Crescent Montessori School of Silicon Valley

Thanks Brittany and Colleen for refunding the fee. It’s a shame that I had to go this far to get my message across. But I’m glad you understand. Thank you!

CM Preschool is designed to help a child learn via exploration and play. It is a great model. Children are allowed to do free exploration around the classroom and find activities that interest them. For most of the toddlers, their interest last for about 5 seconds and then they move on to the next activity. The instructors /​teachers at the school seem very patient and understanding. They often will hold a child everyday for an entire week when the child is new. They seem to do a lot of comforting often. Every kid in class will have a meltdown at some point during the day. The teachers don’t get mad or frustrated. They just give the kid a hug and help the him/​her work through the emotions. The only thing I don’t like is the lack of emphasis on eating. Kids aren’t pushed to finish their food. I suppose the school is trying to teach the kids more independence and prefer that a child feed themselves. I worry about my kid and often wonder if she is eating at snack time. I guess the kids figure it out at some point and learn that they have to eat on their own.

I am not sure how this school has such great reviews. Sure they seem clean, and super accomidating at first, but the moment there are any issues things take a quick left turn.
We brought our 3 year old here after we moved. He had been at another montessori for a year and a half. He did just fine at the other location, no major issues, loved his teachers. When we brought him here, all of a sudden there were nothing but problems. We were told he was hitting, bitting, not using the potty (even though he was potty trained) and every time we went to pick him up he’d be in a diaper (how does that help encourage potty use?) and they could never tell me what the situation was that caused him to hit or bite.
Within 5 weeks they asked us to have him «tested» and temporarlity removed from the school. We had to leave work almost 3 times a week just to pick him up because of his «behavior.» I decided to take him to the doctor just to check things out. No problems. Doc said we should move schools. We did a week later and we haven’t had one single issue.
I think part of the problem may have been his comfort level of being in such a huge 28 – 30 kid class with only 2 teachers at a time. They say its 3 but there is always one on lunch, break or in another class helping. And they get almost no time outside compared to what kids their age need to release energy.
You can try this place but i’d recommend something else and this as last resort.

Update to my review: The folks here are so good. I still love this school for my son. He has learnt so much and every day he says something new. It is amazing. I love Miss Nora, Hannah and Ms. Antonia. Ms. Brittany is also so caring and sweet. Great school for your little ones.

