Rainbow Montessori Child Development

My eldest daughter is attending Ms Balwinder’s class in G4. I highly recommend enrolling your preschooler in her class. My daughter is learning to sound out words, addition, dance, art and build self confidence in public speaking. My daughter is always excited to see Ms Balwinder because she gives her the right amount of attention. I also noticed Ms Balwinder adapts to each child’s need and what parents ask. There were moments where my daughter would come to school upset and she would immediately step in to help as best she can. I also noticed she would recognize my daughter’s good behavior by acknowledging it front of her peers.

My son goes to Rainbow Montessori from last 2 years in H3 class. School is really nice with balanced curriculum for kids. Ms. Rebekah, Ms. Dil and Ms. Maggie are amazing in taking care of kids. My son loves his class, friends and teachers. He made many friends. He loves to go to school. Meals are nice and they have both Vegetarian and Non Vegetarian options.
I would highly recommend H3 class. Teachers are best.

The office admins are very rude. We hate to even walk into the office room. Am surprised, how one can manage to be so consistently rude and unorganized.

This review is strictly for receptionist. She is so arrogant and irritable person ever. I just asked simple question and she made it like such a big deal. As a parents it’s my choice and I know what is best for my child. But seems like she is so pushy and arrogant person. I think director of this daycare needs to really consider hiring some body else as a receptionist who is more gentle, who knows how to speak well with the parents and can handle any situation without any rage. As a human we all know we have ups and downs. But don’t shout, show your anger, frustration to me. PLEASE HIRE SOMEONE ELSE.

We have been sending our son to this place for few years already. He has really, picked up on various aspect, studying at this place. His motor skills, grasping power has immensely increased. As with any kid and school you cannot expect miracles in just couple of weeks of joining. So every parents has to be a little patient. The only downside i see with this place is the parking in peak times. You have to plan properly so you can drop your kid and go back safely. They do conduct back-​to-​school nights, parent-​teacher meetings (every quarter) and give you the ratings on different activities of the child.
I strongly recommend this school and also Montessori method of teaching as well. We were very hesitant to send our son initially. But we came to know the practical method of teaching, we are very happy. It also depends on how your child is. You need to ask following questions before you decide if a certain type of teaching method suits him/​her.
— In what way your child graps things easily? Practical (or) Just by observation etc.,
— You need to give some time for the child to pick this method of teaching. So do you have that patience?
If you can think on these lines and answer, then you can chose a better school for your child.

My son goes to «Rainbow» montessori since he is two. We really like all the classes he was in so far i. e H1 (Toddler programme), S3(Preschool) and especially G4(Preschool & Pre –K).
The Head teacher of G4 Ms Balwinder takes excellent care of the kids. Apart from curriculum she teaches free Indian dance every week. My son recites all sort of «kids songs» like christmas songs, etc very well. Ms Balwinder has 16 years of teaching experience. She understands the moods of the kids and switches them to different tasks every hour so that they are not bored. Every morning my son is more excited to goto school, he says «my teacher wanted me to be by 9am so I have to be on time». I have never seen this much sincerity in kids at the very young age of 4. Ms. Balwinder does lots of learning/​fun projects with children. Hats off to her for being a great teacher and thank you to the school for the excellent service.

If you want to send your child to the elementary school here, THINK TWICE! The traffic in the parking lot is ridiculous. The worst part is not even the crazy traffic, it’s how school treat your child who arrives later than 8:40. They lock the door of classrooms so you and your child have to wait outside until 9am. Children are humiliated and parents are late for work. I have tried to tell the Program Director not to lock the door to punish children, it’s not children’s fault to be late… but NO, the Program Director didn’t give me any chance to say something.
(1) parking lot traffic is crazy
(2) they humiliate children
(3) it’s impossible to communicate with the program director
Think twice if you want to send your child (ren) to elementary school here.

