My son has been at Bright Start Academy- Columbia East for nearly 3 years, and we love it! We were…read moreinitially pleased with the security features and the cleanliness of the facility- important when our son was an infant. But these days he's a rambunctious preschooler, and we're still driving out of our way to go to BSA. He has a big classroom full of toys and large outdoor play areas. My favorite part is the low turnover of students, so even though it's a big daycare center, he's been with the same group of kids since they were tiny babies. They've practically grown up as siblings! Center-based care is amazing for its dependability. I never have to scramble to find emergency childcare. The administrative staff is super professional, and the turnover of teachers is very low too. I thought it would be a revolving door of college-age students, but there are full-time teachers for each classroom. They all remember my son's name and say hello every day! I can drop by anytime during the day and peek in at my son through the 2-way mirrors in each classroom. I also get daily updates and pictures through an app so that I can see all the fun he's having. My son loves going to school each day to see his friends and play. He comes home knowing new songs and reciting the months of the year and counting to 20 and it's all wonderful. I know my son is getting good care there, and he's safe and loved!

From the owner: Bright Start Academy is fully accredited and follows strict guidelines and high standards of the…read moreNational Early Childhood Program Accreditation (NECPA). National Accreditation is a mark of excellence that very few preschools achieve. To become Nationally Accredited our programs have to be proficient in 29 key concept areas, including health, safety, administration, teacher qualifications and continuing education requirements, developmentally appropriate curriculum, communication, community involvement and more. Maintaining our NECPA Accreditation is an ongoing commitment proving Bright Start Academy goes beyond Missouri State Licensing requirements in order to provide the highest-quality care.

Garden Gate holds a special place in my heart. This preschool took my reserved little boy in with…read moreopen arms helping both him (and his parents!) during the difficult transition of letting him go off on his own. He now comes home humming the songs and retelling the stories he's learned in story time; he insists that "toe-food" (tofu) is ok, but the bread he helped make tastes much better! When I come to pick him up I find myself lingering because it's tranquil even with little ones running around pretending to be pirates or chasing fairies. What I mean to say is that this pre school has both nurtured my little one and our family as we grow together, and I am grateful.

We have been so happy with your years at Garden Gate- a place for kids to be kids. Play-based,…read morenutritious, thoughtful food. Fun in the sun, rain, snow, and puddles! A really wholistic approach to preschool.

I am SO happy I found this preschool for my son! We moved here from out of state, and I was looking…read morefor a small preschool, one that would have a cozy, caring feeling for his last year before entering the "big, bad" world of kindergarten. Although they do the typical preschool "academic" work, there is a big emphasis on play which I feel is so necessary for this age. The kids have lots of time to do art, activities, play outside, etc while learning. My son absolutely loves coming to school. His teacher Mrs. Triere is wonderful, and Jackie the director is as nice as could be. She gets to know the parents and all the children, you can tell she really cares about everyone who walks into that preschool. Oh, I also like that the day goes until 1pm, so my son eats lunch there, which makes him feel like a big kid (and gives me a nice break)! This is a great choice if you are looking for a small, play-based preschool that will really focus on your kid as an individual. Its not church-based either, in case that is important (I found most preschools in this area were, which was new for me).

Very disappointing. After my son's second day in the 4-5 class Ms. Jackie labeled him as special…read moreneeds and has insisted that at 4 years old he be labeled as such and enroll in the IEP program through CPS. Because his parents don't agree with her diagnosis, which she took upon herself to forward to CPS on his third day without our consent, he is no longer welcome at the school. If you want a preschool where they think they know better than the parents and it's Ms. Jackie's way or the highway then sign up for Down to Earth preschool. Personally, I think it is appalling that they would expel a child from school because they think he has a learning disability.

The Academy is truly an amazing place for children. The Head Teachers are of the highest quality…read moreand the retention of the Head Teachers is hands-down above and beyond my expectations in this industry. The children are loved, cared for, and valued. The facilities are beautiful with the East location being located on acres of parkscape. I highly recommend both locations and know you will be pleased with your experience.

The Academy of Early Childhood Learning is a great daycare! The teachers work with their students,…read moreas if was their own child!! If the child has special diets, the cooks do take special attention, to accommodate to that childs needs! I would recommend this daycare for a good start!!

We love Countryside! The program includes a lot of fun, age-appropriate activities and the director…read moreis extremely responsive and really a wonderful teacher and person. Our child was on the old side for her grade and they were able to adapt to try to meet some of her interests and needs even though they weren't always in line with the rest of the class. Would highly recommend to anyone.

