Chestnut Montessori School

We have two children in Chestnut Montessori school and they absolutely love it. The school provides an excellent foundation in science, mathematics, reading and geography with children thoroughly understanding core concepts which greatly helps when learning more advanced concepts. Our kids have also learned a lot about respecting themselves and other children and most importantly have a passion for learning. The classes are small, the teachers are amazing and the school is located on a beautiful campus.
It looks like a couple of other people have had bad experiences — and are clearly venting online which is disappointing. Montessori schools aren’t for everyone — so as part of your due diligence you should decide if Montessori school is the best place for your children — if it is I know they will be very happy at Chestnut.

We have been sending our son to this school (early education age) for 4 months now and he, and we, love it. Our son is naturally shy and observant and his teacher and assistant teacher have not only allowed and encouraged him to be exactly who he is, but also fostered his growth and ability to relate to others. We have nothing but good things to say, especially about the teachers we have gotten to know who are so caring, patient, and loving. If you like Montessori style learning, you will like this school.

Chestnut Montessori has been a great school for our two girls. Our oldest started at 2 ½. This is her 6^th year there and she says she wants to be there forever. The school setting is charming and far better than the office building style schools seen so much today. The kids are encouraged to explore and appreciate nature, be global citizens, act with grace and courtesy, cultivate friendships and respect others differences. Academically, my child seemed to have so naturally and quickly picked up reading and math and does both with pleasure and beyond her expected grade level. A quick example: When she was 5, I said «look at that neon car» and she said with a smirk, «Mommy-​do you mean neon the color or neon the element?» She has surprised me many more times in this way as well-​naming artists she is studying, continents and countries she has studied, experiments she is doing, fun games she is playing at recess. This school never limits what the child is exposed to-​they absorb so much here. There are no perfect schools and no school that is perfect for every child. Chestnut happens to be a fit for our children and what we wanted for them in their early learning years. I have always felt that in any way that this school lacks-​it makes up for in passion for children and the montessori method. We have always been treated with respect here and our concerns addressed appropriately. If you are looking for more of a day care setting then this is not the place for your child. If you want your child to be respected for his/​her own learning style and be allowed to master basics before being pushed on, and be allowed to build confidence in their own individual ability to learn– then CMS is a great place to start.

Three years ago, I got carried away with the sweet talk from director Jeanine and enrolled my then-​4 year old son here — I still repent my decision. Things were okay until about a month when I spoke with Jeanine about concerns re. the facility — old carpets, 100 years old building, safety in playground. Since then she seemed to have harbored a personal vendetta against me. Or was she racist I can’t tell (we are Indians)! She refused to acknowledge my presence or bother to reply, she wouldn’t even humanely respond to my simple «Good morning!». What is more, Jeanine was incapable of separating her personal malice from her duty as an educator as this started impacting my kid. Things took a nosedive soon, starting with the after school lady with weak English. Every evening we would come to pick our darling from that dark and dingy place, and would be greeted instead with her sour face and at least 1 complaint about our son — we were never clear what exactly he did wrong from her broken English.
Some time passed and my fragile son started complaining about an older boy (a tall and well-​built 6 year old Caucasian) bullying him every day, and touching inappropriately (my son still remembers that briefly). When I confronted Jeanine about this, I was shocked to see her response. She responded as if my son was making up stories! Which 4 year old has an imagination like that?! Soon the teachers started making mountains out of molehills. For example, once my son tripped over somebody by mistake and a blonde girl in front of him in the queue fell over — pat came a complaint from the teacher saying my son deliberately pushed the girl, without even trying to hear his story! All our correspondences were filled with such negativity against my son, it started affecting our peace at home — I shudder to think what effect it might have had on my son’s impressionable mind!
They called us once to show a video about my son not listening to the teacher and stubbornly lying on floor. The teacher kept sitting near him without saying a word and was not even attempting to correct his behavior! A 30 year old teacher could not control a 4 year old child — that IMO is the teacher’s failure and not the child’s! How can you expect a 4 year old to «know» correct behavior without telling him what it is? Neither did the «director» say anything — she was busy recording it! They started pushing us to show him to a psychiatrist! While our pediatrician had already confirmed my son is a totally normal active 4 year old! Out of the blue one day, we got an email saying «your son will be dismissed from Chestnut Montessori School if he refuses to follow the directions of teachers»! That email was the last straw — I stopped sending him to that horrible place from that day itself.
We were extremely lucky with his next Montessori preschool — it was not fancy — but the teachers were truly loving, caring and kind. After our experience at Chestnut, we were expecting lot of complaints from the new preschool, but we got only words of encouragement and positive reinforcement — «he’s doing better, he will be fine– don’t worry». How can the same boy be so different at 2 different schools? Because his new teachers would let kids be kids — not silent robots like Jeanine and her team expects! My son soon left behind the scars of Chestnut and blossomed under the care, love and guidance of his new teachers — words are not enough to show my gratitude towards them. 3 years since, he is a smart, well-​behaved kid, and an advanced student in his elementary school class.
Jeanine had once said to me on my face, that in her 30 years in education, she had never seen a kid like mine! I will never forget those rude words! All of my son’s later teachers and everybody that knows him LAUGH at that statement in disbelief! And frankly, in all my life, I have never seen an incompetent educator like Jeanine!
Yes, Maya is right; we also lost money in addition to the mental agony.
If you love your child, AVOID Chestnut Montessori at all cost! Please save your child from this racist hell where a normal child is not allowed to blossom as an individual.

Horrible school!!! enrollment is a scam, they asked us to pay $ 4000 upfront and when in two weeks we understood this is not the place for our child to be in, we withdrew but the director turned out to be inhuman and did not return any of the money back although promised to. If you love your kids do not bring them to this hostile place for these reasons: the contract is a scam, there is only ONE toilet for 20+ kids, you have to bring your lunch and their kitchen where they hit the food is old and smelly. the playground is dusty/​muddy and not well equipped, the after care supervisors are ignorant and don’t actually watch the kids (at pick I saw a few little girls doing some dangerous things and the supervisor was not around), the noise and air pollution is very high due to the freeway is next to backyard (they do classes outside but it’s so noisy what do the kids hear?), various ages in the same class does not work for everyone, the two teacher assistants are very strict with the new children who are already having a hard time adjusting to this strange world of rules and finally, my child cried every single day in those two weeks but once we switched to another school, she was happy from the first day and still happy. I spoke with other parents in the class and they were not happy with this school either but think they are stuck with it becasue of the contract, being afraid they would loose the 20% down payment. Take my review seriously before deciding to enroll here.