I’d like to share my good experience with the strong infant program at Rainbow Montessori. It’s so hard to leave your baby behind the first time when you go back to work, but Miss Annie, Miss Mina, and the rest of the amazing women running the infant program made me feel good about leaving my daughter in their care when I returned to work — and my little lady continues to thrive there.
There are a lot of things that our family loves about Rainbow Montessori’s program:
— a lot of daycares divide the rooms from 0 — 2, but Rainbow is big enough to divide them based on how much the babies are moving. (IE; rollers are in 1 room, crawlers in another, early walkers in another, and confident walkers in yet another.)
— the caregivers truly value and enjoy babies. I always feel very confident and safe leaving my girl in their care. In every classroom, I have always felt like my daughter is loved, considered special for her unique little personality, and well-​taken care of and appreciated by the team.
— my daughter looks forward to daycare everyday now! (There was the initial transition, but now that it is her routine, she looks forward to it every morning.)
— the classrooms are bright, inviting, and spacious. The diaper changing areas are separate from the play area.
— it made me feel really good to find out that other people we respect, my husband’s boss and his wife, independently chose Rainbow Montessori and also had a great experience with the infant program.
— location is very convenient (off Lawrence and 101) and prices are competitive compared to other programs. Waitlist was much more reasonable than other daycares we considered.
— the classes my daughter has been in so far are very diverse, with children representing several races/​cultures.
— I appreciate all of the practical skills she’s learned at schools (she’s a very self-​sufficient eater already!) and how quickly her vocabulary and social skills have grown.

I have a 3 year old child and I have been looking at preschools lately. I made a tour of pre school. The director (I think her name is Sonali) gave me the tour. It was a very thorough tour. I was very impressed with some class rooms. To my surprise many of the classes were full. I like the complete package they offer. Snacks, lunch and other etc. speaks a lot about the reasonable tuition they charge. After the tour I was guided to registration. I was not very happy with the two ladies at the reception. They both speak a language that I didn’t understand.
However, I did register my child because of the tour that the director did. I was very happy with the all the classes and the teachers. Now my child is in G1. She love school and throughly enjoys her preschool year thanks to the wonderful director and her staff.

we have had many plesant experiences with this school for the past 18months.
there are few unplesant experiences. you would have to cherry pick the
teachers you are going to be associated in this school as there are
good amount of bad and rude teachers too. i have seen many parents
complaining about rude teachers, i think we are lucky to have met
lot of good teachers here especially because we choose the classes
for my kid after talking to lot of other parents.
good personalities here:
–
1. Mina (she was infants director),
2. Fely (staff in infants section, section D),
3. Gloria (staff in infants section, section D),
4. Maggi (staff in infants section, section D),
5. Roselva (staff in infants section, section D),
6. Carolina (staff in toddler section, H1)
7. Kumud ((staff in toddler section, H1)
8. Brenda (staff in toddler section, H1)
9. Akshitha (staff in toddler section, H1)
10. Sheila (staff in preschool, H5)
11. Ashley (staff in preschool, H5)
12. Qui (staff in preschool, H5)
13. Katrina (i think she is asst director in preschool)
14. Elisa (staff who sometimes visits H1)
15. Milbred (now in infant sectio)
listsing few plesant experiences we had in this school so that you
know what you could expect here.
1. Mina was the director of infants section when my kid joined
Rainbow. she did the tour and she was very much energetic and we
got sold. we immediately signed up. ofcourse we have got reviews from
other friends even before visiting Rainbow. But Mina made sure
i don’t get second thought. She gave the confidence that the
infant is going to be in safe hands. she knew the 70+ infants
by name and kids just love her. every morning and evening
she makes her presence around the infants area especially
to connect with the parents. that helps us to get the feedback
as and when it requires. she is very much approchable and
very casual — to me this is very important as i am leaving
a infant there and would have lot of concerns and questions.
she is just amazing personality.
2. Fely was taking care of my kid in section-​D (infact). she gave a
top class care to my kid. my kid is very naugthy in the sense he
wants to run around and not used to be in a organised environment
of sitting and listening to stories. Fely made sure the kid
feels comfortable with the environment in a friendly way.
she is very energetic that she could dance and run behind the kid.
every morning my son wants to go to school only if Fely is
around otherwise he would say lets go back to home.
i should credit Gloria, Roselva and Maggi also for creating a
great environment in section-​D.
3. next my son moved to section H1(toddlers). teachers here are
amazing — Carolina, Brenda, Kumud, Akshitha.
Kumud comes in early and so my son is used to cling on her for
sometime before starting to play. all the teachers connect well
with the parents. activites are good and i have seen all the kids
happy. i should say Akshitha brought in great energy to the class.
just to quote an example of how well the teachers connect with
the kids — every friday evening i tell my kid «happy weekend» and
the standard reply i get from him for the whole 6 months is «so Miss
Akshitha won’t come to see me for 2 days?». that is the level of
bonding the kids have established with the teachers.
Brenda is awesome that she could even play soccer with the kids.
she is very caring.
another example — when we were expecting second baby all the
teachers taught him about the changes almost every day. this is
like exceeding the expectation.
Carolina brings in a good variety on their activities. She had built a great team.
we have a great respect for the teachers here.
4. my son is very sensitive that every morning he wants to be pampered
when he come to school and we are gifted to have Fely, Kumud, Katherina,
Sheila to help on this. this gives my kid a great start for the day.
5. Now he moved to section-H5(preschool). so far so good with Sheila,
Ashley and Tui. I should say Sheila is bringing in a lot of activities
to keep the children busy and happy. my son is picking up some useful
learning activities in the very short time he had in H5.

