The most magical place. My daughter (4 years old) currently attends Bing and I went there a million…read moreyears ago. Think butterflies and bunnies, paint and clay, natural materials and wafting laughter. It's a multi-acre campus with rolling hills designed to suit a child's line of sight, endless options for engagement and activities, lots of art and play, play, play. Teachers are like education fairies - knowledgable, kid-centric, know how to talk to a kid at their level. Community events are bucolic and laid back. Cannot say enough wonderful things about this very special and unique experience.

Cannot say enough good things about the school, the staff, and the administration. The parent…read morecurriculum is also so helpful.

Reached out to possibly join a class, owner felt very dismissive. No people skills through e-mail…read more Turned me off right away. Shared this with a mom group and they shared that they had stopped going because it was very catered to a certain demographic. Ok, no thanks. Dodged a bullet. Going to look elsewhere.

I had gone through the Mandarin Immersion programs with both of my sons when they were 2-3 years…read moreold. I would definitely recommend Tiny Treks to any parent who wants to take their kids outdoors and learn about nature in a safe and social environment. My kids loved learning about the different bugs, trees, and seasons. It's a good way to exercise and bond with the little ones. Storytime was always entertaining with Teacher Hsi. The founder of the program is also very organized and responsive -- she definitely listens to feedback and recommendations. My kids have now outgrown the program, but they still talk about the fond memories of their Tiny Trek journey.

Our daughter attended Sharmila Montessori from 2023 to 2026 and graduated recently. We are quite…read morehappy with the care and would recommend it to other families. The campus is well spaced, with three or four large mixed-age classrooms and two large playgrounds. The school focuses on social-emotional learning through mixed-age group play, teaching children to take care of their own needs (folding their blankets, cleaning up, looking after their belongings, etc., ), and art/creative learning. On a typical day, kids spend time reading books, doing fun activities with their teaches as well as outside play and often times singing or preparing for fun school events. Over the three years since we joined, Sharmila has grown this school through word of mouth and expanded her staff and school facilities. The student to teacher ratio is impressive (about 1:6) and kids get individual attention from their care-givers. Our daughter misses her teachers and the experience. Throughout the school year there were plenty of events for parents to take part in and to connect with other families. Whenever we needed help managing a challenge, Sharmila was always keen to work with us and accommodating. She has a good understanding of the individual nature of each kid and what would enable them to overcome a challenge. It is evident that Sharmila has years of experience and understanding in nurturing young children.

A Truly Exceptional Foundation for Our Children…read more Choosing Sharmila Montessori for our son and daughter was one of the best decisions we have ever made as parents. Nestled in a peaceful, bucolic setting, the school offers a warm and nurturing environment that feels like a natural extension of a loving home. But what truly sets this program apart is Sharmila herself. There is simply no one who goes the extra mile quite like she does. She also holds a high bar for her team. Both of our children entered her program on the quieter, shyer side. Sharmila met them exactly where they were, tuning in to their individual personalities with patience and unwavering support. Under her guidance, they blossomed, gaining both independence and quiet confidence. If you are looking for a pragmatic Montessori experience delivered with unmatched dedication, wisdom, and heart, Sharmila Montessori is peerless. We are forever grateful for the incredible start she gave our family.

University Heights is a "Montessori light" school with a good mix of play- based and project-based…read moreinstruction. We loved the teachers, especially Ms. Shirley. The school has a flexible after-hour program where you pay a modest rate for extra hours after the regular morning session. Our daughter did the Pre-K program at University Heights and then went directly into the local public kindergarten, so we didn't get to stay there very long (they have pre-K and a kindergarten program). The quality of the instruction is high. They employ the "explode the code" system for pre-readers which we thought prepared our daughter well. The campus is small / modest and a tiny bit run down but that is not relevant to the kids. Our daughter loved UH and we did too. It's expensive but in this case you get what you pay for.

Love this school and their warm hearted teachers. They were very accommodating with the schedule…read moreand my daughter loves coming here. Just this morning instead of gym care she was asking to go to Mila's school! She is taken care of, and love the automation of services like check ins, invoices and communication responsiveness. The best from any i have seen or communicated thus far:)

