SFSU Gator Camp is an incredible experience for kids and a great value for parents. My kids want…read moreto return next year without hesitation. They have a ton of fun playing a variety of sports and games while strengthening their bodies. Their leadership is the head of the Dept. of Kinesiology at SFSU - which means they are learning solid skills. If you want to get your child in the pool every day, this is a great option. But maybe you want him to play tennis. That is also on the daily menu. As is martial arts and team sports. The bottom line is that real skills will be learned. We signed up for all six weeks. My kids started camp having never held a tennis racket, now they are serving the ball and playing with confidence. All of this with university level facilities! It's easy, easy drop off and pick up. Just pack a few things and lunch is provided. This is the most rewarding, stress free summer my kids and we parents have ever had!

My kids, Cameron and Morgan had a blast this summer and would love to come back next year. It…read moresounds like you made all the rotations really fun. Lily

Can't say enough great things about Family Connections Portola location. They have such a wide…read morearray of programs and services for literally EVERYONE in the family- baby, toddler, kids, parents, even grandparents and Nannie's! Not to mention prenatal groups for expecting mamas! Plus, the staff are all so kind and caring! You can see they truly love what they do! Highly recommend this place if you're looking to socialize your little ones, in need of some parenting groups, or even a high quality preschool. Every aspect of programming is implemented so thoughtfully for all a families needs. They have everything a family may need. Also- not just for families in this area but all those near by!

Family Connections has been an important part of our family, and pivotal in helping us with access…read moreto quality programs and events for our two young children. All of the staff is so kind and caring, and they really make you feel at ease if you are nervous about leaving your tiny one for the first time. As your child grows, they grow with you! There are programs for all ages, from playgroups to elementary school and everything in between. We have used many of their different programs, classes, and family events over the years. We love Family Connections and would recommend them to any family that is looking for quality care, affordable prices, and folks doing great work for the community.

My daughter recently graduated from Miraloma having spent two years at the adorable little red…read moreschoolhouse. Our family really enjoyed the co-op experience and supportive parent community. We formed lifelong friendships and made many sweet memories. We enjoyed parent teaching and felt lucky to have the opportunity to watch our daughter explore, learn and develop new friendships. It felt wonderful to be a part of a collective community effort with the goal of providing children with a safe and nurturing space where they can learn, grow and have fun. Miraloma is such a warm and welcoming place! I highly recommend touring in person to really appreciate Miraloma's wonderful space. The school has so many unique assets that affords unique experiences for the children like dancing on stage under a plum tree, harvesting plums from the same tree and making jam! Digging for worms and roly polys in the garden. Planting seeds, observing the growth of plants, harvesting fruits and vegetables and eating your bounty! Cooking up soups and baking cakes in the mud kitchen. Getting cozy in the book nook. Building strength and having fun on the trapeze! Challenging themselves to be brave and finally go down that fire pole. The current Director Rose and Teacher Anne (both began at Miraloma in July 2023) are highly credentialed and have decades of early childhood development experience at preschools. I have seen the tremendous passion and care they have for the children that I have never experienced before. I wish our daughter was able to have spent more time with these amazing teachers before she graduated. The play based and child led approach was wonderful and empowering for our daughter. Every day the teachers set up new and fun experiences and activities for the children, but the kids decide what they want to do. The teachers then build on and adapt the curriculum to support the interests of the kids at any given time. Kids are given the tools and freedom to explore and develop their authentic selves while knowing a loving and supportive adult is nearby if they need help. Anne and Rose are often found on the floor engaging with and connecting with the children. I would venture to say that Anne is the best preschool teacher in all of SF and she shares her insight and wisdom with families in weekly detailed updates. Parents can learn alot from both Rose and Anne. We are forever grateful to Miraloma for providing our daughter with such a wonderful foundation for learning. Take a tour and you will also be wowed by how wonderful this place is!

We are coming to the end of our Miraloma journey as our youngest has graduated. We started at…read moreMiraloma right after moving to SF and right away felt welcome into the community. All of the families we have met and gotten to know through the school have been wonderful. We would highly recommend Miraloma to families looking for the co-op experience. It has everything you and your child will need! We love the facilities with its private fenced in play yard, mud kitchen, swings, slides, climbing structure, a music garden + herb/fruit garden and so much more!!