Although I was very hesitant at first to leave my new 4 month old baby in the hands of strangers at a daycare, Rainbow Montessori exceeded all my expectations, calmed my nerves and now my baby girl is thriving. As all babies, the first few days were hard for me and the baby. But soon after, I could see that my baby started to enjoy the school and was excited to be dropped off. The caretakers are exceptional. My baby especially loves Miss Mina. I could never provide the level of care and stimulus that the all caregivers provide all day long, day after day. I am so fortunate to have the opportunity to go back to work and know that my baby is safe, nurtured and stimulated. And although my baby has gotten sick from exposure to other kids, the interaction with the other kids and adults has made her much more receptive to people and has helped her personality blossom. She loves being at the school and engages with both the babies and the caretakers. Unfortunately, I am moving and need to find a daycare in SF. I hope I can find one as good as Rainbow Montessori. Thank you Rainbow Montessori! Jenni

My son went to this day care centre. The first week he was crying when I dropped him off and after he got use to it and started saying bye as soon as he sees his teachers. The staffs are very professional and amazing especially Ms Mina, Ms Gloria, Ms Mildred, Ms Feli and plenty more. I will always be grateful for the care that my son received from them. He was so happy and cheerful I their care. I was so worried and concerned about dropping him off to a daycare but I felt so relaxed and happy knowing he was in a safe environment.

