It's hard to write a review for an entire school as it's made of so many parts. The staff, the…read moreteachers, the parents, the students... But, I feel I need to write one as our experience has been so widely varied from teacher to teacher, year to year, child to child. Let me start by saying that this school gives no training to teachers in bullying behavior, interpersonal communication (i.e. how to communicate with students), theology, emotional dysregulation, or any skill that may be a strong basis for better student engagement, true discipleship, and teaching. In addition, to my understanding, most teachers are not required to get regular training or gain CECs. Furthermore, there is essentially little to no documentation of events when a student has a conflict with a teacher. (And my "no documentation" I mean exactly that... no paper trail, no proof. So, if your child is experiencing any unfair treatment by a teacher, as a parent, you need to document it like you were a lawyer preparing for court case). For decades, this school has been touted as a "good" school to send Christian kids. However, it's really the "only" non-denominational Christian school in Missoula that offers sports. And the idea of "good" is subjective at best. There is no objective measurement to which this school is seemingly held. All of this to say... your - or more appropriately, your child's - experience at this school will largely depend on the teacher or teachers your child gets assigned. The teacher holds the total control on the way the classroom is managed (through fear or love), how students are allowed to treat each other, and how your student is percieved to be (through an objective lens or a subjective one). Since there is no training, no "staff check in" and no set objective measurement that teachers are held to upholding, you are at the mercy of the teacher's natural personality, view of children, and skillset they gain outside of the classroom on their own time. You are also at the mercy on how that teacher views their role to their/your students' lives - are they compassionate, calm, trainers (i.e. train them up in the way they should go)? Or are they over-bearing, religious, authority figures that teach children to "submit" to them? Many staff are quite kind. Sweet, engaging, and geniunely care about these kids. Others are cold, worn out, and not interested in kindess at all. Many teachers are wonderful and passionate people who love God, their job, and their students. Others are truly - and I say this with some compassion - emotionally scarred, traumatized, religiously abused people who see their role as one of complete authority ready to pounce on any child who "disobeys" them. There seems to be very little in between. And that is the Russion Roulet game you are playing when you bring your children to this school. For example, some students in elementary get a 13-year plus experienced teacher who has excellent classroom management, positive reinforcement, clear boundaries and goals. For other students in the same grade they will recieve a teacher who is angry, controls students with fear, is never happy, and will blame students for any failure. With this teacher, your child will not recieve any kind training or guidance; only assumptions, accusations, and punishments. All. Year. Long. I have knows of students who begin having anxiety, begin trauma-induced behaviors, and overall dread school because of the in-class environment in Elementary. I have known kids that are bullied by their peers in Middle School but teachers turn a blind eye and explain it away so students go years (with an "s") being bullied here with no intervention from teachers or staff (possibly because they aren't trained to see it? Have no guidelines in their handbook?). I have known of many High Schoolers that are teased in front of the class by their teacher as a "joke", mocked, made and "example of", or genuinely belittled week after week after week with no intervention from upper leadership. In addition, there are Middle School and High School teachers who are notorious to show favoritism (buy them drinks, give them rights to leave class while others can not, etc), threaten kids with their earned privledges in class, or passive aggressively correct students year after year after year. Again, with no intervention, correction, or dismissal from the school despite many students and parents speaking out. All of this to say... run. Run away from this school. It is like a disease that slowly creeps deep into your bones. No "good teacher" can erase the bad. There is NO basis for objective goals reached by teachers or staff behavior. There is no clear documentation for student-teacher conflict that seems to protect the student at all. There is extreme favoritism from many teachers of upper grades and many "overlords" in the lower grades. It's a crap shoot as to what your child will get. A game, as a parent, you shouldn't risk participating in.

Staff is horrible. Been here for five years and they treated me like crap. Definitely not…read morechrist-like whatsoever don't go here