I wanted to come back and update my review now that my second son has also gone through My Little…read moreLearning Tree and is now in Kindergarten. His transition to elementary school was incredibly smooth, and I truly credit MLLT for preparing him so well, not just academically, but emotionally and in every way that matters. One of the things that stands out even more now, looking back, is the sense of community. During our time at MLLT, our family built such meaningful and lasting relationships, both for our kids and for us as parents. Those connections have continued well beyond our time at the school, which says so much about the kind of environment they've created. We feel very lucky to have been part of the MLLT community, and I'm even more grateful now having seen both of my children benefit from it in such a lasting way.

Finding a preschool is tough during COVID times without in-person tours. I wanted to give a glowing…read morerecommendation of My Little Learning Tree (MLLT). Highlights include 1. Conversation and Social skills for kids - in just half a year there, my son has gotten so much more expressive in language and able to identify his emotions. He is learning to navigate group dynamics and interactions with other kids. 2. Thoughtful COVID protocol - the director Corinna has been extremely cautious and we feel safe about sending our son there. You are only as good as your community and I feel confident that she understands all the risks at play. 3. Warmth of teachers - I toured five preschools in person pre-pandemic and what I looked most for is warmth of teachers and happiness of kids. Even though my son has the occasional age-appropriate tough drop offs, he always comes home happy with his day and loves his interactions with his teachers. 4. Great community - we just had a play date with the class together today and it reiterated what an amazing group of parents are at the school. As a bonus, food is included and he has already learned to spell his name and has amazing art projects including a book about planets and snow globe. We receive thoughtful updates, videos and photos at the end of each day.

My two daughters started to go to UpGrade since they were in elementary school. I love that the…read morecenter director has a systematic way planned out to focus on different writing types, one at a time, then to debate, then to publish their own story, then to college essay writing. They do group different grades of students together in a class, but it doesn't matter because students are of the same level. When my two daughters started, there were older kids in their classes but they didn't need to catch up ever. My younger daughter is now in 10th grade and she just finished the presidential debate project recently. My older one is now a college freshman in a university across the nation. She's a Posse Scholar with full tuition covered for all 4 years. She's also accepted to the UCs she applied including UCLA, UCB, UCSD, UCI. Writing has never been a struggle for her and I'd give credit to UpGrade for giving her a strong foundation!

I really wanted to like this learning center. The staffs/tutors there are very respectful, helpful,…read moreand friendly to the small children. They are mostly high school students. My kid really liked Shu Lin, but as a parent and our need for learning center is education. Reading & Math Subjects: are from an App that has reward points and your child can use that points to play game. You can purchase it at home. Most parents want the Writing subject, but they NEED to sign up for Reading & Math in order to sign up the Writing. For my 3rd grader, I felt this is fine because he has much to learn. It should be an option for student with strong Reading and Math skill. Writing class: 2hrs long with a small break. She's teaching grammars, definitions, descriptive words, sentence structures, and above all those, taking note (I really love this about the class). My biggest drawback: She has too many students in one class, all from different grade levels. 5th graders+ have much faster to learn concepts and this unfair to them or maybe unfair to 3rd graders. My 2nd biggest drawback: there is no feedbacks for their writing assignments. Feedback is most important for kids to learn. Overall I feel that she just jams all students in one writing to collect money. She obviously can divide the class base on their grade/age level throughout the week. I really hope Shu Lin can improve on these: feedbacks, class base on their grade/age, and give option to students base on their assessment test (also because she's teaching grammar in her writing class). As a parent, what degree you hold doesn't matter as long as you can teach with humble and kindness.

My daughter attended three weeks of spy camp and LOVED every single day! One week was co-ed at the…read moreFlorida St location; the other two weeks were girls only at the Hayes Valley location. My daughter came home every day excited to tell me what she did at camp. The activities she did over the course of three weeks included laser mazes, stick fighting, snowboarding, learning actual spy skills (tailing, surveillance, dead drops), and going on simulated spy missions. The camp is super communicative: you get email updates every day with pictures and summaries of what the campers did that day. She says she definitely wants to go back next year. My daughter is open to trying new things, enjoys problem solving activities, and has a high frustration tolerance. I could see this camp being less appealing for kids who are more cautious or who get frustrated easily.

My 8yr old son's favorite out of 5 camps in past 2 yrs. We signed up online after a bad experience…read moreprevious week with steve and kate camp (Feinstein location). $550 each week was worth every penny. All mask and COVID protocols in effect was comforting. Mix of outdoor and indoor activities, great low ratio of student vs instructors. They rotate each week Thurs/Fri is the snowboard or skiing so was happy to sign up for 2 weeks. Great intro to winter sports for son with zero prior experience, learning without the discomfort of cold and fear of falling. We plan on getting additional endless slope time slots before Tahoe. The kids learn to put on the boots and ski by themselves and proper sizing. Free Parking tight but always available at 9am and 4pm within a block. Highly recommend for elementary school aged, or older CIT experience. Most of the camp is spy activities and outdoor playground games. Don't expect a proficient skier after, but a very happy camper!

