I came to ROI to help my team at Stanford Children's Hospital with a 15 minute team building ice…read morebreaker activity. Jay and Kelly put together the perfect package for me to meet the theme of an over 200 person event. They customized the activity to meet the specialty of the group of providers. The games and activities were unique and fun. The group loved the challenge of solving the critical thinking group puzzles with a twist. The activity was a big hit and we got lots of compliments. This is my second time working with ROI and I will definitely seek to work with ROI again especially for our large events. The fact that they made an activity that was so successful for such a large group of clinical leaders was impressive. Jay and Kelly have such a great track record of delivering high quality activities and events.

Jon hosted TikTok's Trust & Safety L&D (~15 people) onsite event in our Mountain View office two…read moreweeks ago and he did such a wonderful job keeping everyone engaged and entertained for 90 solid minutes in the sweltering heat. His instructions were clear, easy to follow, and we appreciated his level of energy and enthusiasm throughout the event. He was also able to adapt and adjust activities as necessary based on the allotted time and space. Overall, all of the team members had rave reviews about Jon and the event, so I'd like to give a personal Yelp shoutout to Jon and the team. We look forward to many more partnerships to come.

I made a gorgeous sf giants baseball themed bracelet at an oracle park event! The staff at…read moreDrangonfly designs made it super easy, explained how to do it and did the hard work of the clasp and finishing. They have oodles of pretty beads and charms, even a choice of silver or gold hardware. On the way out several tween girls asked and ran off excitedly to make their own. Highly recommend.

Our experience with Dragonfly Designs was so wonderful! We hired them for our daughter's 8th…read morebirthday party, and we had such positive interactions from the beginning with them. They were very responsive to my early inquiries and answered all of my questions very thoroughly. Once we decided to book with them, they walked me through the entire process from start to finish, made sure we were prepared for the big day, and checked in with me regularly. On the day of the party, they had 5 people at our home helping with our group of 22 children, and it was such a smooth, fun, creative, under-control party. The jewelry and tie-dye kept the kids engaged, all of the workers were very helpful and organized, and everything ran smoothly from start to finish. I would definitely use them again and recommend them to anyone without reservations.

Michelle and Tamara hosted our event at the university I work at for a division retreat. There were…read moreabout 14 of us and the "escape room" game was da bomb! I didn't know how they would bring the escape room to us but it was perfect. We were going to do an offsite with a location based one but timing and location wasn't working for us so I thought I'd try breakout IQ. I'm so glad I did! It is a true test of team building and communication. The facilitation at the start was great. It really spoke to what I wanted my staff and me to get out of it. And the debrief was on par as well. It fit in nicely with the theme of our day long retreat. Besides fun it was educational on an individual and group level. I would totally use them again to facilitate for one of our student groups or even with other cross campus partners. Thank you!!

I reached out to BreakoutIQ looking to host an event for 50-60 people and Rahul immediately reached…read moreout to learn more. Our team had a few date changes, but through it all he was very flexible and accommodating. The day of the event, they sent instructions and had a staff on site setting up. They explained the rules of the escape room/scavenger hunt and we were broken in to teams and we were off. Overall, everyone had a great time and already asking when we could do another. Thank you so much, BreakoutIQ!

We came with a group of 55+ people for a corporate event, and everyone had such a good time! The…read morecouple that runs this cocktail and pizza making class were so nice, super fun, and really engaging. Everyone had a blast. The drinks were yummy and the pizza was so good! I finally got to try making pizza from scratch. They had a real pizza oven and a ton of pizza toppings to choose from. I could see this being a great fit for not only corporate events, but birthdays, big get togethers, holiday parties. Just be sure to uber or get a shuttle because there isn't much parking in this residential area.

One of the best and fun classes I have attended. We booked city of cocktail for my gfs birthday for…read more16 attendees. It was a seamless process with booking reached out to Amy the event coordinator, super easy to work with. Kevin the instructor and owner was what made this event so much fun! The stories, the jokes really made the event so much fun! He is really knowledgeable and really helped the group make some really delicious drinks like an old fashion and cosmo! Highly recommend coming and booking with them!

