The office admin is extremely rude/childish and bossy. Every time I brought up any concerns to her…read moreshe gave me mechanical and cold responses. My impression is that she does not like to handle anything and she is just hoping everyone obeys her.

My child went to this school for over two years. Unfortunatley it took me a while to find out that…read morethe traditional values I value are not supported by this school. The kids are also sent home with bags of candy multiple time per week, do to some special occasion. If I had it to do again I would choose more wisely.

It's hard to simply describe how much we loved Strode Montessori. Our daughter attended from 5…read moremonths - 18 months old in the infant class, 18 months - 3-years old in the toddler class, then the preschool until she was 5. We interviewed 4 other daycare facilities and Strode was the only one where we left with no doubts or concerns whatsoever, and we knew it was the best choice. We are so lucky we got a spot! Pam, the owner, has always been very responsive and became a trusted advisor as we navigated parenthood. We relied on her for advice and guidance almost as often as we did our pediatrician. The infant room ratio was 1 teacher to 3 infants, but all of the teachers are backups and very involved as needed. You could tell our primary teacher loved our daughter, and our daughter loved her. It was like a family member was taking care of her - the love and care was evident, and the teachers were not simply babysitters. Pam let me store frozen breastmilk there. She had much more freezer space than I had at home. If you have limited freezer space, I know you understand what a welcome offer this is. The toddler room ratio is also low, about 1 teacher to 5 toddlers. Preschool is a little higher. Lunch and snacks are provided. In all three rooms, our daughter thrived. They teach practical lessons, encouraging independence and self-confidence. This is not simply a daycare - they teach and nurture. Our daughter would come home and tell us about the continents, the difference between a moth and a butterfly, how much she loves her teachers, and more. I know this sounds crazy but if you are pregnant and are considering Strode, take a tour and get on the waitlist NOW. You won't regret it.

Strode Montessori was my child's first school/daycare, and it was an amazing experience! They are…read moretechnologically sound, using the bright wheel app to send updates to parents throughout the day with pictures to notes to reassure you of your child's safety and happiness. I appreciated the opportunity to freely communicate with the teachers and administrators at any time throughout the week. The teachers are sweet and kind, and the classroom is pleasant and aesthetic with educational wooden toys in the Montessori style. They also have a lovely outdoor play area that is semi-shaded. Parking is validated at a nearby lot and coded entry required for drop-off and pick-up. Lunch was included in tuition at the time when we attended! Would have loved to stay with them, but the commute was just a bit far for us! If there is a spot open and it is a convenient location, don't hesitate to jump on the opportunity!

We love this preschool! Everyone is so nice and caring. It starts from 7:30am and finishes at…read more4:00pm everyday. You only have to pay one fee for the whole day. I know many other preschools charge you extra if your child stays after 2:00pm. You don't have to worry about that here. The school communicates with parents via the Brightwheel app, so you get updates about events, classes, and how your child is doing throughout the day. We love seeing our son bonding with all his classmates and teachers over the past year and a couple months. There are events and field trips to educate the children and they allow parents to interact with their children every month or two. We get to see how our son is learning to do things independently and become more social with his peers. They also have a nice playground for the kids to play at in between classes and after school while all the kids wait for their parents to pick them up. The Director Ms. Nancy and her team of teachers are always willing to talk with parents about what the kids are learning or if you have any concerns.

