What a lovely place! I recently took a bead making class here and it was thoroughly enjoyable from…read morestart to finish. It was difficult picking just one class because there were so many of them I wanted to take. Lawrence Arts Center has so much to offer all age groups. My class was a human hodge podge of ages and experience. The building is stunning. You are immediately taken in by the color collections and the great use of space and light of this building. Everywhere you look there is alluring and interesting artwork. Even the elevator interior is adorned with colorful sunflower art. This is a happy place, a very happy place. The classrooms are spacious and light. They have all sorts of cool equipment for the students to create their artwork. The instructors are all very knowledgeable and experienced in their craft. I was very impressed with the accommodations provided. There is ample parking and a parking garage is located across the street. There is no issue with access. All in all this is a terrific asset to the city. If you have some time on your hands and find yourself downtown, this is the place to be!

I'm not a particularly artistic person, but we stopped in here on our trip to Lawrence. I was very…read moreimpressed with the building, sleek and clean. I was also impressed by the sheer number of programs they boast here from theater and singing, metal working, pressing, painting, sculpture, etc. Many of these can be seen on display in the galleries about the building. They also have early school and learning centers attached. It makes for a very cool place for the arts crowd to gather.

The director and assistant director of this business go above and beyond for their young learners…read moreand their families. Our son attended this school for four years and had so many fun field trip, and educational experiences. He was able to take swim lessons and karate, and always had to best portraits. They think of everything! I would definitely recommend OOAK.

I love taking my kids to one of a kind. the workers do such a great job dealing with my 4 year old…read more And trust me it is hard to take care of him. They are very hard working and caring. He loves going there, he always tells me he wants to go back, sometimes he even cries because he can't go back until the morning.

Our son first went to the Lawrence Montessori School (LMS) as an eleven month old. Although our…read morefamily is no longer residing in Lawrence, LMS is one of many things that we miss the most. All of the teachers and staff members of LMS had been always so pleasant and upbeat. They created a really positive, enriched learning environment for the kids. They took such wonderful care of our son and truly had a passion for what they do. The curriculum was very carefully considered and varied week-to-week. I also have to give a shout-out to Ms. Amanda and Ms. Sophie in the Hummingbird room. They helped me through some of his more difficult times with toilet training and drop-off anxiety, as well as the 'terrible two' stages. Our son had been learning by leaps and bounds thanks to his awesome teachers! Furthermore, the managerial staff of LMS, Ms. Purviz and Ms. Sonja, helped ease my mind and were always there to give advice when I needed it. I always felt very comfortable talking to them about anything that comes to mind, and they are attentive to our feedback as well. I highly recommend LMS!

It's a state-of-the-art school. It's a new building with a huge yard and playground for the kids. I…read morewas impressed when I visited. There's a close ratio of children to teachers, with a great deal of enrichment for the children in each classroom.

This is a fantastic place to bring the whole family--fun for all ages! For just $9 per person (kids…read moreand adults), you get access to a huge indoor play space filled with themed areas like a veterinary clinic, grocery store, mechanic garage, painting station, dinosaur zone, and more. There are also sensory stations that encourage imagination and creative exploration. A brand-new indoor water area is set to open on June 10th, which will be an exciting addition. The outdoor space is just as impressive, featuring nature trails, a sandbox, water play area, treehouse, bikes, and more. We especially appreciated the separate toddler-only zones that keep the littlest ones safe while they play. With so much to do, we easily spent around 3 hours exploring. You're welcome to pack a lunch and enjoy it at one of the indoor picnic tables or outside in the peaceful pollinator garden. Highly recommend for a fun, interactive, and affordable family outing!

We had the greatest time here with our Grandson. He is 17 months old and played for 2 1/2 hours…read moreand could have played longer but we needed to go eat lunch. There are many activities that entertain kids and I would say up to ten maybe. Some of the areas included were painting, grocery store, a car repair shop, restaurant, water feature, air flow type activities, small area for toddlers, outdoor activities, blocks, plus many more things. I like that adults have to be with children in order to enter. We decided to go ahead and get a year long membership. With the membership I could put my grandchildren on it and they can even go with their parents if we are not with them at no charge. There are also workers spread throughout the area who are so very kind and do a great job at keeping the place picked up and organized.

Prairie Moon is a horrible school to work for. Over a decade, I witnessed the school go from a…read morehigh quality school to a poorly run and disorganized institution. The biggest challenge is accountability. The school is not held to any specific standards for accountability and even though the board of trustees job is to uphold Waldorf values and strengths, the current group of adults lacks the integrity and they do not do their research. Prairie Moon holds prejudices against teachers and students who are different and/or vulnerable. Prairie Moon allows children to be bullies at the school so long as their parents have money. Prairie Moon is an elitist school which uses adults until they find out that those adults want for the school to be held responsible for their actions. Prairie Moon lacks compassion and understanding and there is unwillingness to accept responsibility and provide support for students who have high behavioural needs, they do not provide sufficient support, training or resources to teachers when they need it. Prairie Moon School does not teach respect or have respect for the privacy of other. As a teacher I was made to be available and accessible to all other faculty at all times of day and night. One teacher even went as far as giving my personal address to families that I worked with when I asked her not to. If you are a worker under the age of 25 you are also treated poorly and used. The administration came to my home on several occasions when I worked there after being asked to stop. I worked hard, I was a good teacher and I spoke up when there were wrong doings at the school. In the end when I had to leave they acted like there was no room for growth within the school. As it is, it is hanging my a thread and it should not be in operation.