I never complain, but I feel so strongly about what had happened to our 5 year old, who we entrusted to Ms. Brittany’s Crescent Montessori School, that you need to hear this so you can make an informed decision before enrolling your child in this daycare.
After eight months, we suddenly withdrew our son from Crescent Montessori School in order to protect him from continuous harassment at the pleasure of a fellow student. This boy has been the instigator of most of the issues for which our son eventually received blame. Since our son’s teachers were fully aware of the friction between these two boys was an ongoing problem, we had requested that the boys not be allowed to play with one another.
Since these teachers didn’t seem interested in implementing a corrective action plan, we took it on ourselves to preventative action with our son, which was to try to avoid the other boy altogether; to respectfully inform the other boy that he’s not allowed to play with him and to tell the teacher if he would not comply. As a result, the boy got angry and spent the entire day stalking our son to the point that he couldn’t take it any longer and acted out in despair. For this, our son got sent home from daycare, while nothing was done to the other boy. This sends the wrong message to both parties.
On another occasion, Brittany notified us by phone that they were sending our son home from daycare because he had poked a boy in the eye for no apparent reason, seemingly out of spite.
We wondered what kind of monster are we raising and why haven’t we seen these behaviors at home or with friends and family; or on the playground, in the park playing, in Kung Fu class, or at the swimming pool. Why is it that it’s only at Crescent Montessori School that we receive disparaging reports about our son?
Regardless, we took Ms. Brittany’s word for it and punished our son severely for his role. We as parents apologized on behalf of our son, for his lack of self-​control. But still, something didn’t sit right with this, something smelled to high heaven.
As a result of knowing our son well, that he had a kind, gentle personality, a 5-​year-​olds innocence, we felt something was amiss when we started receiving bad report after bad report from his so called teachers. As a result, we did our own investigation, which included interviews with others. What we discovered was that we were not being told the whole truth of the matter and in fact we found out that the director, aka, Brittany, had done nothing to investigate the root cause of these incidents.
This is a 5-​year-​old mind you; so calculating to conspire against our son. I can only fault the teachers (Brittany included) for either, not being bright enough to see what’s going on or lacking the situational awareness to be able to identify when problems exists and lack of fortitude to deal with it. In any event, our son has been receiving the blame for this other boy’s bad behavior and they are too ignorant to notice.
Case in point, the last time our son had been scolded and then sent home from daycare, it was for «poking a boy in the eye, we were told, out of spite». We learned, in fact, that our son the victim as he was visiting the drinking fountain and while sipping a drink of water, was accosted by this other boy. That boy had tried to bite our son’s finger, so by natural reaction, our son waved his hand to block the bite, which accidentally poked the boy’s eye. The little boy let out a Unilocal.Since no one, well almost no one, had witnessed it, our son received the full wrath of the teacher on duty, which happened to be Ms. Brittany.
So, rather than talking with the child and getting his side of the story, Ms. Brittany’s reaction was to scold our son and then to send him home. It was during this time that our son became frustrated for once again being blamed for this other boy’s misdeeds, feeling the frustration, had acted out against Ms. Brittany.
Bottom line, this isn’t rocket science, its daycare. Had Ms. Brittany listened to us last October, when we asked that our son be transferred to another classroom, then he would not have suffered 6 months of being stalked by this other boy, day after day, week after week.
Can you imagine being a 5 year old who is being harassed by another boy and the teachers won’t do anything to help you? I’m sure we will have to deal with the psychological fallout at some time in our son’s future, but for the time being, quitting this daycare is the best thing we can do for him and a good start to recovery.
It is for the seemingly lack of situation awareness and insufficient supervision that we quit this daycare. We feel Crescent Montessori does not provide a positive environment and can even be hostile at times, especially when you allow children (i.e. that other little boy) to stalk and harass others without regard for their well-​being.

Our 4year old son has been at this school for over a year, and we just enrolled our 2 year old as well. I think that says it enough :-)
We are happy with the school and even more important our son loves going there. He loves his teachers Mr. Min and Ms. Jackie and all others. Because we take him there before 8am he spends that early period with Ms. Hannah and Ms. Antonia who are so nice and patient.
In general all the staff is very friendly and caring. And they are not afraid of hugs, which as we all know little ones need :-)
The director, Ms. Brittany is very proffesional, prompt and really easy to communicate with.
Overall, the school is a safe and clean place with a great educational programm but also lots of play time for kids. They have a big outside playground, and also have a garden where kids help plant veggies.
One con is in regards to extra classes they offer for additional fee and I feel soccer class is overpriced, esp for just a half hour session. But our son still enjoys it. Wish it was at least 45−60min. Cannot comment on other classes as this is the only one our son wanted.

