Pssssst! Are you a…read moreparent in the Reno-Tahoe area with a kidlet that's between 3 and 5 years old? Have you spent countless hours wading through websites and reading reviews trying to find a loving, safe and affordable program for your preschooler to attend? Look no further--your search is over. Annie and Friends Preschool is the hidden gem you've been looking for. This program is truly the best-kept secret of early childhood education in the greater Northern Nevada area. The school offers phenomenal instruction with a robust, well-developed curriculum that goes far beyond the accreditation standards for Washoe County, the State of Nevada and the NAEYC. The school's principal and lead instructor, Miss Annie, holds a master's degree in early childhood education from Arizona State University. The caliber of her background plus her many years of teaching experience really sets this program apart from others in the area. Learning is tailored to each child's talents, strengths and learning styles. Each child is given a phenomenal opportunity to achieve cognitive milestones within a loving and supporting environment. The most exciting thing? Our son is reading and doing simple addition/subtraction problems! He is well on his way to being prepared for kindergarten next year. Thanks to Miss Annie's creative lesson planning, he has also learned empathy towards others and positive ways to express his emotions. Our son comes home every day excited about the world around him while discovering his place in it. We are amazed that this level of world-class instruction is available here in the Reno-Tahoe area at such an affordable price. We are so thankful we found Annie and Friends!

We absolutely adore Annie & her school. Our daughter is in her 2nd year at the school & thriving!…read moreShe's learned so much and has so many friends thanks to this school. Annie plans engaging lessons for the kiddos & sends a weekly write up of what they did at the end of week that is so helpful. Annie communicates well with parents & is always easy to talk to. I also feel that she truly cares about my child & offers the tender care that is so critical for little ones. I am already sad for preschool to end but I know my girl has been given a wonderful foundation thanks to Annie.

We LOVE Creative World. I cannot recommend it highly enough. We are so sad to graduate and leave…read morethis amazing school behind. Our kids: - were excited to be there every day - were surrounded by wonderful, nurturing teachers who balanced play with development. Our kids were beyond prepared for kindergarten in every sense. - made tons of friends, including from younger and older classes because there's some cross-over play time. It's small enough that every teacher knew our kids well. - loved the facility - the rooms have a super happy energy and the backyard is shady and full of activities - had the option to participate in a wide range of extra activities that the school coordinates to take place onsite - Spanish, soccer, swimming, gymnastics, dance Both of my daughters attended from age 3 onward and I only wish we'd started there sooner because the difference in their happiness between their first preschool and Creative World was so stark. We're so grateful to everyone there who played such a pivotal role in our children's lives (and ours in taking such good care of them!). We've since recommended it to a number of friends, who've all had similarly fantastic experiences.

My daughter started at Creative World as she was ready for a school that challenged her intellect…read moreand provided her a calm environment to play. My daughter used to hit someone everyday at her last school and once she transferred to Creative World, her behaviors just stopped. The teachers are caring, calm, fun, and understand the needs of my daughter. The playground is the best in Reno and she has extracurriculars provided through the school. I know my daughter is safe and loved while she's at school. The owner Liz is understanding and knows what's important to families and I feel so blessed to call Creative World our preschool.

Primrose is a wonderful school. My daughter has been there since it opened and loves it 1.5 years…read morelater. Primrose has nurturing teachers, convenient pick up and drop off times, a diversity of healthy snacks and meals, compassionate administrators, and a lovely community of parents. They have date night options as well as camps for school breaks for my older child. Their curriculum is fun, creative, and developmentally appropriate, with dance and sports extras. My 4 year old has school readiness skills and phonetic awareness that rivals what my son, who attended a play based day care, had at the end of kindergarten. As a full time working mom, I am so impressed by the school and thankful for this high quality and reliable care.