All these glowing Yelp reviews are 100% true! They really do capture how amazing the school,…read moreteachers, and whole environment are for the kids. For a little backstory: my son has been at Safari Kid for about 8 months now, and he absolutely loves everything about it. Last year, he was at another "popular" school in Menlo Park where we had a pretty terrible experience, so we decided it was time for a change. I ended up touring almost every school in Menlo Park and Palo Alto, from tiny local spots and fancy corporate schools to super structured programs and pure play-based ones. It felt almost impossible to find that sweet spot between good academics and fun, play-based learning. Then we found Safari Kid, and I've been so grateful ever since! They've helped my son really blossom and gain so much confidence, both socially and academically. His current teacher Bev has so much experience and is an absolute gem. Whenever we're working on specific skills or behaviors at home, she jumps right in and partners with us to meet his unique needs. Sandhya is also super responsive and doesn't miss a beat when it comes to the kids. As a parent, you truly feel like they care about your child as much as you do and that you're all on the same team. The daily routine is so well structured. Every week has a fun new theme; like earth week, sea animals, or baking week, and the kids do tons of hands-on activities and art projects. Plus, the teachers upload daily photos and updates to their app, which I love checking during the day. They even teach basic Spanish! I had no idea until my son randomly came home one day counting and naming colors and animals in Spanish. Also, their outdoor space is easily one of the best I've seen around here. Safari Kid has tons of toys and the staff rotates them out regularly to match whatever theme they're learning that week. All of that is great, but honestly, the absolute best part is how much love the kids get from the teachers and the staff. That's what matters most to me. If you're sitting there scrolling through these reviews like I was last year :) to be totally honest, I remember reading all the 5-star feedback and thinking, "There's no way a school is this good, some of these must be fake!" But now that we're here, I get it :) I completely understand why parents love this school and the staff so much!

We've had a wonderful experience at Safari Kid Menlo Park. Our daughter has truly blossomed into a…read morehappy, confident child during her time here. Sandhya has always been responsive and helpful with any questions we've had. Teachers Stephanie and Bev are caring, attentive, and consistently engage the children with a variety of fun and educational STEAM activities. We especially appreciate how Teacher Stephanie shares thoughtful updates about our daughter's behavior and offers practical suggestions to support her growth at home as well.

I have toured 20+ preschools and this is definitely the best one. We decided to send my son there…read moreimmediately after touring. My son has stayed there for almost 3 years. Several highlights: 1. The cleanest school. I heard that it's common in preschools that one kid gets sick (e.g., flu), the whole class gets it. This has never happened in Discovery (amazing, right?). During this very special school year 2020-2021, there was no COVID case found in this school. 2. The teachers use Positive Discipline to educate kids. They even gave a lecture to parents about it! This is the only preschool that I know which truly does this... (Many teachers in other preschools do not even know Positive Discipline.) 3. This is a true Montessori school, but my son is doing great academically in terms of math, phonics etc. He is super happy every day there. Drawbacks of this school: The teachers focus too much on caring the kids that they may not reply to emails or phone calls quickly. If you are interested, please just walk to their door and talk to them. And this becomes dramatically different after your kid is enrolled: whenever you have any questions regarding to your kid's development, just give them a phone call and they usually respond within 1 day, giving you awesome suggestions (often following Positive Discipline). They just care too much about kids' education, rather than advertising... If you have any questions about this school, please do not hesitate to message me and I am more than happy to help.

Discovery is an excellent school. My both kids attended here (one is still there) and my daughter…read morewas reading Harry Potter in Kindergarten thanks to Bonnie and the other teachers at Discovery. It is Montessori style and has a very diverse student and teacher population, which we loved. While my kids are doing very well academically due to the school, it wasn't a very "academic" environment. They teach things in a fun way using Montessori and have plenty of enrichment activities - art, music, Mandarin, etc. We have recommended 5+ families to the school that have all loved it. We even know two families who left and then came back within a year after realizing this is the best preschool in the Bay Area!

Before we started here I mentioned to a parent I met at a playground where we were starting…read morepreschool. We were in southern CA at the time. He immediately knew the school and said it was the best preschool in California. Turns out he does education certification for the state and analyzes preschool effectiveness for students and communities. He had visited the MACooP on several occasions. This place is wonderful! Our child's teacher is incredible, super knowledgeable, up to date with best practices, so talented and very experienced. The amount they do with these kids every day is amazing, there is always something new to explore. Very glad we gave this a try even though I was very nervous about the time commitment for parents with all the extra meetings. It is intense for sure but that intensity also comes we a deep cultural value of taking care of each other. Everyday I see parents helping each other make it through, and not just the parents who are besties or belong to the same economic bracket. Everyone helps everyone.

The Co-Op is a magical place! We started looking at and applying to preschools before our son was…read moreeven born. I went on many tours and applied to many schools, but after a lot of debate, we chose the Co-Op. It was the best decision we could have made. Our son loves going to school! While many schools call themselves play-based, the Co-Op truly is. The kids get to come in and play for 2.5 hours, choosing their own adventure from a wide variety of options. They can choose to play indoors or outdoors, no matter what the weather. The teachers are incredibly caring and really value letting kids be kids for as long as possible. The director, Teacher Kristy, does such an incredible job of advocating for the kids and staying true to the principles of a play-based philosophy. While I had concerns about the level of parental commitment, it has been one of my favorite parts of the school. Getting to watch my son in the classroom and form a close-knit community with other parents has been such a gift. Now, I can't imaging going to a school where that wouldn't be part of the routine. The parental education classes have also been so helpful. You come together with with other parents to learn from each other and support each other in the journey of parenting.