I usually don’t write reviews but I felt compelled to express my appreciation of a very fine school after a much less desirable experience at a different daycare center.
My son started this school 2 months after turning 2. He is now two and a half years old. He LOVES going to school every day and we never have a problem with getting him in the car to go. The hard part is getting him to wake up but that’s our fault for getting him to bed so late. I am truly amazed at the progress he’s made after only 4 short months and I credit it to Ms. Nora, Ms. Hannah and Ms. Antonia in the toddler classroom. When he started school, my son was only speaking a few words clearly. Now he is able to put together sentences, sing songs and count numbers. He could never sit still for me to read him a book but now he would occasionally open a book on his own or bring me a book to read to him. He used to only eat soft food that he could easily swallow and now I’m so happy that he can chew on much more «real» food. He barely knew how to use a spoon and now he’s feeding himself more and more. I used to have to rock him to sleep but now he’s prefers to fall asleep in his own bed. And the most recent accomplishment… potty training! He started school wearing diapers and now he’s wearing underwear during the day and having almost zero accidents. I couldn’t have done all this in 4 months without Crescent Montessori. That really speaks for itself.
I toured a lot of schools before deciding to send my son to Crescent Montessori. There were a lot of reasons why I chose this school but one of the main reason is that it just felt right. I like that the school and classrooms feel and look clean all the time. The teachers are always calm and gentle with the children and run the class with so much orderliness. I love that the school have webcams for parents to access from home/​work so I can see what my son is doing in class. It gives me peace of mind knowing I can watch him at almost any time during the day. I wish they have webcams for the playground as well. I also feel that the webcams help keep teachers on their best behavior and significantly reduce mistreatment. I also like that the playground has some overhead shade and a soft foam ground instead of bark or sand. I ruled out all schools that have sand and bark in the playgrounds. It’s also very convenient for me that the school offers extracurricular activities like dance class, soccer, yoga, etc. Of course, it’s an additional fee but at least I don’t have to drive him to these activities.
I’d like to comment that the Director, Ms. Brittany, is very responsive and willing to make time to talk to you if have questions or concerns. I actually emailed her about enrollment and she made time to come in on a weekend day to register my son since it was more convenient for me. Whenever I have questions, I just email or call her and she would respond pretty quickly. In response to another Unilocal posting about Ms. Brittany’s inappropriate dressing, I don’t see an issue with her dress attire. She’s a young professional and dress like any other business person in the Silicon Valley in which business casual is more the norm than a business suit.
One thing I wish the school would offer in the tuition is lunch. I really feel that if the children all eat almost the same lunch, they would be more encouraged to try new foods. Another con at this school is that there are a lot of days when the school is closed, such as the usual holidays plus one week of spring break and another for christmas/​winter break. For working parents, this can be somewhat of a challenge since it can be hard to find a trustworthy babysitter or take time off from work.

This school is the best!

My daughter has been in this school almost one year, she loves to go to the school everyday and I am so happy that I made a right decision for her. She is in Ms Katrina’s class, and Ms Katrina is very Knowledgeable and updates me with whatever happen to my daughter or what should I pay more attention for. Also, the school provides many activities, Art, dance, yoga… during the afternoon, and it really save us lot of times for sending her to other activities classes.
Crescent Montessori is a truly Montessori school, and the stuff and teachers always put the children as their first priority, and I want to say thank you to Ms Katrina, Ms Brittany, Ms Michelle, Ms Kathy, and Miss Annie for taking good care of my daughter.

My child started attending Crescent Montessori about 3 month ago and he’s loving it! He would ask if he’s going to school at breakfast and list all the teachers that he wants to see, that’s always a great sign!
As a parent, I am very impressed with how organized and clean the classrooms are, even at the end of the school day. The teachers are very warm and genuinely love the kids. In a very short period of time I see great improvements in my child’s speech development (he attended a bilingual daycare before coming to Crescent). He’s always singing new songs and telling me about the colors and shapes he learned at school.
I am very happy with the staffs at Crescent and I’m looking forward to another great year!

My son has been a student at Crescent Montessori for almost two years. At his previous home daycare it was a challenge getting him to go in the mornings. Now, he loves getting up and going to school each day. Crescent Montessori has amazing teachers and a wonderful staff who feel like extended family! My son has learned so much and interacts with others in a way that I dont see many other kids his age interact. Separate from the great education he is learning, he has learned discipline, self control, and irreplaceable social skills.
I have been super impressed with Brittany and Colleen in administration. They know each and every child so well. They are absolutely on top of each child’s development. They have been extremely friendly, flexible, and accomodating. There are not many places where I feel okay about leaving my son, but I feel very comfortable and confident with everyone at Crescent Montessori.

Seven years! Has it been so long? Our two kids have been going to go to Colleen’s schools since they were babies. Our older one graduated from Calaveras Montessori a year ago, and our younger one was there for three years, and a year ago transitioned to Colleen’s new school, Crescent Montessori.
And for all that, we’ve ended up with two great kids who love their teachers, and more importantly love education! They’re genuinely excited to go school! All the nuturing and caring they were given, we do feel truly blessed.
Colleen’s done a solid job finding excellent teachers, and created a great curriculum. And now with Brittany as Director, she’s founded an institution that’s grown through the years, and accumulated a rich culture of history and traditions. We feel proud to be part of the Calaveras/​Crescent family.