Absolutely love this school. My daughter started this year and it was her first exposure to any…read moreschool setting. The teachers are absolutely amazing and are so attentive to every child's needs. The school itself is sooo adorable and more importantly clean. You just know love goes into everything about the school. It is a co-op so parents are expected to participate. The expectations are totally manageable and clear. Can't hype this place up enough.

My daughter has been going to LBCP for two years and has grown tremendously during that time. The…read moreteachers, curriculum, play-based learning and parent community have given my daughter the emotional, social and academic readiness she has needed to smoothly transition into Kindergarten. The teachers at LBCP are like no others and offer a loving, empathetic and patient environment where all children feel welcome and truly enjoy coming to school. Extracurricular activities include gymnastics and Spanish classes every week. Even with our daughter being eligible for T-K, after much deliberation we decided to keep her at LBCP for another year given how much growth she was experiencing and how happy she has been. Our son will begin in the Fall and we can say with confidence that Linda Beach has been a wonderful experience for our children and highly recommend it for others seeking preschool.

Laura was so amazing with our two daughters. They both have very fond memories of preschool with…read moreteacher Laura. I cannot recommend her highly enough! If I had another child, I would send her to Magnolia without a doubt. Laura brings the philosophy of Woolsey, play-based, emotional and social skills. And she has such an amazingly patient and good nature with the kids. You will instantly know you've found the right place, where your child can grow and play safely.

At first glance, it's hard to tell Magnolia(and woolsey before this) for the little gem that it…read moretruly is. It's not filled with precious beautiful color coordinated toys nor is it filled with quiet well behaved children. Instead, it's a little loud, a little wild and a little messy. But it has truly been a great home away from home for our little ones these last four years. Magnolia focuses a lot on free play, social emotional growth and conflict resolution. Kids learn to work out how to respect each other's needs and check in with one another when someone has been hurt. It warms my heart to see one kid running to get an icepack for another because they fell down. The school is mixed age, so there is the benefit of the older kids helping the younger ones (it sure taught my son how to work with his little sister). It's mostly self directed play and it's been amazing to see what the kids come up with (mud baths anyone?). Mixed in with the wildness, there are warm teachers who swoop in to hug the sadness/ouchies away at just the right time, some structure to get kids ready for K (circle time, clean up, writing snack signs, music class) and a great community of parents.

My daughter started attending BHNS this August, and she absolutely loves it! We -- parents and…read moregrandparents alike -- couldn't be happier. The facilities are wonderful and offer so many engaging activities for the kids. The teachers are warm, dedicated, and truly caring; so far, we have nothing but amazing things to say about them. We're also very pleased with the parent community that's beginning to take shape. BHNS has been a fantastic experience for our family.

The teachers here are great - very attentive and supportive yet able to foster independence and…read moreimagination. Our son's language and social confidence has absolutely thrived here!! The staff to kiddo ratio is great, no concerns at all about 1-2 teachers watching 20-30 kids which was one of our big anxieties trying to find the right fit. Also the community events are great like garden planting/harvest with coffee and pastries for all, kids and parents alike. Not to mention the parents group chat that is always active with outside park play dates and birthdays and such. So lucky to have found this community!

My 3-year-old daughter has been attending RTG since August, and we love it. The school leadership…read moreis really strong, with several long-term teachers and the highest teacher:student ratio I saw across the preschools we visited. I've been impressed by the variety of activities and the level of continual deep engagement I see by the teachers with the kids, especially on social-emotional development. My daughter is a young 3-year-old (August birthday) and has thrived and grown so much in her language development and storytelling, self-regulation, and climbing skills! There is so much happening, and the teachers make the space feel so big, with everything from a "cozy room" to a dance/yoga space, and a great garden with a very engaged garden teacher who also leads cooking projects. My daughter also really enjoys the art, yoga, water/sand play, etc. She gets a lot of choice, lots of opportunities to burn her energy, is learning a ton, and we've been really happy with our experience there.