I've had two kids at this preschool, and although during my daughter's time there (2010-2013) the…read moreschool went through some turnover of teachers, this is still a fairly new school (started in 2008) and I think it probably takes time to find the right fit for things and get the foundation you need for long lasting relationships. I think and hope that their teacher roster has finally settled in, as I love the teachers there now and think each and every one of them are compassionate, creative and have invested themselves in these kids just as a good teacher should. My son is now in the 3-4 year old class and his teacher, Ms. Zyrah is awesome! (His 2's teacher, Ms. Mika, was also wonderful). Ms. Zyrah is so creative and has so many hands on activities for the kids to learn from and experience. We get an email every day on how my son's day went and although last year, my daughter would often get two or three sentences at most, Ms. Zyrah always paints a great picture of my son's day, and gives us not only the standard notes such as how much he ate, if he took a nap, etc, but also provides us with a nice idea of what he is showing strengths in and what he is still working on. For things she works on with him, she always lets us know what works and what doesn't, and this helps us work with him at home too. She also always points out nice things he says or helpful and respectful choices he makes and gives us insight into times in his day that we would love to be able to see, but of course cannot be there to witness :). She also finds time to send us pictures when they go on field trips of participate in special events and we really appreciate that. The school overall is small - which was one of the reasons we chose the school. There's just 6 kids in the 2 year old class and no more than 12 in the older classes. The kids wear uniforms (which I think is great - no hassle in the morning to get dressed!) Each year, they add more to their program and this year, the director even had a shade tent structure built over the playground - which is makes me feel so much better when I forget to put sunscreen on my son! Their playground is small, but beautiful, with nice green grass and a great hill the kids love rolling things down on...even themselves! The director also tries out different things for the special events and this year they are even having an "open mic" for Thanksgiving lunch that lets the kids or even parents sing or share any talents they may have. They also do different things for May Day and even have a grandparents tea party and Sweethearts ball for Valentines day that is so cute...just like a toddler prom! And possibly one of the best things - for me anyway - is that the school is the cleanest preschool I've ever been too! And although their sick policy is pretty strict, as a parent, I appreciate their efforts as I've been to other preschools where half the class has green snot running down their face and the teachers do nothing about it! yuck. I would recommend this preschool to anyone who is looking for a smaller class size, warm and caring teachers and staff, and a strong foundation in Christian values. Last year, I would have given 4 stars due to the high turnover, but giving 5 stars in hopes that the teachers will remain next year as my sons enters the pre-k class!

This is not really a review about the operation of the school itself, but rather of my experience…read moreas a potential teacher there. I was positively impressed even though my interview happened to occur during one of the few crisis near panics that the city of Honolulu has undergone. The staff seemed to take everything in stride and kept calm so that the student body was not as panicked as was the general public in the urban environment in which this school sits.

MCS has become a second family to us and our two children. It is truly a special place where kids…read morelearn independence, confidence, skills and knowledge, all while having fun and feeling a part of the community. As parents we feel very supported by the teachers and administration. All of the teachers and staff know us and our kids. We have touchpoints with them every drop-off and pick-up and they always make themselves available if we have concerns. There is a full time counselor that is a valuable resource. If we have a concern -- even if it's a behavioral issue at home, the counselor will help support us and even do observations of the child in the classroom if it is something we want. Montessori method has also proven to be an amazing, timeless way to engage and teach children in an intuitive way. Reading some of the other reviews, it is disappointing to hear that a couple people had negative experiences. I believe these to be very specific, isolated cases, as all the other parents we know absolutely love the school and administration. We would highly recommend MCS!

Please be very careful about enrolling your child here. I was so excited when my child was able to…read moreget a spot at Cole. I overlooked a lot of things that bothered me for years because of that. I told myself I was too sensitive when the teacher in the infant class told me that my child was far behind developmentally and needed to be much farther along. I was point-blank asked if I was not doing enough at home to help further her along. (Now that I have a second child I see that what my first child lacked in gross motor skills at an early age she more than made up for in communication skills.) I told myself that maybe the teacher in the toddler class was right when, after a week of my daughter being bitten daily by another kid, I was asked if anything in our home life had changed to cause my daughter to want to get bitten. (Blaming the victim starts early, I guess). I told myself it was just another parent overreacting on the day that a father saw his daughter screaming from being cold. She had doused herself in water from the bathroom and was soaking wet and shivering when he stopped by. The sight he saw prompted him to have a very loud argument with the teachers in front of me and my kid. I really wish they had moved him away from the main classroom to have their discussion. From that day on for the next 6 months she was terrified of any new male she came across. But then she broke her toe and my vision finally shifted. At first, I only knew my side of the story. The side where I came to school to pick up my daughter and she was standing alone screaming. Now, I'll be the first to admit that she's a little dramatic. So I shrugged and grabbed her hand to lead her away. She crippled over in pain and clearly couldn't put any pressure on her foot. That's when I started to panic. I picked her up and raced her to the car where I took off her shoes to see what the problem was. The problem was her foot had been shoved into the shoe to the point where her baby toe had been folded at a 90-degree angle and broken. The toe was pinched right where it connects with the rest of the foot, cutting off circulation and turning blue. I was terrified she would lose the toe. After rushing her to a doctor and finding out her toe was in fact broken, we spent weeks splinting it until it was healed. We spoke to the school to find out their side of the story. At that point, there was a 70% chance that I would pull her out of the school after slowly looking at other daycare options. There was also a 30% chance that we would stay. It all depended on what the school told us. The school said they would view camera footage (I didn't know there were cameras!) and let us know what happened. They got back to us several days later. They said that her toe hadn't been broken. They said there was no sign of anyone coming near her prior to her crying. They said the reason she had been crying was that a father had come to pick up his kid and they cited the aforementioned male stranger anxiety. (That anxiety had finally gone away 3-months before her toe was broken, by the way.) Yes, despite the fact that we had medical proof that her toe was in fact broken and that I had seen that the cause of the broken toe was her toe being caught on something on a shoe that had been put on at the school by someone other than her parents, Cole opted to completely deny the fact that her toe was broken. That was their only response to our inquiry. At least they let us pull our daughter out of daycare the same day they came back with their "findings" (despite their rule of 30-day notice). They even paid us back for her last month of lunch that we had prepaid. Maybe they are just really generous to upset parents. I think it's more likely that they knew they had broken her toe and just wanted to hush us up and get us out of there.

