We enrolled our toddler this past summer and will continue throughout the 2021-2022 school year…read more The program provides him with the social interaction and developmental stimulation he needs! The teachers are patient, very kind, professional and very hands on with the children. I feel comfortable leaving him there every day. We receive updates throughout the day (whether good or bad!) and I can tell my son is enjoying his time throughout the day and learning at least one thing each day! Thank you to the staff for all you do.

A school for children by which all other schools should be measured…read more Their communication is stellar; overwhelming in a good way, in fact. My wife and I are seriously impressed with just how well the Head of School, Joy Hurd, and all of the school staff come together to operate this gem, in a seemingly effortless manner. A special thanks to: Alex Sheridan - Director of Enrollment, Marketing, and Financial Aid for making our family feel so welcome, Sara Walsh - Director of Early Childhood and Assistant Head of Lower School, also for making us feel right at home, and Sue Burmeister - 1st Step Teacher who keeps my little girl's imagination engaged every day she's in attendance, while keeping her first-time experiences varied. The environment is quiet, peaceful even. Think of LFCDS as an ivy-league university campus, not a traditional school. Cleanliness and organization aside, this school epitomizes our lifestyle choice as a family. My first born is currently enrolled in the 1st Step + Bridge program, and we look forward to registering her little sister here as well, as soon as she's of age. Thank you LFCDS for all that you do for our family!

I spent the first year at the school being amazed and a little unnerved at its excellence and how…read morenice and supportive everyone is. I simply couldn't believe a school like this existed. We came from the public school system and will never go back. Several teachers have over 30 years of experience and all the staff are highly skilled. The school has a strong reputation, plenty of resources and good parent engagement. My children get a kick out of wearing their fancy uniforms every so often. I am always amazed when my young children whip out their homework and do it on their own without me reminding them. I am impressed by how well behaved and respectful the students are in general. A great plus for me is that they let kids be kids in the younger classrooms ( pre-k to 4th grade ) and do not contaminate this special time with idealistic, controversial concepts adults have dreamt up. If you want your child to have a childhood, grow to be a resilient, driven and self motivated individual then send your kids here. The money is worth it!

This preschool is amazing and has been a great fit for all 3 of my children! The teachers (all…read morehighly educated and beyond qualified) are amazing at what they do! The curriculum is play-based and more than prepares the children for success in Kindergarten and beyond!

From the owner: Weekday Preschool, Childcare, Sunday School and Adult Education…read more The First Presbyterian Church of Lake Forest was, literally, the first in Lake Forest, founded in 1859 by a group from the Second Presbyterian Church in Chicago. We have long striven to uphold the church founders' ideals of worshiping God, living and working as community dedicated to a Christian life, and to the betterment on Earth through education and benevolences. Education continues to be an integral part of the life of the church community. In addition to our Sunday School and childcare services, we also offer ongoing adult education groups and seminars. Music, too, has been vital to the worship life of the church from the beginning. Early services included a volunteer choir accompanied by a hand-blown organ. Now, in addition to our Casavant organ, we feature 10 different adult, youth, and children's choral groups, with opportunities available to instrumental and vocal soloists as well. From the earliest days of the church, systematic contributions were encouraged with particular Sundays designated for major benevolences. Today, many of our events are coordinated by the members of our mission committees. They are active throughout the county and in the global community, in many ministries that have direct effect on those served. We invite all to join us in service! Please visit our website, or call or visit our church, to learn more about First Presbyterian Church of Lake Forest.

After enrolling my son at Montessori on the Lake, the teachers and educational program exceeded…read moreeven my highest expectation! I am beyond grateful for the compassion and dedication of the entire staff during his time in both elementary and middle school. The quality of teaching is outstanding! This school not only challenged my son intellectually, but helped develop him into his very best self. He was extremely happy to go on campus every morning and felt like he was part of a "school family." I am amazed with how well the teachers understand and take interest in the students' personality, needs, and learning style. I can't express enough how wonderful this school is in so many ways. We love MOTL and highly recommend to everyone interested!

Amazing amazing teaching environment and highly educated professional teachers. Hands on learning…read moreand caring staff. We feel very safe having our kids attend MSLF and would highly recommend.