I was sold after the first time we visited one of the festivals. The kids from the school were…read morerunning around having fun and being kind and gentle to each other from the little ones up to the teens. My oldest started in 2017 and my second in 2018. Could not be happier. I chose Prairie Moon to help teach our boys emotional intelligence. And they get so much more also. Many of the children there seem to be testing above their grade levels especially compared to public schools.

I sent my daughter here after returning to work when she turned 3. She had only been taken care of…read moreby me up until then, so it was a huge adjustment and the staff at Googols did an exemplary job of helping her and I adjust (it was tough for me, too! ). Now she loves going to school! And we've seen amazing leaps in her development, specifically in toilet training, adventurous eating, and the ability to entertain herself instead of relying on mom and dad to provide entertainment. She's so interested in everything around her now and she's always singing new songs she learns at school. Everyone in our family has experienced an enormous mood boost now that we all have work/school during the day! We love the care that the teachers here provide. They even fix her hair when it becomes unruly. Can't recommend Googols enough.

Our family loves Googols!! I have 3 boys that all currently attend Googols and we are so happy with…read morethe care each of them receives. The boys love going to school and are always excited to see their friends and teachers. My twins will be starting in Kindergarten in the fall, and I feel very confident they are ready and prepared for this next step because of Googols. The staff is always friendly and responsive and I really appreciate the structured curriculum combined with free time and play. I can't say enough good things about their services and would highly recommend them!

We had our two children at Raintree 6 and 8 years, respectively, and while we very excited in the…read morebeginning, I strongly recommend against families using this school now. Raintree seemed wonderful in the beginning, clean facilities, great staff, wonderful food that you could even order to bring home. Our children appeared to be receiving an excellent education, and despite no standardized testing, we were told they were doing wonderfully and we believed it -- eagerly paying tuition to give our girls the best we could, like many other patents. Then, in 2022, the teacher's aid for our youngest daughter's class was accused, and now convicted, of molesting several children in her preschool class. This is a horrible event that can occur anywhere, but it was the school's response that was the damning part. Raintree did not respond as they should have. Imagine if the principal at your child's school found out that an employee was molesting a 3 year old, and when the employee began confessing... the principal advised the molester to stop talking to the police -- because, the owner of Raintree did exactly that. Further, the owners essentially ignored the parents of the victims, and they didn't want to talk with any parents about these events. They did eventually implement changes to policies that should have never existed -- no longer were very young children left alone in dark, curtained rooms for nap time, with a single teacher/aid, and fortunately no longer were aids/assistants allowed to work under the direct supervision of a family member. We asked for further changes, such as cameras and for our children to not be undressed publicly for swimming, and as parents we started a PTO to suggest further improvements for our children's safety, but the administration resisted all of our efforts at changes. The original core group of parents who founded the PTO left active involvement out of frustration, or left Raintree entirely, and the organization quickly became little more than a coordinating unit for volunteer opportunities. (citations to articles confirming details above: https://www2.ljworld.com/.../special-prosecutor.../, https://www2.ljworld.com/.../mothers-testify-about.../, https://www2.ljworld.com/.../recent-filings-shed-more.../) The second reason I would not recommend Raintree to anyone is the academic quality. Several years ago, two of our close friends removed their children (one in 1st, the other in 3rd grade) from Raintree, moving them to the public schools. The public entry testing indicated both children (from different families in different classrooms) were very behind for their grade levels, scoring in the 20 to 30 percentiles in reading and math. At first we still thought our own children were fine, but then we noticed our kids didn't know the math we would have known at that age, they couldn't read a clock, and they were very poor readers when we checked out library books appropriate for their ages. When we had our girls tested, one tested under the 40 percentile in reading, 30s in math, and the other was in the 30 and 20 percentiles, respectively. This was finally what pushed us over the edge, and we left two years ago. Leaving Raintree has been one of the best decisions we have made for our children. We feel our children are far safer in the public schools, the administration at the public schools are far more communicative with us as parents, and the education is much better. After nearly 2 years of hard work by their teachers, and countless hours of at-home tutoring, they are both in 80+ percentiles in every subject. Finally, we don't feel cheated anymore by Raintree. I resent Raintree for making me think we were doing the best thing for our children, and I regret ignoring the many warning signs and "drinking the Koolaide" that this was a good environment for our children. Our children are certainly far happier than they ever were at Raintree -- even they understand that the education in the USD479 schools are superior, and they greatly enjoy the far broader range of afterschool and inschool activities. I am far more impressed with the steps the public schools take to keep our children safe. The staff and administration are fantastic. The one time one of my children was bullied on a Friday, the principal called us Saturday morning, talked over an hour, talked with the families of the "bullying" kids over the weekend, and by Monday everything had been resolved. I advise any family to carefully consider their decision to send a child to Raintree. I strongly suggest you take advantage of the wonderful schools we have available for free (or really supported by our rather high property taxes) and say that $12-15k/year tuition for their future college or trade school education.

We sent our children to Raintree from pre-k through 6th grade. My family is so grateful to have a…read moreschool like Raintree Montessori in our community. We moved to Little Rock, Arkansas for two years when the oldest was in lower elementary. No Montessori school in that city came close in comparison to Raintree Montessori. We are more than satisfied with the education our children received in this caring, inclusive, nurturing, and positive learning environment. Both have graduated from college with honors. Our investment in their early education paid off with both students receiving academic scholarships. There can always be issues no matter the school. We simply work together to solve them, keeping the child's best interest in mind. We liked Raintree so much that I chose to work here. Now I help other families discover this amazing place to educate children.