co on the way to a coffee shop and he freaked out and started crying and screaming thinking that we were taking him there. I'm honestly so upset with myself that I waited so long to switch him.

When we first enrolled our son at Kids and Co the staff and director, Vanessa were amazing but…read morethings got very bad when the owners decided to merge the Harrison location and another location. The original staff took time to do activities with kids and teach them manners and work on developing their milestones. After the merger the new staff were extremely neglectful and lazy at their jobs. Things got so bad the original staff who had worked there for years were all gone within a month. I feel bad for Vanessa the wonderful environment she had worked to create was destroyed by the greed of the owners and the children suffered for it. After the old staff had all left we noticed a dramatic change in our son. He was once talkative and engaging but with the new staff after coming home he would be very quiet and still for an hour before he began interacting with us. We started paying more attention to the cameras and we saw the staff were locking up all the kids in seats with seat belts over an hour before closing time!!! We brought this up and they made excuses like "the kids want to run around while I'm cleaning". So we immediately removed our son. He has since been thriving at his new pre-school. One of the other parents who took longer to leave the school said her son started coming home saying swear words. Our son has been in a new preschool for a few months now and is happy and thriving.

Poor leadership, They have an app ,But it is hardly used by the staff .And with the holidays…read morecoming, The staff is suggesting not to come before and after Christmas, I mean 1 people have to work 2 what are we paying for .

Our daughter has been going to LGTH since she was 5 months old and now she is almost one. Honestly,…read morethis place wasn't our first choice, or even our second choice, but I am so glad we picked this location. Every Director and teacher is so nice and caring, but if you have an infant, the Lilac room is where you need to be. All the teachers in that room are amazing, but the lead teacher, Ms Brianna is amazing. Kind, thorough, sweet, organized, and keeps the class fun. We get updates all throughout the day with lots is pictures of our daughter having fun at music and Spanish class. We love all the culture she is being exposed too! We will be sad to leave if we ever have to move neighborhoods. 10/10 so far.

Worked here for 9 years. This place has high turnovers staffing especially upper management…read more Little green is not what it used to be. Their enrollment has drastically dropped and it shows when entering the school. The facility is dirty and cluttered. The rooms are not regularly cleaned not mopped, vacuumed, or especially deep cleaning the rugs regularly. The infant rooms are filthy. children who wear white or light colored clothing will not be that color during pickup that be the first sign of their "cleanliness". It's a pricy daycare 2,500 for full time children but the portion sizes for meals are not sufficient for children (same portion for an infant & a 4 year old). Ask to see pictures of portion size. The laundry machine has black mold growing for years. Children's clothes and toys are washed daily in hazardous filth. The enrollment director will say anything just for you to sign up, half of the times lies. Especially the rooftop it's not a play space it once used to be. The play structure is falling apart and the wood is rotting. Hence, why they don't tour the rooftop. They try pushing the "green environmental organic trend" nothing green about this place. The cloth organic diaper system was once great also falling apart. Cloth diapers come in shredded from being old, not cleaned properly many times cloths come in with previous stains. There was 2 incidents were an infant teacher broke a 6 month old infants leg. Same teacher burnt a child's leg causing 3rd degree burns. Nothing was done to the teacher, teacher still continues her journey with the place. Please be careful enrolling your children. This place sweeps everything under the rug to keep them afloat. Double think about your precious little one. This is not the daycare you want to enroll.