Both my son and daughter have attended Matigan preschool. Both of my kids have loved their teachers…read moreand children are very well prepared when they enter kindergarten to succeed both academically as well as socially. The student to teacher ratio in pre school is excellent here and children receive one on one attention frequently. Truly a great preschool!

Both my children have gone to this preschool and it is wonderful. The staff is kind and caring…read moreand they learned so much. They also have pre school camps in the summer. I am so thankful I found this preschool. It is really a gem!

Great community center! I had an office here for about 10 years and ran a non profit and watched…read morethe center grow from well appointed but not fully utilized community center into a bustling hub of classes, shows, private events, parties for the town. Rents are reasonable for private events. Shows are very reasonably priced. Classes are well attended.

I wasn't aware this place existed, as it's a bit out of my usual distance for going to events. But…read moreI saw an instagram ad for Michael Cavanaugh and couldn't pass up the opportunity to see him (Movin' Out is one of my favorite Broadway shows). The location is very convenient to the Metra, and there's free parking in the lot for the building, which is always appreciated. The venue itself is nice -- intimate and a community-based feeling (there was a community band of some sort rehearsing in a room outside the theater when I left, which is charming). The theater itself isn't elaborate, but it's a nice space. It's great for this type of event. The show itself was great -- he's a fantastic performer, and I loved the set list and how interactive he tried to be with the audience (more on that later). I also loved that I was able to get a discounted seat because I bought a single seat in between seats that had already sold, so it was half price. (I don't know if they always do this, or if it was just because there were still quite a few seats left at the time I bought my ticket 2 weeks beforehand. Regardless, my frugal self appreciated it. I wish more places did that.). There were a few times during the show that the house lights randomly came on during a song, and it didn't seem like it was intentional. Maybe it was the light board operator hitting the wrong thing, or maybe a house manager bumped a switch. It was a little odd though and it happened a few times, which kind of took me out of the performance and made me think something was going on. But oh man, the crowd itself was an interesting experience from a people-watching perspective. It must be a Lake Forest thing? 96% of the audience seemed to think they were in the waiting room of a dentist office waiting for a root canal, and about 1% of the audience thought they were at Coachella (including the three 55-65 year old women next to me, who I'm pretty sure were drinking vodka out of a water bottle because they were getting progressively more wasted during the show despite only drinking from a clear water bottle lol. No judgement. We've all been there...I just haven't been there since I was 21 and trying to sneak my own alcohol into a street festival because I was cheap and not going to pay for overpriced drinks. But hey, you do you. YOLO!). The other 3% were like myself and wanted to get into it, but because everyone else seemed like they were afraid to move, we were holding back (because we didn't want to be "those people", like the ladies next to me...although honestly they seemed like they had a GREAT time, by the way they were grooving and had their hands up in the air even though not another soul in the theater did lol. I can only hope I'm that carefree when I grow up. I'm certainly not at this stage in my life). I almost feel bad for Michael, because I assume he wanted the audience to be a bit more into it than they were. He asked people to clap along a few times and he would start it and then as soon as he put his hands back on the piano to play, people stopped clapping (then he would start clapping again to try to get people going, and they would until he went back to playing. My dudes....he wanted you to clap along to the beat during the song. That's literally how that song works). I tried to keep it going but it was awkward (and bless the people next to me...they tried to clap but the alcohol was definitely impacting their ability to find and stay on the beat. I was fighting a losing battle trying to guide them haha). Also, the crowd here could stand to learn a few things about technology to avoid annoying everyone around them. Obviously people are going to take videos and photos, which is fine. I did too. But it seems like no one knew to turn down their screen brightness in a dark theater so you don't blind the people around you. It was super distracting and headache-inducing to see super bright phone screens out of the corner of my eye every few minutes (maybe it was just the section where I was seated). It would be nice if the ushers or house manager could've said something to folks or reminded people at the beginning not to let their phones be distractions. I was a house manager out in the western suburbs for a similarly sized theater while I was in grad school, and I worked at a theater that held concerts like this in high school, so I've worked at (and attended) hundreds of concerts just like this. This was definitely the strangest experience of an audience I've ever encountered. Apparently this is par for the course, though, because I made an IG story post describing my people observations during intermission and my friend asked me if I was at Gorton Center...I asked her how she knew and she said it was because of the audience description I gave lol. I'd go back and I'm glad I went. I'd just need to prepare myself so I'm not so jarred by the bizarre audience vibes.

