We recently explored daycare options for our toddler after our current daycare closure. While learning links Mountain View boasted positive reviews and a low teacher-to-child ratio, our trial class experience left us deeply concerned. The primary teacher in the "Yosemite" room seemed disengaged, spending most of the time taking pictures instead of interacting with the children. In stark contrast to other daycares, there was an absence of playful activities and a focus on fun. During the trial class, our toddler, excited by the toys on a table, pulled a chair to reach a truck. Instead of understanding his age-appropriate behavior, the teacher reacted harshly, suggesting a special education evaluation for not asking permission. This incident exemplifies the daycare's inability to handle typical toddler behavior and their concerning practice of labeling such actions as requiring special needs. Both teacher's lack of engagement and the enrollment coordinator's apparent disconnect with toddler development raised serious questions. Their approach seemed more suited to a high school environment than a nurturing daycare for young children. I don't think the enrollment coordinator has spent any time with a toddler or they are too afraid to ask questions from their own staff. If you're considering daycare options for a toddler (especially between 2.5 and 3.5 years old), I recommend looking elsewhere and encourage you to consult Facebook groups and other reviews for a more complete picture. read more

When we moved to this area of Mountain View we took our two year old son out of his original home daycare and were pretty sad as those ladies were awesome. But we knew it was time for him to "graduate" so he could be surrounded by kids his age (and even slightly older) and to have a more structured learning environment. At first it was rough on him, as it is for all kids, but once he adjusted we saw amazing progress. The teachers we had were excellent, especially in the beginning while the transition was taking place. It wasn't too long till he felt right at home and he made many friends - and so did we! Having other kids a few or several months older also helped him progress on the potty training front - again great patience by the teachers! Bottom line -we couldn't be happier with how comfortable he became with the other kids & teachers and with how much progress we saw him make. Eventually, a younger brother also came into the mix and we also discovered that the infant teachers are also amazing - talk about patience! It was really fun picking up both boys at the same time. The play area outside is really nice, we love that it's tucked right into Rengsttorf Park with plenty of and open air - as opposed to some other centers that are on busier streets with traffic etc. The administration is very friendly & communicative, they made us feel very appreciated not just as customers but as parents as well. If it weren't for our moving out of town I would not be writing this review in the past tense. Indeed, we are sad that our toddler son won't get to see so many of the friends he's made over the past couple years. I should also add, during the Covid & SIP chaos, they've tried their best to be transparent about what's going on, they've offered Zoom classes with the teachers and also helped us parents with reducing tuition during the closures. It's not easy to be a parent or a school administer during these times, but I've been very happy and impressed with how they've handled it. Certainly a lot better than some other schools we've heard about from other friends of ours. We'll miss this place and we can only hope we can find something just as welcoming and effective as Learning Links. read more

Cannot say enough good things. My two sons (now 4 and 6) have spanned 4 pre-schools in Silicon Valley and Learning Links has been by far the best. Here's why: 1. Amazing teachers and staff. Lori, Jennifer and Tarie are people you see everyday and are consisently, happy friendly and helpful--all setting the culture and stage for a wonderful environment. All the teachers seems wonderful, but my kids specifically had natalie (2 yr), joyce (3 yr), Jojo (4 yr) and I highly recommend all of them. They have an incredible way of "holding the line" but doing it in a loving and authentically caring way. 2. Digital comms and covid- In the horrible time of covid when no one was allowed anywhere and we had no idea what was happening in schools, the teachers did an amazing job of posting pics, updates, etc. Especially teacher natalie who was in the thick of it with my 2 year old. 3. Support--whether it is Teacher Jojo who finally was able to help my son eat lunch at school (a major barrier we had) or Teacher Joyce (who seriously helped us with regulation) our kids have flourished in these classrooms. 4. Austism and disabilities support: If your child is on the spectrum, go to learning links. They have an awesome inclusion program and are well familiar with kids on the spectrum and how to integrate their needs with the classroom. 5. Hours: We've made part time work here because it has the most generous part time schedule 9-3 pm! Most other part time programs are only 3 hours. In general the value is one of the highest from an hourly rate. Also, they stay open on many more days than other schools. read more

Two of our children attended here when we lived in Mountain View, from the infant classroom (Glacier Bay) all the way through pre-K (Zion). We loved the teachers here, they clearly cared about the children, and our kids were likewise in love with the teachers. They had a great set of rotating activities and crafts, and a nice outdoor play area. They were also very supportive during potty training. I recommend this school without hestitation. read more