I wrote this mid 2012 before leaving the school and waited to post.
When looking at Rainbow Montessori you have to look at the school on three different levels, I wish we could rate each of these on their own merit vs. rating with an averager.
There is the Day Care, which has its own director. It is infant day care, there isn’t anything ‘montessori’ to judge it on. You just look at the enviroment and care of the teachers. Our daughter started at Raibow when she was 13 months old, it was ‘ok’. The care giveres we kind, the children were bonded with them but the rooms were depressive — it was more of a ‘assembly line’ set up — but there wasn’t anything ‘damaging’ about it.
We continued on to the Preschool (again, its own director). We loved our two primary teachers during this 3 year experience. There were Language issues with some of the assistant teachers, but the children were happy and cared for and the preschool was handled according to the Montessori quidelines.
My TWO MAJOR complaints during our Preschool years were discovering the children were asked to recite a prayer (it varied by classroom) before lunch — parents were not informed of this. One day my daughter just started reciting a prayer in the car and when I asked where she learned it she said they had to say it each day before lunch. I took the issue up with the teacher and the school director and felt very condecended and didn’t get anywhere. I didn’t press the issue as we would soon be moving on to the Elementary side of the school.
My other complaint, for years I had been preparting home lunch/​snacks for my daughter. One day she came home with her box full, I asked what happened and she said it was too cold to eat because the teacher didn’t heat her food for her. I made the mistake of thinking it was a busy oversight and didn’t make an issue out of it. The next day, the same thing happened. When I went to talk to school they said they removed the microwave from the preschool so the teachers could not heat the foold anymore (too far for them to walk to the room that had mircowaves now). NO ONE NOTIFIED ME!!! THEY LET MY 4 YEAR OLD STARVE FOR A COUPLE DAYS WITHOUT COMMENT!!!
Now, we are in Kindergarten/​Elementary. While the preschool maybe Montessori, the Elementary school is not. They have Montessori Materials… they have a few mixed age class rooms… but the focus is ALL on academics. Books, Homework, Competitive. Seriously, in Kindergarten they have spelling tests… they post the children’s ranking for all to see, the kids have homework and work in workbooks vs. using the Montessori materials.
This is a Monte-​Sorta-​Kinda-​Maybe-​NO– NOT REALLY elementary school. The Elementary School director seems to cater to a certain parent demographic vs. the Montessori Philosphy.
The elementary director has clearly said they are not a parent participation school, they don’t ask for parent support or fundraising. The only ‘say’ parents have is whether or not to send their child there or not.
Needless to say, we won’t be returning next year. Which belive it or not is sad as I was really hoping we had found a school our daughter could thrive in through the 6^th grade.
BTW — Beware of the uniform policy at this school. Montessori Philosphy is that children’s clothes should be comfortable/​non-​restrictive and encourage free movement to better faciliate active learning. As of this, this is no longer the case at Rainbow Montessori. The Uniforms are very formal and prissy (seriously — TIES for boys and girls!!! It is truly more about ego and advertisement than children’t well being and comfort). Currently posted on the boards it says GIRLS MUST WEAR THEIR JUMPERS ON MONDAY (seriously? what century are we in that girls must wear a dress?) WITH A SPECIFIC BLOUSE. Children with uniform infractions will lose the Friday Free Dress privledge. Seriously? As a parent, I am responsible what my child wears to school, not my 5 year old. What kind of school would opt to humiliate a child by forcing them to attend Free Dress Friday in Uniform because they ddn’t wear a jumper on Monday?
There are many other issues… the school owns the catering company/​food is lacking… recess can be cancelled for silly thing like ‘its cold’. It just doesn’t give a ‘happy’ feeling.
The school is inexpensive… if your only choice is Public or Rainbow… then maybe… otherwise I suggest you pass.

Our 4 kids went to rainbow. I never bothered to write a review that time, but now looking at some horrible schools after we moved to SF, I realized that I should write this review.
The best part we remember about this school was the teachers. The playground could have been a bit better. Our kids still remember some of their teachers there.

My son went to one of the pre-​school classrooms when he was a little bit over 3 ½ years old. It was a bad experience all together for my kid, and very stressing for the whole family. It was wrong in so many ways. It was crushing his spirit.
The whole experience was similar to an army drill operation. The classroom was cold and the teachers too. The classrooms are too big. The playground does not have green areas. The recesses are too short, and too few.
In the classroom everybody needed to be quiet all the time, with no interaction between the kids. All kids needed to have a «personal space» to concentrate. There was not background music, and no laugh or group fun. Remember «three years old». There was no talk, no noise, no non-​sense allowed.
There was some music during one of the circle times. It was ominous music that felt like an old Soviet Union march. In fact they did not dance but marched.
Some comments from the teacher: «it would be easy to just put some silly music and make silly jokes, but then the kids will just lose control and the class will be a mess». If my son was unhappy and felt the teacher was always mad she said: «kids at that age lie». He was doing what all the other kids where doing and from her point of view he was very adapted. She told me that I should not be listening to a three year old. She said that little kids were not trustworthy with what they say.
Also, it was not easy for the kids to get to all areas and activities of the classroom. He never painted or drew during his time at rainbow Montessori. I asked him if he did not want to paint a nice picture for me, and he kept saying that there was no space, and the table was always full. I asked the teacher in charge of the art area, and she told me that they could just have 6 to 8 kids at the time in that area. So he needed to be really committed to it to get to paint.
I am still beating myself for letting my son stay there so long. I think it was tough for him and hurt his self-​esteem.