This place was pretty rad! Located in downtown San Jose with easy paid parking lot next to the…read morebuilding thats hardly full on a weekend plus there was a sharks hockey game that night. I went with a group of 8 and we did the Silicon Valley room in what is a jail cell. A ton of super cool brain teasing tasks to complete. We decided to try "hard mode" which only allowed us to get 3 hints from the game master. Pretty cool, they give you a walkie talkie to ask for hints if you get stuck. We came to find out that 3 hints was not enough about 20 minutes in haha! We went off hard mode and had the game master help us a few more times. Very cool experience and almost everyone in our group had helped in some way shape or form. Nice job with this escape room!

My family and I did the 'Secrets in the Attic' escape room for my mom's birthday last month. This…read morewas my first escape room and it was so much fun! Our host (I want to say his name was Skyler) was such a treat! He gave just the right balance of a spooky/fun vibe. I gotta say, it was somewhat difficult but we got through it with a few clues from Skyler. I definitely would book this again to explore a different room!

Not my favorite escape room. While it's always fun to try and solve puzzles with your teammates, I…read moredidn't really like the way the game was organized. We had a group of 9 people, all part of 1 team. There are 4 rooms in total to solve. They move you through each of the 4 rooms for 7.5 minutes and then it's open time for the last half hour so you can solve the rooms in which you didn't yet crack the code. The puzzles here are quite complicated and it would have been better if they allowed us to break ourselves up into mini groups to divide and conquer the different rooms. As the rooms themselves are small with only 1-2 puzzles really to solve, you end up having way too many cooks in the kitchen and only a couple of people actively working on cracking the code while the others loiter around. Also, not good for people who don't like being crammed into small spaces. I'm also used to the game master walking us through each of the puzzles at the end to explain how we should have solved it, which ours did not, even though I had requested her to.

The Mad Hatter game is definitely different than other escape rooms I've been to before. My…read moreexperience was different than the game play that other people had described in their reviews though. We had a group of 8, and the game master kept us all together for the first half of the game. Then, we got the option to do whatever we want for the second half of the game. I do like this format, but I think having 3 ppl per room was probably enough to solve the puzzle. Maybe it's a personal preference, but this game required too much brain power from me LOL. I like finding and piecing together the puzzles with my hand, but the puzzle here requires logical thinking (the type that requires jotting down notes).

Lately friends have been in an artsy mood and I'm always happy to oblige. I used to be quite crafty…read moreand a pseudo artist back in the day when I worked for an ad agency in SF....awww memories. Fast forward many, many years later I seem to have lost that creative side (other than cooking!) and haven't done much arts and crafts so this was a nice reprieve from the usual. My friend picked a day we were painting Hocus Pocus since it was close to Halloween...I never watched the movie but game to take a class as I haven't done a "paint-and-sip" since my first time in Danville. The concept is having wine and cheese while the instructor guides you thru each step of your painting. After 2 hours of painting, laughs and seeing everyone else's "interpretation" on the subject, you have an end product to take home. A fun experience for all creative levels even if you think you don't have a creative side. The whole point is to go with the flow and have fun. ...and it's not the wine talking. Other classes offered: fused glass, painted charcuterie boards, light saber class (yeah hmmm!), painted wine glass and kids summer camps. Highly recommend for a date night, private event, team building or something different to experience!

Came here on a Saturday night and we were the only 2 in the class but it was still an amazing…read moreexperience - it was a private class in the end! Good: - Everything was prepared when we got there, and we just needed to put on some art aprons and we had all the brushes and paints in front of us - Tami was a great teacher and super fun! I enjoyed getting guidance on how to make the painting better and she gave us tips on blending paints too - We got rose with our painting and it came out immediately so it was easy to sip and paint - Our paintings turned out great in the end! I was pleasantly surprised by the final result and was happy with the progress from start to finish Bad: - The studio was pretty empty so it felt a little sad that we were the only ones Overall this was a great date experience and I'd recommend to others looking for something slightly different than their usual date night activity. Reasonably priced too.