My 5 years old daughter is thrilled to go to EFBA French summer camp! We signed up for 4 weeks in…read morethis summer. We are non French speaker, our first language is Japanese and second is English. We wanted to introduce French as her third language. At first, we are little bit worried that what if she hates French as she can't understand at all and isolated from classroom.. the idea was totally wrong! She enjoys so much everyday!! She always says she doesn't want to leave, why you pick me up so early. So we decided to put her in after-care (extended time until 6pm). I picked her up at 5 pm because I was a little bit worried she might get too tired. That's wrong thought again! She asked me "can you pick me up little bit later than today? Because I want to play more". There are three teachers: Julia, Eli and Nary (is on and off to classroom). They are super good with kids. I especially talk with Nary a lot so I love her so much! She is fun and loving person for sure. but Julia and Eli are wonderful too! So we don't expect my daughter to speak French fluently or can speak little sentences. It's only 4 weeks. We wanted her to know there is different language except Japanese and English, and wanted her to like French as language, people who speak French and its culture, and also learn few words as she gets to used to hear French every day. So, this goal is already achieved at third week. We have one more week to go. Since we are traveling we didn't sign up for more, wish we could. Now, she is more curious about French and asks teachers "what to say this in French"? In addition, their activities are awesome, it is very creative, artistic and fun! She never get bored during summer camp. My daughter is outgoing & friendly and other French speaker kids speak English too. So she isn't afraid of anything in the class. I highly recommend EFBA to the family who is new to French or non French speaker and want to introduce French to their kids. My daughter's personality might help to get alone with everyone even though she didn't know any French before. I will definitely sign up for next summer! Thank you so much for making her summer wonderful with beautiful French! (as parents we are learning French with her!)

Our 6 year old son attended EFBA summer camp for 4 weeks in June and July of 2023 and loved it…read more Nary who was leading the camp was absolutely wonderful. Highly recommended!

I sent my daughter here in summer of 2018 to be a counselor/leader in training at age 12. She…read moremostly enjoyed it. She said that being around the young kids was nice because she could help them and also liked the camp's program. I felt that the camp director was very friendly and personal over the phone, and even gave us a small break on the price along with a discounted lunchtime supervision(20 dollars a day). Lets make no mistake about it, this camp is VERY expensive compared to other camps. it was over 700 dollars for a week just to be out in nature for the whole day, which is more than double of what a camp from the East Bay Regional Parks or even San Francisco Parks and Rec would charge. I wanted to give Linda the benefit of the doubt and just assume it would be a great opportunity for my daughter to learn some leadership skills and have fun, while being close to her mom's house, which I am hoping she did. So here is the reason why only the two stars. I requested via email and over the phone leaving a voicemail that Linda provide some feedback on how the camp went for my daughter. She did not even bother answering my email or calling me back. I would have accepted a simple acknowledgement saying she can not do that but would write something up for a fee, but she did not even have the courtesy to do that. For a camp of this price, I am SHOCKED she didn't even bother to reach out to me. I am not sure this is because my ex wife is African American and that my daughter is mixed but I surely hope not. Linda would also not even provide her tax ID so I had to indicate "would not provide" when doing my taxes. I did not have any verbal exchange between her and me that would warrant any ill feelings so it has troubled me to the point that I am leaving this review for yelpers to see. I would say that this camp seems to be a very enriching camp in the Presidio, but is mostly for the elite upper middle class. It does not offer scholarships or is inclusive to the community of children whose parents may not be able to afford such a high price point of a summer camp. I would research other more affordable camps before choosing this one. In the future, it would also help that Linda communicates just as effectively both before and after the camp has concluded.

My 4 year old son did a week with Nature Nurture in the Presidio this summer and he absolutely…read moreloved it! It was a small groups of kids and he really bonded with them. Linda constant and the high school age counselor kept the kids safe. The adventures they went on were all over the Presidio- they rode the bus and walked a lot. They saw parts of the Presidio that I didn't even know existed! My son would definitely do it another summer! Amazing! Linda took photos and posted them in a secure site for the parents to see. She summarized what the children did each day. This was great to see.