Nursemaid elbow is not a medical condition and can happen to any child before 4 or 5. It is not common but can happen to an adult too, same like fracture which can happen to any person. Why would we hide anything that would affect my child. I am attaching here the message I sent to Shantha on February 8th 2022, explaining about Nursemaid elbow, Neel started this facility from February 7th 2022. We have verbally mentioned it as well. Our fees check was en cashed on 7th June and told us to not send him to the daycare on June 10th at 3:07 PM, you can do the math. I have records to prove each of my statements I wrote in the review, so if anybody's statements are defamatory, those are Shantha's. read more

Orion Montessori - Comment by Shantha which she has modified after seeing the screenshot of the message. - Preschools Near Me - Kirkland, Washington

My daughter started at Orion when she was 3 years old. Place is very clean and meals are very yummy and healthy, per my daughter. :) I was very impressed by the curriculum, which included both reading and writing, put forth by Shantha. Also impressive was the effort she puts in for all the kids there. I could see the advancement in my daughter pretty quickly, she started putting together words and soon was reading smaller books. The curriculum is not limited to reading and writing but covers diverse topics on science, math, geography, Spanish and so on and is taught in a way that's easily grasped by these young tots. Even during the pandemic, Shantha took every effort to keep the teaching moving along via online classes with a similar curriculum. I highly recommend this school. read more

My preschool kid did the early reading summer camp with the school the past year. My daughter was a beginner when she started however by the end of the camp she was able to read three letter words, blended words and started to grasp the phonetic concepts of reading. Shantha brought her reading level up by notches. She provided materials as follow up along with feedback on how to further improve at home. My kid enjoyed the camp and would look forward to going every week. I will highly recommend Shantha for your child's education needs. read more

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I have known this business since its founding in 2007. Shantha has twenty years of experience working with kids as a trained early childhood professional. My daughter too attended her school and her fantastic summer camps. The homecooked meals are nutritious and most importantly my daughter loves them. My daughter always waited for the next day to go to school, from the first day I was really amazed at the professionalism of the school even though its run from home. My only concern was that their hours were not as long as other places as I would like but the quality care really makes up for it. My daughter had an especially smooth transition to kindergarten because of their Prep-k prep program. Since then my daughter has volunteered for two years during their summer camp programs like the outer space camp and paleontology camps. Even to this date, she cherishes her memories of the school, camps, and volunteering there :-) Thank you so much, Shantha for this wonderful experience! read more

Orion Montessori provides an excellent foundation for kids in all aspects of growth: mental, academic, social, physical. My daughter started with online sessions about 5 months in this pandemic. Impressed with Ms. Shanta's teaching skills, my daughter has been going to in-person Pre-K classes since September 2021. The school provides a unique customized STEAM curriculum. Ms. Shanta is a highly experienced and talented educator and determines kids' innate abilities and changes the teaching methodology accordingly. Apart from academics she also focuses on other enrichment programs like music, art, craft, yoga, science experiments, outdoor activities etc. She also serves nutritious lunches and snacks. My daughter loves going to this school, and I have seen a lot of improvement in her reading and writing skills. I highly recommend Orion Montessori for the efforts they put in to give a quality education. read more

My daughter attended the last week of summer school here and had a lovely time. She was engaged and came home daily with new projects she had been working on. The school kept me up to date with photos of my daughter's day and we would send her here again for future summer sessions. read more

This is an update to Orion. I initially had rated Orion 5 stars when Neel was just one of the two students that the school had during the pandemic. He was enjoying the school very much. We saw some good changes in our son during the pandemic, in the sense that he seemed to be interested in different things. There were some teaching techniques that rubbed off well with him. We were quite satisfied because during the pandemic he had been kept away from daycare, with a nanny. He missed kids and hence we put him in the only daycare(grr, school) we could find at that time. The Montessori had several red flags that we ignored. it had variable times for different kids. some kids came early and left late. we had a time of 10-3. He was given a pack of gogurt everyday( strictly forbidden at every other child care institutions), Croissant and jam for meals, a lot of bread, no or very little protein everyday. Food was repetitive, like someone was trying to finish off supplies brought from a big box store like Costco. Our son complained of a stomach ache all the time. It was still okay with us. Being two techies, we still made him food and stopped the daycare food. We were happy seeing our son learn and interact with kids. Soon two more kids joined. I saw Shanta hurried, out of breath most days. The staff ( one more teacher) hardly turned up on a few days, most days not. The food quality declined. Our son has had this problem of nurse maid elbow. His elbow would get pulled out of it's socket (PAINFUL) and we've had trips to the ER some times. We had intimated this in the document filled. One day Shanta calls out of the blue and tells us to take our kid of the daycare (err school). Things were going fine and we mostly hear praise coz he almost can read most words (just turned 4), no warnings, nothing! We are shocked. Please Note, this is a "4 year old" extremely intelligent and emotionally mature boy that we deal with. I work with the largest tech firm as a dev and I can WFH, with this fellow doing his own things like Legos, books, drawings etc. He can keep himself occupied. She is out of breath and mentions that out son is difficult and she and her staff "assessed" him to be difficult when around a couple of 5 year Olds and a 3 year old. Note, the school has mostly Shanta every day. No other staff except one Mrs. Jaya who shows up part time, around 10% of the time. Again, note this isn't a teenager who has walked in with a gun, that has everyone worried (a 4 year old). I am driving from work, quitting a boring meeting, confused, when after 5 minutes she calls my wife again and says, our son has injured himself and that we take him away. "Aah, ok", I speed and reach the daycare (Shanta wants us to call it a school, Ok!!), find my son crying in pain, and here is Shanta telling me to not bring him back. I am frustrated, ignore the noise, take him to the doctor and he is okay. She hid his injury from us, wanted him out coz she didn't know how to deal with it. Its the worst way a child care provider can deal with an incident. There are lot of untruths told. "Oh he fell and hurt himself", "Oh this 3 year old pulled his arm (another sweet little kid being vilified)", "Oh he didn't cry for minutes". Note this injury is extremely painful for a kid. They will simply not "not cry". Also he told us exactly what happened. It was the oldest kid in the class that pulled his arm. Again for us, it's just another kid for f***s sake. Nobody is complaining. Ooh, but apparently Ms. Shanta is!! The thing that is extremely rankling is this nonsense that "They immediately ASSESSED a 4 year old" to be danger to the older kids around, out of the blue. Again this fellow got potty trained at 2 years in a day, changes his clothes himself, wears his own shoes, talks like a adult, and is extremely emotionally mature. Don't believe me, ping me, come and talk to him. I immediately "ASSESSED" Ms. Shanta to be incompetent when things scaled up beyond her comfort zone of a few kids. With the staff shortage and the high turnovers in recent times, I would absolutely not recommend this daycare (I did it again. didn't I? Its a school as per Shanta). Also if your child is a little extra emotionally mature, intelligent and doesn't like being talked down to, this isn't the place to be. Also if you decide to send your kid here (I mean, you are your own boss), don't be easy going (like us), raise any red flags and complain as you see things not right. Don't wait for "An assessment" from the phantom staff! Mrs. Shanta has this habit of drumming up her daycare to be something much bigger, an efficiently run mature organization, which it is not(somebody tell her its fine, that people see through it). Look at my review profile. I hardly write bad reviews. I just had to write this one! Cheers. UPDATE: Look at the way she talks about a 4 year old. Shows you the class!! Also Nursemaid elbow isn't a "health condition" that can be termed "CHRONIC". read more