We have had an outstanding experience at Primrose School of South Reno. I cannot recommend this…read moreschool enough! We transferred our toddler to Primrose when they opened in October as we were not satisfied with our previous care provider. Enrollment in Primrose is the best childcare decision we've made for our daughter. Her vocabulary, both verbal and through sign language, greatly improved after enrollment. The toddler lesson plans are fun and educational so she's constantly surprising us at home with what she's learned in school. We are very pleased with her progress. Primrose uses the Procare application to update parents throughout the day and send general school notifications. We receive updates regarding our child's diapering, nap times (she consistently naps on her cot for 2-2.5 hours) and how much she's eating. We also get the occasional picture and she looks so happy in each one! Primrose provides a balanced meal plan and I'm satisfied in knowing my child is getting all the nutrients her body needs. She loves the food and has expanded her palate. I'm happy she finally likes noodles too! Honestly, she eats better than I do during the work week! Also, the chef is very friendly. My daughter waves to her during most morning drop-offs. I'm told they often wave to each other during the day since the toddler classroom is across from the kitchen too. I love how much fun the chef has with the children too. The school has a great security system which is important to my husband and I. You are unable to enter the building without a code and the outdoor play areas have tall rod iron fences. They practice monthly fire drills too. We are 100% confident in our daughter's safety at Primrose. Regarding cleanliness, teachers are cleaning throughout the day, they purchased electro-static sprayers to disinfect twice per week, and there's a cleaning company that comes in 5 days a week to sanitize high touch surfaces. I believe there are also air purifiers in the classrooms. It is clear that Bethany and Alonzo, the owners of this franchise location, are passionate about childcare and education, as are the Primrose teachers. They are all dedicated to the children and present a fun, caring and educational environment. I love the updates and conversations I have with them during pick-ups. I can't rave about Primrose School of South Reno enough. We look forward to long-term childcare with this school and feel blessed to be a Primrose pioneer!

My daughter went to Small Strides for a full year and it was an ok experience. I'll be talking…read moreabout the location that they have in the Rancharrah area. My daughter started going at 3 months old and the baby room that she was in was incredible. The main teachers in her classroom in the morning were on top of it and overall the classroom was very organized. OH, and we loved receiving her art work. Despite the crazy schedule the teachers had with these newborn babies, the way they were able to insert art time for memories I was definitely delighted how they did it all! Now talking about the second classroom she transitioned to as she got a little older and meeting her milestones, her teachers in that classroom were also great! I loved how they all knew my daughter's schedule and were on top of it. And in both classes, I really appreciated how they informed me right away or my husband when stuff happened. Now I'm going to talk about the cons in this paragraph which explains why I'm giving this place a 4/5 rating. It was frustrating when my daughter's things got misplaced from other kiddos and this happened a lot. They reminded parents to label and whatnot but things started to go missing. Another incident is when there was an issue with a staff that I just had to address with the owner and I was glad it got handled well because as a parent, no parent should be coming in feeling unwelcome and uncomfortable. And lastly, towards the last two months of my daughter's stay, she has gotten bit at least 10 times. My husband and I let it go and just kept letting it go until we finally addressed it to them but then on her last week it happened. Her marks were awful and I was not happy but I let it go since she wasn't staying there for long. Overall, I do appreciate the teachers who cared for my daughter and all their hard work they provide for all these kiddos. It was an ok daycare experience but I am so delighted to be a SAHM now and be with my kids under my care.

First off let me say that we didn't realize how great Small Strides daycare/preschool was until we…read moremoved out of state or how difficult it was to find a daycare that met the level of expectations that Small Strides had set. Needles to say, Small Strides set the bar very high. We had our son in Small Strides at 3 months as a first time mom, it was a nervous experience. However the teachers are very nice and caring, I went in the middle of the day to breastfeed and all the babies were well taken care of and happy. At the time (it may have changed) they didn't use swings or bouncers for the babies, because the owner felt that the babies should be held if/when they get fussy. And it's just too easy to put a baby in a bouncer or swing and leave them there. I never thought about it, but so true and I loved this concept. Our son was there until he turned about 2.5 when we moved to NJ. He learned his shapes, had learned how to count to 18 (in Spanish and English), knew his colors (in English and was beginning to learn them in Spanish), and so many other things. While the kids did get free play time, whenever my husband or I would show up unannounced it always seemed organized. Kids rarely were just running around in complete chaos and most times were engaged in a group activity. Because the daycare was small we knew all the teachers, and they all knew the kids by name even if they weren't in their assigned classroom. This made it easy for our son to transition between classrooms, and truthfully, he walked around like he owned the place lol. We saw the same teachers for the most of the entire 2+ years that we were there, which says something about the owner and the facility due to what seemed to be low turnover. The Owner/Director was always available and worked the front desk in addition to being involved in the classrooms day to day if needed, so any issues you could always reach her. And because she was always at the school and involved, you could tell that she had a vested interest in ensuring that the teachers and students had what they needed to succeed. Not to mention she knew every kid by name. While there isn't the new technology that some larger daycares have (online video that parents can tap into or tablets to send parents reports and pics), this is a definite plus (having now experienced a daycare with this technology). Filling out the kids daily report each day and evening allows you to meet and get to know the other parents and kids (making it feel more homey and safe) and the teachers are much more engaged with the kids since they aren't on the tablets all day updating the kids logs. Though there isn't online viewing for parents (at that time)video , they do record all the classrooms, so if there was ever an issue the owner and parent can review the video records. We've come to find that many of the daycares have the online viewing option, but don't record. So if something were to happen, and unless you were watching at just the right time, you would never know. The online viewing is really just a false sense of security in my opinion. We can't speak highly enough of Small Strides and are still in search for a daycare/preschool that meets these expectations.