Ever since buying a place a few years ago, I've wanted to learn how to cook. Not just to make it by…read morewithout starving, but really learn how to make quality food at home--I'm a foodie after all. ;-) This is the best cooking class company I've taken classes at to help me move closer to my goal. Highlights: - Format: A combination of demo and hands on which is the perfect mix: "see then do" as they say. Thorough and educational with detailed information on not only cooking techniques, but also the equipment (helpful gadgets in some cases), ingredients, their origins, and health benefits. I left each class feeling like I was becoming a more educated and better chef already. I've been to classes at Home Chef (when it was in SJ), Whole Foods (Cup and San Mateo), and Sur La Table (LG), and while those were fun, I didn't really learn as much as I would have liked. - Teacher: friendly, approachable, easy to learn from, comical, seems to genuinely care about her food and the people in her class, and knows her stuff. Chef Suzanne Vandyck has the culinary credentials and has even authored a cookbook. She tells you little tricks here and there along with fun stories of her travels and related eats to give it a personal touch. - Environment: very casual and comfortable. Questions are encouraged throughout and you don't feel intimidated chiming in with one during the demo or while cooking. I've been to classes where you felt like you were learning from a cooking nazi: if you didn't use the right spoon or something she'd snip at you. I want to learn, but this is for fun. I like more hakuna matata attitude here. As Chef Suzanne says, "In a restaurant it has to be perfect, at home it's ok." :-) - International Themes: I took the Easy and Healthy Japanese cooking class but they offer Italian, French, Mediterranean, Spanish, etc. I was a bit weary of learning Japanese food from a lady from Belgium, but she had enough traveling, visiting with locals, eating, and cooking experience to portray the authentic styles. I lived in Japan for a few years and eat Japanese food a good deal and learned tons from her class. - Great recipes: everything that we made was scrumptious. I loved being able to know how to make the classic Japanese sauces (tempura, miso, etc.) There are always options either written down or noted verbal during the demo so you know how you can change it up to suit your tastes or ingredients you have handy. - Salads: when you sign up, you can see what dishes will be made and I was enticed by the entrees. After all was said and done I did enjoy the entrees like expected, but was surprised to be blown away by the salads. The watercress and then spinach salads with dressings we made on our own were amazing. - Recipe handouts: before class you get a few pages stapled together of the recipes of the day. The teacher not only includes pictures up top, but a nice little paragraph of the story and background about what the dish is. - Plating: after Chef Suzanne makes an item, she plates them on beautiful little authentic Japanese plates (since I took the Japanese class) and organizes the food so it looks professional and impressive. Since I want to be a Top Chef quality chef, I love learning these plating skills to make my dishes visually appealing and fancier than the average home cooked meal. 8-) - Leftovers: sometimes there's a lot of food, so if you bring a container you can take some to enjoy at home - People: After the demos we break up into groups and make a few recipes. I didn't take the class to meet new people, but I made some nice friends through the few sessions we've have. - Class time said 6-9:30pm which I was initially worried sounded a bit long, but we usually finished by 9 or earlier so I could make it home to watch Grey's just slightly delayed on TiVo. ;-) - Location: most of the quality classes I have seen are in the city which is hard to get to on a weeknight. These are held closer to home in Cupertino and Santa Clara. Lowlights (my flip side to highlights): - How much fun you have cooking depends on the group you end up in--just normal group dynamics and personalities, etc. - Not optimal equipment: this is where it's a pro to go to a specialty store like Sur La Table or Whole Foods: the equipment will be more top notch. Our class was at Cupertino High School which had dull knives, old silverware, etc. They also didn't have any chopsticks to use in our Japanese class, so we brought our own. - Sometimes she changes the recipe from what's written down so you just have to be aware and take notes on your handouts. - Some classes you get a snack pretty early on but others you don't get to eat until 8:30pm, so you may want to have a snack before just in case. I'm so happy to have found this cooking school and will be looking to take more classes in the future!

Highly recommend Chef Suzanne and Worldchefs International!…read more I've taken Italian cooking classes, garlic cooking classes and a team-building cooking class. All spectacular... Highlights of courses: *Picked up FANTASTIC recipes that I still cook today... *Learned how to use quality ingredients to make delicious dishes *Met some great people *Paid close to nothing to learn from a top-notch chef and her colleagues Minuses: *May be challenging if you are with a group of people whom are unaccustomed to being in the kitchen... Favorite dishes that I still cook today zuppa di ceci (Italian garbanzo bean soup), pizza margherita, paella (Spanish rice dish), chicken marsala, risotto, minestrone soup, non-alcoholic sangria, and flourless chocolate cake.