I can't say enough good things about the Room to Grow preschool. My daughter went there for 2…read morealmost 3 years and became a real person they helped her to become a better citizen more attuned to the needs of other children as well as her own and they did as much if not more than me and my partner did to make her the successful kindergartener she is today. I highly recommend them. The classes are small and the ratio to teachers is very high. The kids learned to manage their own time, work with others and follow their curiosity.

My child attended Via Nova for two years--as a "Grasshopper" and then a "Dragonfly". It's a warm,…read morevibrant community run with utmost professionalism, and I can't recommend it more highly. The program is bilingual (English-Spanish) with a child-led, play-based Reggio Emilia curriculum. The teachers have so much love and care for the kids, along with strong child development knowledge and skills to support and teach how to express needs and feelings and resolve conflicts. The classrooms were always calm yet energized with joy and creativity, and the backyard playground is perfect for the littles. I was continuously impressed by the school's directors. Every communication from them was clear and timely, the programs and field trips were well thought out, and I really just never had to wonder or worry about anything. It's more than six months since my child graduated from Via Nova and started kindergarten, but it's a testament to how much we loved the community that we still get together pretty regularly with the other families for playdates and birthday parties, and our cohort's WhatsApp group is still active with parents arranging impromptu hangs, sharing tips for summer camps, etc. We love Via Nova, and I recommend it to other families looking for a great balance between small/cozy and professional/reliable. Thank you, Via Nova teachers and staff!

My daughter went here for two years, ages 3-4. This place was recommended by her daycare and did…read morenot disappoint. Theresa is very attentive and responsive and Ms. Lupe + Ms. Siloni are incredibly patient, loving, and fun. The place is clean, and they really are focused on your child.

Our daughter Mabel was at OMS for about 2 1/2 years, from 2-5. It's no exaggeration that OMS was…read moreone of the best parts of our life during that whole time. She has thrived there, making friends, loving her teachers, learning independence, learning about the world and just plain having fun. We looked at a few different Montessori schools as we were thinking about preschool, and a huge part of why we chose OMS was the amazing outdoor space. There are two separate classrooms (one for 2 year olds, one for 3-5) and they are separated by a huge outdoor space, so rare to find in urban preschools. It's fully fenced, safe and provides for children to have so much room to roam, explore and play. From the time she was two she was able to explore and have real independence. It was a very special part of her time there. The teachers are also wonderful. They are kind, caring and make the kids feel taken care of and safe while also giving them space to form friendships and choose what appeals to them. We'd frequently talk about how our daughter was a 'little citizen' at school: the manners they teach them, the ability to be in a group and interact with others, the skills to sit in a circle, pay attention, be heard, share. As she gets ready to go to kindergarten this year, we are so grateful that our time at OMS prepared her for this next phase. She is on the young side for K but we feel confident that she is ready for it and a HUGE part of this is her time at OMS. We'd recommend this school to anyone.