ETA: My review (below) was only about the toddler program. My child has not had a good experience with the preschool program. We’re looking for another school now.
Toddler room review:
I happened to notice that there were 2 really negative reviews of Rainbow Montessori posted — both from people whose kids never attended the school. So seeing as how my kid *does* attend the school, I felt obligated to put in my $ 0.02.
This is a FINE day care. It does follow the Montessori method, so there’s less free play /​arts & crafts & more emphasis on socialization & educational activities. But there’s also plenty of time for kids to run around and just be kids.
We had a fine experience with enrolling our kid — no issues whatsoever. And I think it’s really weird that a previous reviewer thought s/​he could just bring a kid over and let the kid play with the students during a tour. WTF? There are about a billion liability issues with that — what if the unregistered kid broke his neck on the slide or had some nasty disease that infected the other kids? So there’s a rule and there’s pretty reasonable grounds for that rule.
Our kid likes his school and has had a good experience there. I’m docking 1 star because aside from the daily report, there’s very little way to get feedback on a kid’s progress without scheduling a special meeting. Parents are encouraged to just show up and quietly pick their kid up, only talking with the teacher to say hello & goodbye.

Right when we walked into the school, we could feel that it was not a friendly or narturing type of place. We arrived during outside play time. We asked if it was OK for our 27 months old son to play with the other kids. It was a very mean «NO» that we received with the look of «how dare you even asked such a question». When we walked into the office, we were not greeted. I could feel the hostility that the staff have towards each other. I used to work at a very stressful place but I have never seen so many stressed out people than in this place. In addition, the place is not very clean. Their policy is very rigid. For example, you cannot bring any outside food into the school, not even milk, sippy cup, ect.

I do agree with the experience of Straight S. Only difference is I met this lady called Irene in person couple of weeks back. First her English pronouncation is very poor. This is not the concern to me. But her attitude stinks. I am surprise how this type of person is kept in charge of admissions. (looks like she knows or related with some one who runs this place up high or so.) She is extremely rude and insulting extremely arrogant. she behaves as if she is doing a big favor on you by giving information or admission…
The way she interfaces with parents its quite close to humilatiating. Looks like this place has demand (or at least she says so) I am surprised how she is having this job of interfacing with parents

I have been calling a few preschools in an attempt to enroll my toddler in a good program starting in 2009. Just got off the phone with Rainbow Montessori where i talked to someone by name Irene who claimed that she is the one incharge of the registration process. I was appalled by her lackluster and unfriendly tone and she was unable to provide me with any useful information and was pretty rude to the point where i just decided that it was not worth it to try to enroll my son in a place where the people are so unfriendly. If you are running an institution that cares for and educates young children, at the least one would expect some basic courtesy and friendly behaviour which was practically non-​existent here. If such a person is in charge of the registration process, frankly i do not have much hope for the rest of the staff. Would ABSOLUTELY NOT send my child here…

A couple months ago, when my maternity leave was over and i had to go back to work. I enrolled my son in the Infant Room A at Rainbow Montessori in Sunnyvale because it’s very close to my work. It was the biggest mistake i ever made. My son was there for almost 3 months and for 3 months he was constantly sick (cold, fever, ear infection, stomache flu and diaper rash). He had colds one on top of the other. Then he had the stomach flu which ended up with a horrible diaper rash because they didn’t clean him up right after he did his business. He went for 5 times and the teacher wouldn’t even call to inform me. I was constantly miss work. I talked to the teacher, Ms. O, and she was so defensive. I asked her nicely to be more careful, she would deny and said he was ok while he was here.
The bottom line is i made the BIGGEST mistake ever. So please think twice before enroll your precious little one there.