This is an update seven months after my son has been at Orion. Although we set out looking for a daycare we ended up finding an educational preschool that cares about my son's academic achievement even more than we do. Now my two-year-and-nine-month-old boy knows letters and phonics, spells a couple words, counts to 100 forward and backward, and sings a couple English rhymes. I can tell that he has been exposed in a highly stimulating environment that has motivated him to learn a lot. I can also tell that he learned all these in a happy non-forcing way, as based on my understanding of his personality he wouldn't learn if he's not willing to. They are also trying to get him to start writing! From the photos that Shantha sent back, they have had imaginary trips to Antarctica, Africa, deep sea, forest etc. When it was fall they counted leaves. When it snowed they played sensory games with snow. When spring finally came they planted flowers in the garden. There's always something exciting happening here. A lot of the toys they have are Montessori materials that have educational purposes so that kids learn about math or language while they play. Shantha also continues to invest in models and specimens for different themes. My son has built strong bond with his teachers and other kids. He was treated gently and with love by bigger kids, and learned to comfort smaller kids when they cried. My son has grown so much in so many aspects since he started going to school and we are so happy with our experience with Orion. read more

My son started at Orion about two months back. Let me first tell you that we absolutely love this place and admire all their staff members. Shantha is always there to greet you with a smile every morning and is very experienced in educational as well as early childhood development aspects. Kids in this childcare are well taken care off , provided with variety of nutritious/yummy meals, engaged in interesting learning activities and learning an advanced curriculum by practicing both reading and writing. My son is excited every morning to go to school. Would certainly recommend to families who are looking for excellent childcare. read more

Very clean place And professionally trained teacher available. Small group setting and lunch provided. Enthusiastic teacher. Quality curriculum that individually modified. My kids love the place and they wish to be there everyday. read more

Orion Montessori is a very homely and nurturing environment for all the kids. Shanta is very passionate and determined to give the best care to the children coming to her school. She is always proactive and looking for ways to kindle learning in the kids in a fun way. The school is bright and has a wonderful play area. Overall it is a great place for the preschoolers to get ready for their kindergarten years. read more

What a great place to send you kids. My daughter went there and had great learning experience with Ms. Shantha who with her experience and innovating teaching skills made each day a fabulous and learning day for my child. I would like to thank Shantha for providing such an amazing experience my daughter, who still wants to go back to those days. read more

"We would happily recommend Orion Montessori. Shantha and her team do an amazing job at keeping the kids engaged with not just the curriculum but very creative surroundings as well. Shantha is not only an expert in child development but it's clear that she has a passion for the subject that results in the care and detail that go into creating a nurturing environment. Our daughter was a little older than the others and was hesitant to go there but once she started, we had to convince her to stay home when needed because she looked forward to the science and play experiments. She would excitedly share about the activities that Shantha and team had planned for the kids. So not only we got the help we needed but our daughter enjoyed the experience as well!" read more

My 3-year old loves going to Orion for all the engaging activities carried out by the staff. It is a home-based pre-school with sufficient space for most of the activities a pre-schooler could engage in. Well trained staff who are perceptive to the needs of different kids. Staff is able to balance between academic, physical and psychological development of kids. Would definitely recommend this pre-school. I have seen a few kids (including my own) who are apprehensive/throw tantrums on first few days at Orion but quickly get adjusted to the lovely environment and begin to enjoy their time there. read more

Shantha is an amazing and very experienced teacher! She also has a strong passion for teaching and helping kids flourish. I loved Orion Montessori's new facility and its playground. The school is super bright, clean and safe! You can tell everything was designed with love, attention to details and with the little kids in mind! read more