Montessori House of Children School

school is outdated and is in need of major repairs

This is a very nurturing environment! I recommend it highly!

This school is a gem. Our child spent 2 very happy years there. He learned so much, progressed on every level: practical, social, academic. He loved the whole experience and we only have praise about the school and the staff. We particularly liked the Montessori program and methods, the possibility of afternoon care, and the fact that there was no or minimal involvement from the parents required (no fundraising weekends).Montessori House of Children was recommended to us by a friend who had 2 kids at the school. He highly praised the staff, the curriculum, how his kids could read and write by the time they were ready for K.In turn, we loved it: the teachers, the helpers, the principal are professional and friendly. Great communication and liaison with parents, via emails and in person.We loved the vibe too: it's a small school where you rapidly get to meet the staff and other parents. Some parents connect outside the school and organize play dates, birthday parties…We are planning to send our 2nd child there when she's ready.

I like the school the first time I visited it, not just because of the open-air playground, but all the kids who are running around looks so happy and energetic. And after we joined, it's a plus that they have Spanish/French/Mandarin classes for parents who likes to let their children expose to 2nd/3rd languages. And there's also gym/yoga classes design for 3+. There was Halloween parade to let kids show off their costumes with their friends; Due to the San Francisco tradition, they have Chinese New Year parade as well; with the diversity in the city, they have an international day to let all the kids dress up to represent a different cultural background.It's a school with history, the faculty there are nice and worked there for a long time. My daughter had a classmate that his father went to MHC when he was a kid.I was really sad that we had to transfer our daughter because we moved to east bay. This is a good Montessori school, my daughter joined the preschool right after she turned 2, and I know she was in good hands cuz she likes to go to school everyday this one whole year.

My daughter loved MHOC! We moved to Oakland but she still talks about the school, her teachers, and her friends there. Each teacher has a slightly different approach, but that mostly reflects their different personalities. Allowing their personalities to come through really helped the kids bond with them. It helped me relate and understand their approaches too. More so than if there was a generic standardized curriculum that they all were trying to adhere to.It's also really cheap and down to earth compared to other schools! The reason is that the school has been around for a long time, and shares its space with the Unitarian church. The location is also not as convenient as some other schools.The kids and parents at the school have diverse backgrounds and income levels -- nurses, diplomats, plumbers, techies, and others. The school organizes lots of activities for the kids during the day, though historically they weren't very good at communicating that to the parents. That has completely changed since the new Principal (Maria) took over. When my daughter first entered the school we just happened to see the SF zoo setting up an animal encounter for them, another day there was a puppet show, but these weren't communicated at all. Maria now sends emails to all parents one or twice a week with photos, announcements, and upcoming events.We were really bummed to leave this school. We made a number of good friends here, and wouldn't have left had we been able to stay in SF.