Please don't take your little ones here!! I enrolled my daughter at Windsong Childcare in July of…read more2015. Windsong Childcare is an in-home care facility located off of Pattee Canyon in Missoula, MT. The owner of the daycare is Barbara Fowler. She has been in business for over 30 years. In Sept my husband and I received a call from my child's daycare explaining that our 9-month daughter had been in accident in a wagon and that she needed to go get checked out at the ER. We were initially told that that her and a few kids were playing in a wagon in the backyard, when one child rapidly got out of the wagon causing the wagon to tip over. My daughter was knocked out of the wagon and she had hit her head on the wagon. When I saw her she had quite the bump on her forehead, she also had some scrapes that appeared like road rash. I instantly questioned how she would have road rash if this happened in a grassy back yard, but at that time all I could worry about was if she was going to be alright. Thankfully within a few hours she was released to go home, but was to be strictly monitored for 24 hrs. Incase of concussion. When I got home I called the daycare to let them know Ryan's status. I told her that I understood that accidents were bound to happen and the daycare owner said, " I told them that we have a bunch of little ones around and that if they needed my help, they were to come get me." That comment didn't sit very well with me, to me it admitted some sort of negligence. That next day I pulled my daughter out of the daycare. About two weeks later I went to get my hair done. I was telling my hairdresser about the situation and she cut me off. Her exact words were " Do not tell me this happened up Pattee Canyon." Of course I was shocked that she knew what I was talking about considering very few people knew about the incident. I sat there shocked as she told me that her mutual client almost hit the wagon. I asked how her client almost hit the wagon if this incident happened in her backyard? She said that her client was driving down Pattee Canyon, when a wagon that had 3 babies in it came speeding down the daycare owners extremely steep driveway, sped in front of the car, hit the curb, and a baby came falling out. That baby was our daughter. So many thoughts and emotions crossed my mind. How can someone just blatantly lie to us about our daughter's accident? I did not believe what I heard until I later talked to the witness. She confirmed what she saw. The witness said that she contacted the police, but could not wait for them to arrive. My next thought was why the heck was I not informed? I contacted the police department and they told me that the only thing that was filed was an incident report. It was up to the dispatched officer to fill out a complete report and based on his findings, the daycare followed the right protocol. I then contacted CPS and the State licensing Dept. It turned out that the reason I had not been informed of the accident was because the daycare owner never reported the incident. In Montana daycare facilities are required by law to report any incident to the State when a child has an accident at the facility and requires medical attention. The State licenser did let me know that she was aware of the incident but only after showing up at the facility to follow up on another incident that had taken place their a week before. When she showed up she was asked by the daycare worker, which incident the licensor was there to report on. The Licensor was not aware there had been two incidents. The licensor informed me that Barbara now knew that going forward" she was to report any incident that happened at her facility. A few months have passed and each time I tell this story the thoughts and feelings come flooding back as if this all happened yesterday. This incident is still under investigation with CPS and the Licensing Dept. We are so so fortunate and thankful that God was watching over our little one. We all know that the outcome could have been much different. I am not sharing this story to be spiteful or to get revenge. I am simply sharing this story so other parents are aware of what kind of childcare facilities are out there "taking care" of our children.

From the owner: Child care and Preschool offered in home with years of experience and activities. Children are…read morechallenged educationally as well as feed 3 meals a day. Stop in today and visit with us at Windsong!

After touring several other preschools around Missoula, we sent our 3 children to Spirit At Play…read more Truly a preschool, not a daycare. The lead teachers and director have been there forever. The staff are well trained, receive competitive pay, have insurance benefits, and there is low turnover. People love it here, that's why there is always a waiting list to get in.

From the owner: A Premiere Missoula Preschool.read more

We love love love our sweet little preschool. The teachers are all so warm and welcoming, the…read moreschool philosophy around kindness and mindfulness is wonderful (mindful eating is a game changer at home), and I love that the history and traditions of the school are still woven into the childrens' daily routines like the closing circle song. Our kids absolutely love going to school, love the friends they've made, and adore their teachers. As a parent, I'm also grateful for the parent friends we've made through this awesome community. The proximity to Big Dipper and Le Petit is also a major perk.

I am saddened to report I would not recommend MCS at this time. Our daughter joined there program…read morein January 2023 and had a wonderful experience. She will now be going into 1st grade. The school has had 2 new directors over the last 2 years and quite a bit of turnover of teachers. We enrolled our son this last academic year into the summer & just took him out due to ongoing issues with administration. My son is very active, but also a typical 3 year old. We were getting multiple daily reports that he wasn't "safe" at school due to hitting or throwing toys. This led to many days of being requested to pick him up early to go home because, "they didn't have the staff" to keep everyone safe. My husband had to take a large chunk of his PTO to accommodate these days. Multiple meetings with the school only led to documentation of what I would describe as preschoolers trying to figure it out. Ex. Another student took a toy from my son so he pushed them. My son took a toy from someone else. What we could never get to the bottom of was why the school wasn't able to manage/discipline these behaviors successfully. Rather my son was repeatedly called unsafe & asked to be removed from the school day early. In the meantime my son started to say he didn't have any friends at school, wasn't able to play with the other kids, and was always in trouble. I don't think this is the message the teachers were trying to send, but that is the message my son was internalizing. Don't get me wrong, I don't want my son or any other child to get hurt at school, but at 3 years old they are still trying to learn social skills & how to regulate. I think MCS is a great school for kids that are perhaps more mild mannered, but if your child is very active, I don't think would be the best environment for them.

Not only is everyone exceedingly friendly and courteous, they are knowledgeable and absolutely…read moreincredible with the kids. I cannot stress enough how capable and wonderful this pre-school is, and how happy we are with the children's progression. I would recommend this pre-school to all people interested in the best environment possible for their children.

We couldn't be happier at Sunflower! We have two children enrolled there (ages 2 and 4) and both…read morelove their teachers and their classrooms. The school has exploded in size over the past year from one small schoolhouse to a 3-building campus. It goes without saying that there will be some growing pains in that process, but in the last few months they're launched a new informational website for parents, and hired a new head of their meal program who makes organic meals on-site every day. Our preschooler goes on field trips and to swim lessons and can name all the continents and planets. She came home yesterday singing the National Anthem in honor of the 4th of July. Sunflower has definitely been the right choice for us.

Both of our kids have loved attending Sunflower Montessori. And, as parents, we have loved the new…read moreownership. Sam and Eugenia took over ownership in Aug. 2016. They are great teachers, hire very well qualified staff and are making great effort to upgrade the building and playground. Our kids thrive and grow and are well looked after. I highly recommend Sunflower.