Great teachers and an incredibly kind, welcoming staff. From the moment you walk in, you can feel…read morethat the school truly cares about the students and their success. The teachers are patient, knowledgeable, and genuinely invested in helping every child learn and grow. The staff is always friendly, helpful, and makes both parents and students feel comfortable. What stands out the most is how excited my kids are to go to school every single day. They come home happy, talking about what they learned, and looking forward to the next day. That alone says a lot about the positive environment the school has created. It is clear that the school focuses not only on academics but also on building confidence, character, and a love of learning. We are very grateful to be part of such a supportive and caring school community. I highly recommend this school to any family looking for a place where their children will feel valued, encouraged, and excited to learn.

If you are thinking of sending your child to Goddard Deerfield, please read this review and…read moreconsider other options. About us: Hard working blue collar parents of 2 kids and one more on the way in July 2022. Our daughter attended Goddard Deerfield for over 1 year and we initially enrolled our son to start in August of 2022. Problems: The owners of this location, Jane and Genia, consider your child a walking dollar sign and nothing else. They will put the economics of getting every dollar out of you rather than creating a safe environment for your child or respecting any of your parental concerns. The situation and response: Goddard's AC system had broken during a 90+ degree week. Goddard has no extra classrooms so their response was to have the children in the classroom at that temperature for 30-40 mins at a time. We decided to not send our daughter to school until the AC situation was fixed due to extreme heat and ventilation issues that could lead to spread of COVID (my wife is currently pregnant with a high risk pregnancy). The AC repair took over 9 days and no surprise, there was a COVID case in the classroom during this time. This left our daughter out of school where we had to pay for additional childcare for 2 weeks. We reached out to the owners for a credit of our tuition for the time and that is when Jane's true colors showed. Over a phone call a screaming and angry Jane claimed: -"AC breaking is an Act of God and that they had to pay $5,000 to repair it so they are not liable." -"It builds character for children to be in that heat because life isn't always perfect" -When I told her again that my wife was pregnant and our own doctor said this an unneeded risk. Jane claimed "COVID is overblown and it's just an excuse now. My sister in law had COVID during her pregnancy and was fine, so your wife shouldn't be worried" We were so shocked by this response. After that last bizarre call, my wife had a 1-1 in person conversation where Jane took ownership of the things she said but the damage had been done. We knew our daughter would not be safe in their hands and that ownership would potentially target our children. Even worse ownership behavior: Our daughter stopped attending Goddard in June and our son was enrolled for upcoming August start - we asked what the process is for terminating enrollment and how we would receive our refund of enrollment fees and they took that as an opportunity to immediately cancel his enrollment, keep the enrollment fees, and take money from another family to fill his spot. Not only did they not return the money, they cancelled his enrollment and filled his spot in a breach of their own enrollment document/parent handbook. We now have to consult a legal expert to recoup our fees. I am a small business owner myself and would never ever target or leave a negative review unless it was 100% necessary to warn others. There are other schools in the area that will look after your child, look elsewhere. During the last few months of dealing with Goddard I felt like a failure of a parent to have not seen the other red flags and cannot believe I allowed my child to be in the care of Goddard Deerfield. The worst part of it all is that this is all I know about, what about all the other things that may have happened while my daughter attended school here that owners with this character may have put their own business in front of my child or any child? If you think maybe this is a one off situation and your child could be okay, Google search "Goddard Deerfield Indeed reviews" to see how their own teachers review the school. It is very evident that this is a common theme. Reach out to me if you have concerns as I have documentation of all of this.

Wonderful facility... reminds me of a country club. Very friendly staff. Lots of people so we…read moreprobably didn't get the standard "visitor" treatment since it's hard to know who's new and who isn't, but we did enjoy the service and it seems like it would be easy to get involved and find groups that fit you. They are also active in the community which is nice.

From the owner: Lake County's number one early childhood care facility, "Celebration Childcare" & "Crossways…read morePreschool"