Our daughter is now 1 year old! Today!! And she's been at the Cole Academy for 9 months now…read more Wanted to updated my review and say that Cole Academy has been awesome. Miss Qiara and Miss Aida are so wonderful with our daughter, they truly are a big part of our daughter's life and I'm so thankful for them. Infant Room A is where it's at baby!! We are so happy with it that we just got a tattoo on our daughter back that says "INFANT ROOM A FOREVAH" as a reminder for the rest of her life. (I kid I kid) The director Miss Cassandra and associate director Miss Sara are also great. All the staff we encounter know our daughter's name and say hi to her whenever they see her. The days that Cole Academy are closed (which isn't often) line up with our company holidays so we almost never have to take off work either. We are very happy with Cole academy and I think it's an excellent value.

Love the staff at Kama'aina Kids St. Mark's. The director is very responsive and caring. My son…read moreloves going here and he is always happy and singing songs in the car that he learned in daycare on the way home. Of course daycare costs an arm and a leg but we are glad that our son is in good hands while we are at work. The kids all look happy at drop off and pick up and the teachers know all the kids names even if they are in a different age group. If you're looking for a daycare option then I would recommend this location.

I am not only very thankful to all teachers but also leaned a lot to be a good parent at this…read moreschool. My son went to this school from 3 to 5 years old. We checked out many schools in town and tried couple for few weeks but this school was most fun, loving and caring as well as had good discipline and academics. Ms. Tammy quickly realized my son was behind in writing. She told me not to pick him up till 4pm so she could work with him more personally. A couple of months later, I realized that my son and his classmates were lot ahead in academics from other kids in their age. She said she wanted kids to be confident by being ahead so they would always do well in school. Now my son is in kindergarten and has been always the top of the class in all subjects. In fact, people often asked me which preschool he went to. Ms. Tammy was also very fun and planned many activities even on weekends. She brought a whole class closer and many of us had quality time and memory together. When she taught dodgeball to kids, not only parents but also teachers jumped in to play. We got scoldings for being so loud by too much laughter :) We had so much fun. Another difference I noticed was teachers are more realistic and sustainable. Unlike other schools that focus on fancy wooden toys and recycle papers, they use the back of used papers and make many things from cardboard, fabrics and plants. I was very impressed how creative they were. What I love most about this school was all teachers were very loving, caring and fun at the same time they give good disciplines to kids. They were very nurturing and experienced mothers, they know names of all kids in school and what's going with them each day. As soon as I walked in to pick up my son, the first teacher I saw always told me how my son was. The office lady even the director were often helping kids in the classroom. They are not only sweet but strict in a good way too, and children have good understandings and behaviors. Watching how they deal with kids, I learned how to be fair to kids. Lastly, the director and teachers were very understanding and lenient with our complicated family situation. They were always there to listen and give me good advices, and I felt very supported. I referred many of my friends to this school and they are all happy. The school helped my son to be kind, strong and smart and me to be a good mom. I highly recommend this school!