Learning Links Mountain View Preschool is simply excellent, not only the school's curriculum structure but also the fun-filled activities they do year round, such as Halloween parades, Holiday spirit weeks (Easter, Halloween and Christmas etc.). My daughter enjoys the school so much that she does not even want to miss out a day!! She has learnt a lot and still learning from the school. The school does pretty good in terms of communicating incase any kid is sick or ha any contagious infection reported. I highly recommend LLMV !! read more

Learning Links has been amazing so far. We started when our daughter was four months, and she's now in her third classroom. The teachers are terrific with the kids, and there are tons of fun-filled activities! Overall, I think we really got lucky with this place :-) read more

Learning Links is incredible! I love all the staff and the teachers! My daughter was there for 6 months and had a significant growth in that short amount of time. She was in the 2 year old classroom with Miss Jackie but also got care and teaching from the other 2 year classroom teacher and aides. I always felt very comfortable and happy as I dropped my daughter off and picked her up. This place is worth every penny!!!! read more

Learning links pre school is amazing. My daughter started the school when she turned 2 and now she is 4 years and 2 months. She went to Acadia(2 year old) and Yellowstone (3 year old) class rooms. She loves the teachers. Teacher Allie, teacher Brenda and teacher Adriana are great. They have a kid friendly curriculum which lets child to grow his skills. The teacher maintain communication with patents and keeps updated about child's growth. Unfortunately we are moving and I have to move her to a different school. My daughter absolutely loved the school. read more

This is a terrific pre-school and my grandson loves it. Teachers are great and send home papers on how my grandson does daily and they are doing a great job with potty training. read more

Learning Links preschool is wonderful and I would like to appreciate to all the teachers and staffs for maintaining such an efficient system. Our daughter has never been to a daycare or preschool until she turned 3.5 yrs old. She first went to Yellowston, and recently joined Zion class room (4-5 yrs old). During the last 10 months, we have observed a significant amount of growth in her communication and behaviour. The teachers are very friendly and caring. They conduct meaningful discussions during the circle time, plenty of fun filled activities, as well as provide nice morning snacks. Our daughter loves to share the fun and excitements she has everyday. The teachers also give helpful updates for child development, and the management is also open for parent suggestions. The school location is also very nice, and it has a beautiful outdoor playground. Overall, Learning Links preschool has a great curriculum with a very healthy and thoughtful environment that keep the kids engaged and happy. I would absolutely recommend this school to anyone who needs. read more

I consider myself and my child lucky that we found Learning Links (formerly CCLC). I highly recommend this school. Basics: facilities are clean, backyard abutting Rengstorff Park is sunny but with tree-shaded area, well-maintained equipment. Indoor equipment recently replaced/brought in. The tuition is reasonable, and there are low-income slots available. The teachers, including Kirsten, Bianca, Kylii, Kristy and Wendy are excellent. Most were employed by CCLC and stayed on with the change in management, which is fortunate since the teachers along with the curriculum are truly what make the school excellent. The activities are plentiful, varied, fun and spark curiosity in my child, for which I am the most grateful. She is joyfully reading and doing math at 5, and Learning Links deserves much of the credit. She is pumped for Kindergarten this fall. It's going to be hard to say goodbye after nearly 3 years. read more

Our daughter started here in Jan. 2013, at age 7 months, when the daycare was run by CCLC. I noticed little change since Learning Links took over. Any changes, however, were for the better. I love that they get involved with the community by visiting the Senior Center and participating in the Book Mobile. I can't express how grateful we are for all the teachers my daughter has had. The infants and toddlers teachers took care of her as if she was their family. There's nothing more we could ask for! We're excited she is now with the bigger kids and outside time is in the large playground. That's what attracted us to this daycare in the first place. read more

My daughter started going to Learning Links in May 2014. She absolutely loves her school and her teachers. Now we are moving and very sad that we will take her out of school. Staff is very friendly and knowledgeable. Pace is very clean and neat. Would definitely recommend this school. read more