Parent of an MVM student. This school is not for everyone…read more You are enrolling your family, not just the child. It's important to have a clear understanding what your family is signing up for, when you're looking into Montessori education (Seeing complaints about having to attend a pre-application presentation- why is this a problem? This teaching method is very different than what most parents had grown up with. This presentation is not just a 'check-the-box' exercise. It is to be sure you can commit to and subscribe to the methods they employ (as parents are expected to engage in the school and mirror teaching methods in their home environments (the Teachers visit your home to learn about the child's home environment)). Better to find out that's not something you can commit your family to prior to enrolling (vs. finding out after you've started). Children operate in developmental plains and the classrooms and learning materials reflect that. Pre through K (3yrs, same Teacher, same classroom). Grade 1-3, Grade 4-6, Grade 7-8). Learning is crafted around the child's interest, and at the child's pace, to try to instill the desire to explore, learn, and problem solve (rather than being dictated to and introducing learning through memorization). A child is 'on-track' if they're developing towards the next plain of learning (not through an annual calendar progression or standardized testing). There is a time for that but preparing for testing is not the primary focus of this school until they approach middle-school (again, they're focused on ensuring the desire to learn and achieve is fostered). Caring for your community and developing empathy are also core values of the school. Schooling does not have to be a competition (those who are solely signing up for a 'private school' pedigree will likely be disappointed as Montessori is not solely focused on academic achievement). We've found Montessori methods are helping us to mold a young mind into a productive, caring, empathetic, engaged member of their community. To have a desire to explore and learn. That is what we hope to instill in our kid, and reflect in our family and community.

We wanted to love the Montessori platform so much that I think it was a huge detriment to our kids…read moredevelopment. This school in particular with its administration, values chores and task driven activities over academics. We decided to pull our two daughters out of the school and move them to public where services are available and they have improved immensely, but unfortunately, they are still behind all of their peers. Every single staff member we work with in the public school setting tells us the same thing, montessori does not have a high standard in academics as they do not test and score like they don in public schools, which is import to catch where they are behind before it's too late and provide that supplemental support/early intervention. The administrators at MVM knew of the problems our kids were facing because they did do some assessments and said they will catch up but that's what they tell every parent, and coming forward with our story we are finding more and more parents just like us with the same exact story line! We believe this school to be unethical and driving a myth behind the montessori platform. If we could go back and change we would never have look in the direction of MVM.

Our experience wasn't as positive. My first negative was not receiving the invitation email to the…read moreopen house prior to school beginning. After expressing my disappointment that the email never arrived to my inbox (or a number of parents' apparently), they were unapologetic and just said I "couldn't do preschool wrong." And so we showed up 5 minutes early on the first day (expecting instruction to begin at 8:30 and dropoff to be taking place then...but the parking lot was empty). I felt stupid ringing the doorbell, having seen teachers already enter the door, and having no one respond. I was new and this surely didn't sit well. Perhaps we were early, but considering I missed the open house to an internal error, perhaps explaining the rules 5 minutes early on day 1 would've been more inviting to a brand new family. Perhaps I could "do preschool wrong" after all. This was my son's third preschool. I have a lot of experience in school settings. He went to a fabulous 2yo program in IL, then paid public preschool and since we moved here recently and all the programs were about full, we had few options. I went on a whim and signed up here. Maybe it's a local culture thing (coming from CA and IL), but I'm an elementary school teacher myself and the structure and schedule were much too lax. Drop-off was "anytime between 8:30 and 9:30" and "we start instruction sometime between 9:30 and 10", which meant the first hour + was glorified daycare. Some days he would be the only student there for the first half hour! I didn't feel this program would adequately prepare my Pre-K student (who thrives on schedules and activities) for real Kindergarten and rigorous standards next year. I am definitely hyper vigilant (and maybe a little tiger mom) being a teacher myself, but with the laissez faire approach, it likely fit other families better than our family. I guess first impressions really do stick, because we just never quite got our groove after that first day and are now sending our son to another program that he is absolutely loving.