My son attended PAMS from age 2 to 3.5, and we had a truly wonderful experience there…read more He came home every week excited to show us all kinds of handmade projects like paper cows and snakes, drawings, shapes, and even letters he practiced writing. It was very special to watch his creativity and confidence grow over time. PAMS also organizes many fun events throughout the year, especially during the summer. Some of my son's favorites were the cooking classes, gymnastics, dance activities, and visits from fire trucks and police cars. The campus itself is warm, cheerful, and filled with things young kid naturally like, e.g sand boxes What stood out most to us was the kindness and care from the staff and teachers. They are incredibly warm and attentive with the children. Whenever we traveled for more than a couple of weeks, by the second week my son would start saying he missed his school, friends, and teachers. While PAMS is not the type of school that sends daily photo updates, they do keep thoughtful photo albums from school events and activities. Some of those photos are very meaningful to us, especially from when my son first joined the school. I still remember seeing a picture of his teacher holding his hand during a police car visit while he was adjusting to a much larger class than his previous daycare. Moments like that gave us a lot of reassurance as parents. We ultimately left only because we applied to the early learning center of an elementary school we were interested in, and to our surprise, our son was accepted. During that transition, Dinesh was also incredibly supportive and kindly helped by writing evaluation letters for us, which we truly appreciated. Otherwise, we likely would have stayed at PAMS through the kindergarten years. We are very grateful for the care, warmth, and joyful early childhood memories they gave our son.

Our experience with this preschool was excellent. From the very first day, our son felt at home…read morethere, which gave us a huge sense of comfort and confidence. He genuinely loved going to school each day, and it was clear that the environment felt warm, safe, and welcoming to him. The staff was always friendly, caring, and attentive. Dinesh in particular is amazing. He brings so much wisdom and experience to his work with children and families. Beyond caring for the kids, he shared thoughtful guidance with us on parenting, including how to navigate sibling dynamics, which we found incredibly helpful. He has a very calming, grounding presence, and we especially appreciated that he was able to notice and point out things that were worth paying attention to. That combination of warmth, insight, and experience is rare. We're very grateful for the care and support our son received here, and we would wholeheartedly recommend this preschool to other families.

We sent our daughter to Toddle for preschool. We were fully planning on sending our son there too…read more(as we have not a single bad thing to say about Toddle) but due to the pandemic they didn't have enough students enrolled to open and we had to pivot. We had friends who sent their little ones to LA and loved it. I'm happy to report it's be wonderful for our son and they could not be more loving and supportive - amidst a pandemic. Thankful for the teachers and staff.

I've been very happy with this preschool. My daughters loves the teachers. It's clean, with a…read morenice playground and the kids get to learn a lot while making friends. They helped her transition to school right when she turned 2, helped her potty train at 3 and now she comes home singing new songs. It's all very cute and I love them! Can't wait to send my son also.

We cannot say enough good things about the community at Woodland School. From the moment we began…read morethe admissions process, we felt like more than just another application. The Admissions Director, Melanie, is truly exceptional. She went above and beyond to support our family, showing incredible flexibility and genuine care throughout the process. Beyond the administration, the school itself is impressive. We fell in love with the beautiful, sprawling outdoor campus--it's such a rare and refreshing environment for kids to learn in. One of the most striking things we noticed was how confident and articulate the students are; their comfort with public speaking is clearly a testament to the school's curriculum. We also spent a lot of time admiring the Maker Lab, which is easily one of the best we've seen. While our family's personal circumstances shifted and we couldn't enroll this year, Woodland remains at the top of our list for any family looking for a balanced, high-achieving, and supportive environment

Absolutely terrible terrible school. If I could give it 0 I would. The years I spent here were the…read moreworst in my entire life. None of the teachers want to be here they are all underpaid and regularly complain about their salary. While I was there I would consistently hear teachers say "I can't answer that that's above my pay grade" or joke about how they can't afford to pay for anything. Many of them were just bullies and put no effort into teaching us. The teachers also have no control over the students with classes being so hectic that lesson plans would get put on pause. If you are a smart student you won't be challenged here, if your a student with learning disabilities you will get NO support. The campus is laughably small and unclean. The buildings are in horrible condition with middle schoolers learning in portable classrooms. In my opinion it kind of feels like they just added the middle school on in the 80's to make more money. The food is horrible but the kids are even worse.