This child care center changed management in Feb 2014, from CCLC to Learning Links. The City of Mountain View retained ownership, most or all children stayed, and Learning Links retained most of the teachers. In fact, Learning Links retained the best teachers (IMO) and CCLC took the rest. Given that the change was incremental, you may want to read previous reviews (yelp.com/biz/cclc-mounta...). Pros: The city provides a large outdoor playground for the older children shaded by a beautiful oak tree. Almost all the teachers are wonderful, warm towards the children, thoughtful, enthusiastic -- and this is really the key to a good day care center. The kids seem happy and engaged. Communication has improved since Learning Links took over; in particular each classroom received a laptop and teachers are responsive to email. Newsletters tend to be sent as PDFs which means they're really annoying to read on a smart phone, you can't search your email to look up a forgotten detail, or easily save a cute photo of your own child; but it's a big step forward from CCLC which was just awful at electronic communication. Cons: The management is friendly and their hearts are clearly in the right place, but they manage little beyond day-to-day operations. Response times to parent questions can take months; for example, it took over 3 months to post teacher bios, and the parent who asked was given no indication of the wait. Health safety is misguided, with less focus on nutrition and vaccination than bureaucratic "owie reports" for every little scuff and bump. I am concerned about sending infants here. After a child came to the center with whooping cough, the only policy change in response to parent concerns was to provide less information about vaccination rates than parents can find by navigating public state websites. The director has assured parents that risk to infants is low because their classroom is separate, which to me suggests she hasn't thought much about this. Older children routinely enter the infant room as their parents drop off younger siblings, all children pass through the same entry and hallway, and it seems impossible to avoid interactions in a mixed age center. There is no on-site kitchen, limiting options for snacks. While Learning Links upper management intends to improve snacks, until last month they were about 50% cookies, pastries, or bread, a far cry from USDA guidelines for young children. In 10 months of operation Learning Links has remained 2 or 3 teachers away from full staffing, which to me is explainable by poor advertising of open positions. The city didn't provide much storage space which causes some logistical problems with storing toys and other supplies. Our older son has been attending this center since Aug 2011 and our younger since June 2013. Our third will start after she's had at least the first dose of most vaccinations. read more

Having the same problems with overpayment, this Automatic checking Withdrawal requirement is a nightmare. You never know how much they will take from your account. Before my son attended they withdrew an extra $120 for the month without explanation. Multiple phone calls they never respond or answer the phone, no explanation or anything. read more

Excellent Preschool. Teachers are friendly, caring, knowledgeable and enthusiastic !

My child attended this preschool for 9 months, she started at 2.5 years old and was 3 when she left. Pros: - Nice facility, beautiful playground adjacent to Rengstorff park, with large trees that provide shade - They sometimes go play in the park, go visit seniors at the next door senior center - The 2-year old class teachers (Wendy and Qiao Qiao) did a good job at helping finish the toilet training - There are additional activities (soccer, math, dance) offered by 3rd party companies that come to the site (but at extra cost, parents have to enroll and pay those companies directly) Cons: 1) When my child moved to the 3-year old class she started complaining about being hit and pushed by other kids. The teachers were very laid back when it came to injuries, they did not always attend to kids who cried when they got hurt, nor report injuries. I personally don't mind little bumps and scratches, but any injury to the head or neck should be reported, which was not in two occasions (that I know of) for my child. Another kid hit her head with a rock, and the teachers said they were not aware of it. It is a bit concerning when your kid shows up with a bruise on her head and teachers don't know what happened and did not report it. They are not trained to diagnose concussions, bringing a person quickly to the hospital after a head trauma can make the different between life and death. From my child's experience, they were not paying enough attention, at least in the 2 known occasions that my child had head injuries, to take action quickly in case of head trauma (which is not always obvious to identify from the child's behavior). 2) After joining that school, my child started giving order at home like "Mom, bring me some milk RIGHT NOW!", or if she tried to get my attention while I was doing something and did not answer right away she would say "Mom, I'm talking to you!". Two-Three years old is an age when children tend to repeat a lot of what they hear, so if teachers use phrases like that with the kids, it is a sure thing that kids will repeat it at home. 3) Their finance department is struggling and it is causing waste of time or money for the parents. They also had a hardline approach (as documented in their policies) of refusing child care if payment was not made in full by the 5th of the month, even when the finance department had made a mistake (over charge) and did not respond to parents' emails nor address the issues on the phone (in our case, the person who answered always had to consult another person, but never called back). In our case, they have made 4 mistakes (sometimes by $300+) over the 9 months that my child attended. They don't itemize invoices, so there is no detail for the extra charges, just the total amount for that month. They were very unresponsive when we tried to contact them to get explanations. Their finance department is located in Redwood City, so parents can't just drop by their office when they drop off their child. The only way I was able to get a response from their finance person was to hold payment. However, in September they changed their policy and now require all parents to set up an automatic withdrawal from their bank account, or an automatic charge to their credit card with an additional 3% credit card processing fee - which they did not charge for prior to Sept 2017 (that's in addition to their 3% annual tuition increase). It now seems that the only way parents have to get a response from the finance department is to give their 30-day termination notice and cancel the ACH with the bank. We were fortunate that my child was attending part-time, and we had a nanny who was able to pick up the extra hours until we found another school, so I was able to pull my child out immediately when the finance person threatened to terminate child care, after being unresponsive to my queries for about 3 weeks. Two days later, I got an apology email from their VP of programs, I don't know if it was damage control to avoid bad reviews, but there was still no plan to fix their financial practices. They have no plan to itemize invoices, if they take too much money from parents' bank accounts, they do not commit to fixing the problem by the following billing cycle. They do not commit to any timeframe at all for fixing their mistakes. They seem to expect to be able to withdraw whatever amount they want from parents' bank accounts, without having to justify anything. In our case, they were not accountable for their mistakes, nor did they fix them pro-actively. It is a nice facility, I find it very sad that a finance department can waste so much of parent's time to the point of getting parents fed up. read more