First, there were 75 reactions to my original post plus I received many messages from families who…read morefelt mistreated. I just want to express my deep sorrow for every family who has been mislead and mistreated by this school. It has been devastating to get a glimpse of the dark reality. Final update: this school is even worse and more corrupt than before, in my carefully considered and humble opinion. We had a deeply concerning and disturbing set of interactions with the new director, Luthern. I remain proud of the way that we handled our interactions, and very bothered by the way he treated us. Furthermore, we undetstand that they are removing and/or drastically reducing the nature campus component of their program which was a huge part of the draw in the first place. We are thrilled that this chapter is permanently closed for us. We finally found the most outstanding school for our children, and we will never look back. Good riddance to a poorly run institution with what we believe is an unethical and corrupt administration. And by the way, the "Gifted Qualitative Assessment" is manipulable. It's largely based on parent surveys, and which parent searching for a school for gifted children won't see their kids as gifted? We all do. Your best bet if you're not a founding family is to make sure you have a ton of money and that you are willing to part with in their capital campaign, and always tread cautiously when it comes to expressing yourself authentically.

Having a preschool aged child, I speak to many families about their interest in Tessellations, so I…read morethought it'd be helpful to share my experiences with children in both the K-8 and preschool programs. When my son was struggling in a more traditional education setting (with boredom causing other issues), and as we thought about the skills and traits to nurture in an evolving world, we found what we wanted with Tessellations. "Challenging experiential education" is a core part of Tessellations' mission, and I see it everyday in the projects, conversations, and enthusiasm for school. I've seen the growth in my children's capability and confidence in tackling new problems, and their continued curiosity. It's amazing to me that in 4th grade, my son and his friends can talk excitedly about the latest non-fiction book they are reading, which could span many subjects. One of their favorite games just involves taking turns talking through imagined adventure scenarios. (And that's when they're not being active - I hear that most of their recess and lunch is spent playing dodgeball across many grades.) Video game addiction is pervasive in these times, but I feel we have a haven from it here. The kids have so many interests that gaming is just one of many. Social emotional learning ("SEL") is a priority at Tessellations, and though many schools now say they focus on this, it can be an elusive goal. One evidence I see is how kids (K-8) play together across many grades: this requires empathy and adjustment. I believe that this is promoted by the general culture, the kinds of kids here, and mixed grade classrooms. The preschool program, called Tessellations Children's Center (TCC), started just last year, has been equally wonderful for our younger child. The teachers, who are engaging and observant, supervise almost a full day of free choice time, play-based learning, and novel activity options. Recently they planted vegetables, learned about space, drew self-portraits, and experimented with pendulums. Note that TCC is separate from the K-8 school, and kids must go through a separate admissions process for Kindergarten. Although my kids have loved the school, I'm giving 4 stars since it's been a bumpy ride, and I feel for those who've been affected. We've had growing pains and changes in leadership as we've grown to Pre-K through 9th in just four years. Many admin (and parents) have felt stretched thin as they balance competing needs. As we evolve from a startup to a larger, more established school, there will continue to be bumps. During this time, I'm so grateful to the amazing teachers, and staff, including our new & experienced Acting Head of School, pouring their hearts into the school and mission. Even though Tessellations has grown incredibly quickly, it is just one school, and not enough to handle the tremendous demand for progressive and gifted education, especially in the Bay Area. I hope we will see more schools that cultivate the love for learning and holistic development like this one.

I received a freebie introductionary offer to attend a seminar. It was in the area of networking…read morefor women, something I felt I needed to learn more about. It was ok for a freebie course. I felt they were more women centric, which I liked. They also have coaches and management consultants that you can hire for individual consultations and intact work teams. Teaching teambuilding, communication, etc... Since I have access through my HR connections, this didn't meet a need of mine since I have personal connections with HR consultants. For a woman leader/manager/supervisor who doesn't, this would be a decent jump off point to find out more about professional management coaching.