Today the Stepping Stones van hit a vehicle while picking up kids after school. The driver was…read morespeeding in a school zone and after hitting the parked truck, they left the scene, and the director came a few blocks away and loaded eight children into another, personal vehicle. They were not all in seatbelts or appropriate car seats. It seems your children are not safe at Stepping Stones!

My husband and I moved to Lawrence, KS from El Paso, TX with our baby a few years ago. When I was…read moreready to return to work we looked at several places for daycare, but chose Stepping Stones since they cook all the kids healthy meals and snacks in house with quality fresh foods, do a lot of music and art with them, dance, play outside, science, and much much more. It truly is a Learning Center, but it also felt like visiting family whenever we'd pick up or drop off our son. It isn't like the super rigid more expensive day cares that don't allow the kids to be kids. The kids were so happy here! They are so well cared for and our son was always excited to go to school. He learned so many new words and good behaviors and they always communicated any milestones or things we could work on, and gave us the advice we needed. They are also a very clean and safe facility, and they went above and beyond using the Brightwheel app to give us updates about the day, diaper and clothing re-ups, and always called if they had any concerns they thought we should know. I completely trusted them and my family is so thankful they were there when we needed them. We needed to move out of Lawrence for new work and it is the only reason we no longer use their services. We highly recommend Stepping Stones for anyone who needs daycare and will always suggest it to our Lawrence friends.

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.

My husband and I are so grateful for Cool Nana and Mackenzie (other teacher). The care she gives…read moreour son and her Christian faith shines through in everything she does. She leads with kindness, patience, and genuine love for every child in her care. You can tell she doesn't just see teaching as a job; it's truly a calling for her. Safety is clearly her top priority, and as a parent, that gives me so much peace of mind. She's also wonderfully thorough and detail-oriented. She has a clear vision for how her classroom runs and holds it to a high standard, which means our son is in a structured, well-organized environment every single day. That kind of consistency and attention to detail is exactly what gives children a sense of security. Most of all, you can feel how deeply she cares. We couldn't ask for a better example in his life. We're so thankful for her!

The owner is very rude hot headed and likes to bully people. We recieved several rude emails during…read morethe weekend one time non stop .she is getting to old to do this kinda of work and its showing big time shes realy forget full she has yelled at my wife a few times on the phone could not believe it now s hgv e threatened me with her lawer saying I broke our contract. And this is all over because I didn't want to buy batteries for a tablet that my sons to old for I dont recommend this place its been hell here I'm glad to be moving on from the emotional abuse

We absolutely love The Rock Pre-K and cannot recommend them enough! Both of my children have…read moreattended over the years, and our experience has been nothing short of amazing. My daughter attended from 2018 through 2021 before starting Kindergarten, and I truly believe the curriculum at The Rock Pre-K played a huge role in setting the foundation for her success, especially in reading. She entered school already ahead for her age/grade, and I credit so much of that to the structure, learning approach, and care she received here. Now my son has been attending and will continue through this summer before he heads off to Kindergarten, and we've had the same incredible experience. The consistency in quality, care, and education over the years really speaks volumes. The teachers are absolutely wonderful.. caring, supportive, and genuinely invested in the kids. You can tell they love what they do. The Christian-based environment is also something we truly value as a family and has been such a positive influence on our children. If you're looking for a daycare/preschool that provides a strong educational foundation, amazing teachers, and a nurturing environment, The Rock Pre-K is truly something special.

My daughter had a great time here! They were pretty busy since school was out and all the customers…read moreseemed to be having a good time. Basically it's a craft studio for kid. You walk in, pick out the craft you want to do, and an employee helps you gather the necessary supplies so you can get started. Projects are around $8 to $12 each. All supplies needed are included in that price. They have lots of projects to pick from. Everyone in the studio was working on something different while we were there. The staff is friendly and they appear to really enjoy their job. The location is adorable and filled with bright colors. Perfect outing with the family!

Went here last weekend, the woman was so helpful and patient with my kids. Overall a fun location…read morewith plenty to keep your kids busy with! Great place for craft lovers

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.

Love dropping my homeschooled child off here for gifted classes! He gets to see his friends, &…read morereceive instruction from great teachers other than myself. It's a great opportunity and offers him the best of both worlds! I can't say enough good things about the teachers here at Linn!

Dang I used to go here when I was little don't remember much but I do remember the sound of getting…read moreoff the highway and not wanting to go, because I wanted either my mom or my grandma, and I would miss them so crazy