Lakewood Montessori INC

I do not recommend Lakewood Montessori, who treated our family badly. Our child was forced out by the administration and there was nothing we could do to resolve the situation. Our overall experience was one of constant stress and poor communication. Even though we followed every one of Lakewood’s suggestions, we were blamed and unsupported. The few meetings we did have felt one-sided, with recommendations for therapies that were unavailable, uncovered by insurance, and even dismissed later by the same staff who had originally recommended them. Lakewood’s hours and days off are not conducive for working parents, despite paying for full time care. The school is closed several days of the year, including snow days. There were also days we were called and asked to pick our daughter up at a moments notice because she needed a “reset”. There was another instance where I was given an hour notice that the school would be closing early due to weather. Lakewood’s reasoning was a safety concern for their teachers, obviously not a safety concern for the parents being forced to drive during a snowstorm. A business should be understanding of the monthly cost associated with their services and have a basic respect for parents who need to work to pay for those services. This schedule only makes sense if you have one stay at home parent, which we do not. If your child has an accident, expect literal poop to be packed home for you to clean up. There were additional incidents where she was left sitting in soiled clothes when her potty training later regressed due to change. When I brought it up, they said they couldn’t make her use the bathroom and didn’t notice she had an accident- I could smell it the minute I picked her up and based on her rashes, she was left like that for long periods of time. When there is an event at the school, the parking lot cannot accommodate the amount of people who attend. There is no street parking and the closest parking lot is an elementary school down the street, which isn’t always open. The school continued with events without making any effort to resolve the parking situation, ignoring multiple complaints. Their play area is unsafe. The injuries our daughter was getting from the logs they have everywhere were excessive. Her scrapes and bruises are almost non existent since leaving the school. We know our daughter is not perfect and has things to work on- if your child does too, this is not the place for you. We know we are not perfect parents, which is why we hired a business we thought would care for and support our daughter during the work week. Since leaving, our daughter is cleaner, happier, our overall home life is better, plus we have regular communication and support with her new preschool. None of these things were attainable for us at Lakewood Montessori.

Our son attended Lakewood Montessori for 2.5 years. The development and growth he achieved well at Lakewood was nothing short of incredible. He formed lasting bonds with the other children, but especially with the teachers. We've had kids in multiple daycare/preschool situations the last 10+ years and Lakewood has the lowest teacher turnover of any school we've gone to. We are so thankful to their great team for creating a loving and safe environment for kids to thrive!

I could not recommend Lakewood Montessori more. This small community truly cares about your child. The teachers are wonderful kind souls. Most important for us was a consistent main teacher due to good staff retention. My son was over prepared for kindergarten and truly a better little human because of Lakewood.

Lakewood Montessori provided an exceptional early learning experience for our child from age 2-5 years old and a lasting community for us as a family. I could not recommend this preschool highly enough. The teachers are well qualified, experienced, and provided with regular professional development opportunities in order to ensure high quality educational is delivered in each classroom. Additionally, the school facility is beautiful and a rich environment for children to learn and grow in with abundant access to awesome outdoor spaces. Strategies for parental engagement are wonderful and regular (community events, PTA opportunities, parent teacher conferences, etc). We were most concerned with ensuring it felt like our child was safe each day, the teachers were well qualified and appreciated, and access to outdoors was plentiful--these essential preferences were met and we also gained experiences and understanding of the value of early childhood education access beyond that throughout our time at Lakewood.

We are a military family and our goal for each of our kiddos, regardless of where we lived, was Montessori preschool. Our youngest was able to attend Lakewood for 2 full years and it was such a positive experience. Their love, care and creativity is infused in everything they do from classroom teachers, to specials instructors and all the way up to ownership. Highly recommend this wonderful spot to anyone seeking all the hallmarks of Montessori learning!!