My 2-year-old attends Green Meadows and we love it. She's got high-functioning autism, and has…read moretherapists visiting her at school every day. The school has been extremely accommodating to her and her therapists, including making her special food when needed and providing a space for her therapists to work with her. She has a habit of wandering, so they rearranged furniture in her classroom to discourage that. Sometimes they do let her wander into other classrooms towards the end of the day - and every teacher in the building knows her and is happy to play with her. Even the director seems to genuinely love our child. Sure, it's not cheap, but I know my daughter is well cared for at Green Meadows.

My toddler attends GMP, and we love it. They teachers and staff are wonderful. It is not the…read morecheapest place in town, but it is well worth the money.

Our children attended LPE in 2020-21, the first school year following the start of the COVID…read morepandemic; our 5-year-old son was enrolled as a Kindergarten student, our 2-year-old daughter as a preschooler. There was a high likelihood of Columbia's (very good) public schools relying on virtual or hybrid learning that fall, and we worried about our son's ability to thrive under those conditions. My spouse had the opportunity to return to the workplace that fall after being a stay-at-home mom for five years, and LPE's proximity to our home and its commitment to maintaining a safe, healthy, in-person learning environment gave her the confidence she needed to move forward with that job. While we were excited about our children attending a school where they would learn a second language, I will readily confess that the dual-language nature of the school was less important to us than the prospect of the kids attending school in-person. We never hid the fact that we would likely send our kids to public schools in future years, once the pandemic had subsided. The school's administration tolerated this, but we could always tell that it irked them a bit; that said, we weren't the only family who were using LPE that year as an emergency measure. Both of our children really thrived in their dual-language learning. My wife and I do not speak or read French and have no familial, social, or professional connections to French-speaking regions, so it wasn't a language the kids were hearing us use at home. The fact that they absorbed so much is a testament to the efficacy of language immersion. We no longer live in Columbia, and while we like our current home, we always find ourselves wishing that more language-immersion programs existed around here. Columbia is lucky to have at least two of these schools. (Maybe more?) I must commend LPE for its COVID protocols that year. Teachers and staff used PPE and worked hard to ensure that the school's various pods of students did not mingle and mix in ways that would spread illness. If I remember correctly, the school only closed once during the entire 2020-21 school year out of an abundance of caution--the ill staff ended up testing negative for COVID. Our son completed Kindergarten at LPE. Sadly, our 2-year-old daughter was asked to leave midway through the school year. We've learned in the four-plus years since that she has autism. This disability was already manifesting itself in its toddler years, often in the form of sensory sensitivities, difficulty with transitions, and delayed skill development. Unfortunately for us, LPE's administration and staff were wholly unprepared for her needs. We understand that it can be difficult to work with a toddler who is not behaving like her peers; that said, the degree of obstinance and cold-heartedness exhibited by some key individuals was shocking at times. One administrator in particular took pride in what she characterized as a traditional disciplinary approach to childcare. She may believe it is appropriate, and I've certainly read favorable comments from families who share her philosophy. But in our opinion, she spent far too much time engaging in power struggles with our small child, interpreting any of our daughter's inabilities to meet expectations as willful disrespect of authority. More than once, this person told us, "Your daughter knows what to do but is choosing not to," or, "She's making bad decisions, and I must let her know that we will not tolerate that." She routinely punished our daughter for not completing worksheets, not engaging in activities, or even not drinking out of a cup properly, by making her sit on a pillow in the hallway or in an otherwise empty room for hours at a time. She responded with exasperation when we noted that we were not disciplining our daughter at home for her shortcomings at school. It was clear from her comments to us that she felt we were failing the school by not taking an equally hard line with a child who was trying her best in the moment. Whether it's France or Belgium or the US, this is 19th-century behavior. Families are welcome to pay for it; I certainly wouldn't have had we been aware of other options and had a better understanding of our child's disability. Thankfully, we found a far more welcoming, patient, and acccommodating dual-language school on the other side of town. That school was founded by families who liked LPE's immersion approach, but not the more peculiar and dictatorial aspects of its pedagogy. I don't blame them. Yelp has suppressed a 2014 review from Crystal B. that expresses a lot of these concerns. Reviews by parents and former staff published on other websites mention this same authoritarian mindset. That's a sign that this wasn't a temporary problem brought on by the very real stresses of the COVID pandemic. It was real. Let's hope it has changed.

Loving the adult French classs with Maxime as instructor I look forward to next sessionread more