We pulled our two-year-old daughter out of this school within two months of her starting…read more Other negative reviews of OMS on Berkeley Parents Network and Yelp mention the same sorts of things we experienced. We regret not fully reading those reviews before enrolling. This was not our first preschool experience or our first Montessori experience. Our daughter was happily enrolled at another Montessori preschool in Oakland for a year. We had no real issues with that school, and our daughter seemed comfortable and engaged there. We moved to another part of town and wanted to switch schools to avoid a long commute. I was wowed during our OMS tour by the outdoor play area and the promises made by one of the school leaders. In reality, this school can be unsafe, unstructured, and understaffed, especially in the toddler class. Two good toddler teachers left within two weeks of the start of the school year and told parents they had been bullied by school leadership. Reviewing old reviews on BPN and Yelp, it seems this is not the first time good teachers have left in questionable circumstances. In the teachers' absence, a parade of substitutes came and went. There was very little continuity of care for the youngest students for weeks. One day, we saw a teacher roughly grab a child's arm in an inappropriate manner. The boy was not in danger, putting others in danger, or doing anything that warranted this treatment.  We ultimately pulled our daughter out after repeatedly seeing kids unsupervised near a gate atop a steep flight of stairs--a gate they could open. At one point, we watched a toddler unlatch the gate independently and go down the stairs without a single OMS staffer watching him. We informed them as to where he was, and no one seemed to take it seriously. At pickup, the kids sometimes seemed to be left to their own devices largely and sort of roaming around aimlessly. We know Montessori involves a lot of independent play and exploration. That's great and an approach we intentionally sought for our kid. However, this felt more like understaffing and disorganization. Our daughter frequently talked about kids crying at school and missing their parents. We didn't put excessive stock in this; toddlers say lots of things and aren't always reliable narrators. But we saw it with our own eyes at pick up. Kids were crying, and no one was appropriately responding to them or helping them through their feelings. The response was sort of clinical and rote. Since moving to a new preschool, she talks about fun things that happened at school and says sweet things about her teachers. She never talks about kids crying and missing their parents. Basic communication with parents was awful. Emails were confusing and haphazard, and critical scheduling information was poorly communicated. The only positive thing I can say about the administration is that they returned our full deposit and unused balance. In short, do your homework and really look into this school's online reviews before enrolling your kid here. It's a shame that this beautiful campus isn't better run.

Every time I walk into CCC I am struck by what an amazing place it is. The carefully crafted, HUGE…read moreoutdoor areas, the range of sensory/craft activities laid out each day, the abundance of activating pretend toys and environments inside. Just that alone would be enough. But then you have teachers who have been there for decades. You have the sense of community that arises from every parent pitching in to make this place special. You have my kid getting to build real, trusted relationships with 25 other sets of parents... We feel very lucky to have our 3.5 year old in the front yard this year. A co-op preschool (I am learning), is a unique thing. It's not hands-off. It's a commitment. But so far, that commitment is really paying off for us.

CCC is the most joyous place I have ever seen. You walk in and see children frolicking through the…read moregardens in complex pretend games, collaborating intently on building villages and rivers on the hillside with the water pump, snuggling and chatting with the many grownups who know and love them there. It is not infrequent that I get misty-eyed on just a normal pickup day, wishing that more of our world was this optimized for children's curiosity, exploration, and interdependence. Our child has grown by leaps and bounds in his three months here, becoming more empathic, more able to focus, physically stronger, more self-confident. He went from a kid who fought school every single morning to a kid who eagerly anticipates Mondays over the weekend. We were a little worried that he would get lost in the shuffle, with 25 kids to a class and rotating grown-ups on their participation days, but we have been struck by how deeply each of the teachers and other caregivers know him and are able to support him. The community as a whole is extremely welcoming and loving, and every time I go for my participation day I learn something that makes me a better parent (and by extension, a better person). So grateful to be a part of this school and can't wait to send our younger one when the time comes.

MT is fantastic for kids age 0-2. Above that age, particularly when you hit potty training, they…read moreare less effective than nearby daycares of similar price. All daycares have a delicate relationship with parents, and it's certainly not easy to run one. That said, I'd echo some of the similar concerns raised by others here. The family running MT is particularly thorny and unprofessional, and we're much happier having found a more responsive and collaborative daycare.

While this seemed like the perfect school for my child . The teachers were good however office…read moreadministrators are horrible. After multiple health outbreaks they were unable to rectify or contain my child got hand foot and mouth. Office administrators were rude, said they didn't know what to tell me and that my child got it from some where else when I voiced my concerns. My child couldn't go to school but I still had to pay. This is after multiple email advisory's and a closer. After voicing my concerns I all of sudden started being billed for extra days and late fees. My child has been gone for over a month and I just received an email saying I owe 9 boxes of wipes from months before my child even started attending the school. I also provided a box of wipes and diapers when my child started.l was never informed my child needed more wipes I was only told when my child needed more diapers. My child also has autism and they totally ignored the request of Oakland Unified after their onsite evaluation to provide them with necessary documentation to complete my child's IEP report. Seek a daycare with more experienced and professional office administrators.