Love this gem of a school!…read more My child is now finishing our second year of school at Honolulu Waldorf School, and will be starting 2nd grade next year. It was very important for our family to attend a progressive school, and in this case "developmentally progressive" in terms of educating the whole child. Our child is very active and talkative, and we didn't want to go the traditional route of public school - especially when on our first tour of a public school they pointed out a "wiggle chair" in a corner that kids would go sit in if they couldn't sit still for long periods of time, and that particular teacher indicating our child might not do well there. For kindergarten, and where our child was developmentally - this was not going to work and we could visualize a year of phone calls about inability to sit still. In Waldorf education (and many other countries) children don't start classroom lessons at desks until they are in 1st grade and 6-7 rather than 5-6. And for us, that felt like the right fit. The teacher we had in kindergarten in the early childhood program (EC) was phenomenal, and I loved that the kindergarteners are in a mixed age class ranging from age 3-6 with various stages of development acknowledged (star children age 3-4, moon children age 4-5, and sun children aka kindergarteners age 5-6). When my child was a "sun child" they were the oldest in the class and became leaders in many opportunities. They have a very structured day which leads to a lot of centeredness and calmness as they move through play time, reading circle, snack time (provided by school and quite nutritious!), arts, more play time, nap time, music - lots of singing - and each activity meeting the child where they are and building on that. My child was very resistant to arts at the start of kindergarten, and by the end was weaving, sewing (!), painting, and drawing. Being restless was not an issue throughout the year, and going without a nap during nap time was also something that could be worked around. After finishing kindergarten, the children move into 1st grade with a beautiful crossing of a symbolic bridge leaving the grounds of the early childhood area and entering the grounds of the grades area / classrooms. In 1st grade, a the class size was 16 children which was a great size for us, and subjects of reading/writing, math, Spanish, Japanese, Hawaiian studies, handwork, movement, music are covered throughout the week. If a child needs more attention in an area, they are quick to spot it and suggest additional support of needed. Our teacher was incredible at holding the class, and attentive to all of each child's progress and needs. What's also amazing is that the same teacher continues into 2nd, 3rd and beyond as is part of the Waldorf pedagogy. Sometimes life changes happen (pregnancy / moving etc), but at this school the same teacher can be expected to continue on for many grades, building a beautiful bond between teacher and student. Also for the community; the school fosters a great sense of community with a strong Parent Hui group (parent volunteers) that work to make each of the many Waldorf traditions come alive. The school participates in Waldorf events of Michaelmas, Saint Nicholas Day, the Winter Spiral, Lantern Walk, and also brings in via its Spanish program a celebration of Dia del los Muertos, Salsa Night, and through its Japanese program Girls Day, Children's Day, Hawaiian - La Mei (May Day) and more. When thinking about all of the events throughout the year it's a magical, welcoming and educational experience for the children and families alike. Not knowing a lot about Waldorf education at the start of our attendance, I have gained a whole new perspective on childhood development as this school also educates parents on how children learn. The reading and literacy is on a different timeline than public school for valid developmental reasons and by 3/4th grade many students are avid readers reading and comprehending books well above their public school peers. Overall, I believe the children become excellent learners through and can tackle any topic with the curiosity and enthusiasm for learning. Last, the school is screen free up to a grade (6th?) This is a huge incentive for our family, as we do not want our child to be exposed to screens more than necessary - as we learn how it is negatively affecting brain development in young children. Eventually, the concept of appropriate screen use is introduced in Cyber Civics classes in middle school - as it is unrealistic for screens to be completely avoided in life, and an awesome opportunity to teach children about how to have an online presence, be responsible and respectful online, and to have personal boundaries around its use with social media, and length of time. Big fan of the school, the caring teachers and admin, and the awesome and strong parent community that goes above and beyond to be involved in their children's learning and environment.

The MonkeyPod Mākeke at Honolulu Waldorf School is a cozy shop open for 45 minutes after school on…read moreFridays. Created and run by parents, it has beautiful Waldorf art supplies: beeswax molding clay, watercolors, colored pencils, and coloring blocks - alongside small treasures children love to choose for themselves or friends: journals, necklaces, and other thoughtful trinkets under $3. You'll also find handcrafted gifts like felt leis made with care by parents and teachers. I purchased one for Mother's Day! It is a warm, intentional space that brings joy to the children and community alike.

No other preschool on the island compares to the level of quality and care the Learn School is…read moreproviding for my child. The teachers are so invested in providing great age appropriate education and meeting the needs of the children with a holistic approach. I never have to question my daughter's safety while she is in the care of her teachers, classroom management is on point, the families and students at Learn are wonderful people and so welcoming. Dr. Karla has done an amazing job developing the curriculum for the school and provides great educational opportunities for parents/adults as well.

We absolutely love the holistic and child-oriented approach of the LEARN school and truly…read moreappreciate Karla and her team who are so caring and absolutely wonderful with all the kids. Our daughter loves the environment feeling safe and happy, which is the most important aspect for us parents. We really enjoy all the fun activities incorporating sustainability, cultural aspects and education in a playful and engaging manner.