My 4 yo son has been attending this preschool for almost a year now, it was CCLC back then. The transition to Learning Links went well, we are very happy with the school. Teachers are friendly, caring, and enthusiastic; kids in my son's class are well-behaved (or maybe teachers keep then in check ;)) What's not to like? Tuition rates are pretty competitive; we are on the 9 to 3 schedule at a price which would get you only a 9 to 12.30 in many places. The preschool is very supportive of part time schedules unlike many places who have huge waitlists and tend to push you into full time full week mode. There aren't as many frills as in other places in terms of additional languages or sports or academics offered; but I do like the core curriculum, so it is not a huge concern to me. My son likes going here; he tells me a lot about what happened at school, what art they did, etc. The only reason I am giving it 4 stars instead of 5 is that I have to drive to get here :) :) Wish it were walking distance from us :) read more

We loved this Daycare! Our son was in the 2 year old class (Denali), and I absolutely loved our teachers. (Wendy and Qiao qiao). Wendy would tell us little stories about our son on a daily basis, which showed how observant she is. My son learned a lot here, and I didn't have to worry about whether our son was in good hands. I would've loved to keep our son in this daycare, but had to leave due to relocation. Jennie and Bianca do a great job at running this place. read more

It is a great center, friendly teachers and very good management. Our daughter has been there for more than 1.5 years and is very happy to go there. She loves it. Pros: - teachers know the children by name even when they are not in their class - very open to parent suggestions - very supportive when there are changes in the family e.g. another sibling - music class is included in the tuition - great part time schedule (9-3) - facility is very nice and has a great playground with lots of shade - very good atmosphere Cons (and why it is not 5 stars): - outdoors physical exercise could be more, they offer participation in dance classes and soccer programs (extra tuition) but that's only 30-45 min a week. Dance classes are indoors. - no school garden read more

Our daughter has been at this school for 18 months now. The teachers are wonderful. I am always impressed by how neat and clean the facility and playground are. The new management has taken a turn for the better. Music classes included in curriculum. Optional dance and soccer. Highly recommend this school. read more

We were impressed enough with the center to move our child from another center, starting soon. We like that they offer music and learning as part of their preschool program, unlike how CCLC handles these items. For extra-curriculars, they offer Soccer Shots as well as a dance class. read more

I definitely would strongly recommend this preschool to friends, actually I have been doing that for a while. My son joined his former CCLC and went through all the transitions and then stayed with learning links. We once had some issues with one of the CCLC directors and wanted to move him out. Although we had quite a few good offers from Stanford/Palo Alto, we eventually chose to stay with the center due to the teachers we like and its big playground. Then the transition sounded a bad idea, but a visit to other learning link site made me declined all the other schools' offers again. From that visit, I saw care, love and wisdom. We were glad we chose to stay with Learning Links. It turned out to be much better than CCLC. All the teachers we like from CCLC stayed with the Learning Links. All these teachers are very caring, patient, responsible and know-how-to-talk with/educate-kid teachers. Exciting parts are three teachers we like a lot became three critical roles for the new center: Kylii became the associate director, Falin became the director and Kristy became my kid's head teacher. My son definitely love all his teachers and school activities. He is so happy every day. And he learned quite a lot too, like recycling, health, love, sharing, presenting together with all the academic educations. Unfortunately, we had to move to other state. We once had a hard time to locate a good center in the new place. Fortunately, eventually we got an offer from a good school. After visiting that school, my son was happy and said he wants to join that school. I asked him why and he said it is because it just looks like his Learning Links. Overall, this center is excellent! First and most important, it is because of all his excellent teachers! They definitely know how to talk with kids and teach kids. Second, it has a rarely big playground with good equipment surrounded by trees and a tennis court. It literately resides in Rengstorff park. We have visited most of the daycares either in mountain view or Palo Alto, it is hard to find a good playground like this. There is only one minor complain: bug bite. During summer, the playground always has bug bite issues. Center indeed took measures to avoid that, but kids still get bits. The bug bite scars from several months ago are still with my son. Hope they can go away soon. read more