I put my youngest daughter in preschool at South Reno United Methodist Church after receiving many…read morereferrals from fellow parents and neighbors. I have to say that it has been such an amazing experience. Miss Jamie, the director, is great and all of the teachers are wonderful. The preschool is clean, bright and cheerfully decorated with children's artwork. My daughter has grown so much in the short time that we have been there. Miss Fran, her teacher, is great with children and is still always doing fun activities, singing songs and coming up with creative ways to teach the kids. The preschool is located on Mount Rose highway and is very easy to get to if you live in the South Reno area.

We enrolled our little guy about 5 months ago and everyone here has been great! It was a little…read morerough in the beginning (drop offs) but the teachers are very accommodating. Special shoutout to Ms. Celeste and Ms. Courtney- they are amazing and soooo good with our little one! It's been great to watch him grow and we love the picture updates we get :)

This place is amazing mr. Mark is the best my son is excelling all academics. This place is highly…read morerecommended in my book

My son loves it here! Very clean facility and loving teachers. Kailynn does a great job with…read moreeverything. They are definitely a blessing in our life

My child was injured by another child here. Teacher told me that she didn't know how it…read morehappened.Very bad experience.

This was our first daycare and decided to try it out with a referral from a family member. Our…read moredaughter was 2 years old to at the start of her time there. We loved our first teacher, Mrs. Debbie. She was very understanding and helpful as we were first time parents and this was all new to us. Also, Mrs. Camille was very helpful as we understood our daughter can be hard headed at times so she was very understanding. Unfortunately, that's really where our good experiences stopped. I will spare the paragraphs and paragraphs of complaints I can list, but to make it short, my wife and I were constantly reminded of how much of a "troublemaker" our daughter was. We would consistently receive attitude and dirty looks when our daughter did not have a good day. We also were potty training and got to a good point where she was having no accident overnight or during the day during the 2 week winter break and that's is when she was moved to the "3's classroom." Upon returning to school she regressed significantly and constantly complained of rashes and pain, and we were blamed for this regression and told that if she does not improve, they would "not be able to accommodate her in this facility." The end our experience was when we received a call that we needed to meet with the director upon picking up our daughter. That day, we met in a room and I was told that our daughter choked another child (which she has NEVER done that at home or anywhere for that matter) and handed 6 MONTHS worth of "discipline issues" that we were never asked to meet about before. They told us that that day was her last day and that she was not to return to the school. From our perception, it seemed that her "behavior issues" were less behavior problems, and more a lack of stimulation/ wasn't the typical easy child that will just sit and be quiet. Our daughter has since started at a new school and has not had any of the issues listed above, and in fact we are told every week how good she is doing and how much fun she is having. At home since starting the new school we have been amazed at how much she has learned and how much she loves going to school.

My daughter loves going to preschool at Sonshine. Every morning she asks if it's a school day, and…read morecheers when it is. We love this place. The teachers are caring yet firm, as any good preschool teacher should be. There is a curriculum and there is plenty of traditional classroom-type learning as well as play-based learning happening in the school rooms. Jane is an excellent administrator and has effective communication with lots of important emails and is always on site for face-to-face conversations. The secure fingerprint sign-in, sign-out is a great addition to the morning routine. I absolutely love the fact that most of the teachers' helpers are grandmas. I know there is lots of grandmotherly love and kindness doled out whenever needed. Finally, the costs are very competitive, if not less expensive than most. They do not charge fees for August and June in order to fairly account for the multiple school holidays throughout the year, (Thanksgiving, Christmas break, etc.), so you definitely are getting your money's worth. I have never experienced getting so much for so little cost. I feel blessed. We are very fortunate there is such an awesome first school experience for our daughter here in the South Meadows, and I can only hope it continues on as an asset to our community.