"Fortunately, we had choices when it came to preschool for our son and we decided to send our son to Luna’s. He has attended the school for the last two years and we plan to have him stay until Kindergarten.

From the moment we attended the school’s open house, we felt an immediate connection with the staff and the school. We loved the curriculum and the program philosophy of having a blended Montessori curriculum with a traditional learning structure.

I appreciate the consistent environment of the school: the school is always bright, cheerful and safe. Over time, the teachers have become our friends and our son has excelled in his academics (bilingual, phonics, writing and arithmetic), his social skills, and his creative/organized mind.

We have been impressed with the parent’s network and social outings (like the zoo, symphony and fire station) and applaud the hard work of the staff. Our daughter will be attending the school next Fall."

 - Heather Gille | Gap Inc. Retail Academy | 415.427.4278 | heather_gille@gap.com

"We joined the LMBS family in summer of 2008. The transition to LMBS was very smooth because of their two adjustment days that allowed our daughter Alyssa to ease into school prior to starting the program. Within a few days Alyssa was singing her Spanish songs and saying that she likes her teachers Ms. Ava & Ms. Lauda. Abby is very accommodating and responsive to our requests and questions. Aside from the great staff, the facility is clean and bright. LMBS also have a Yahoo group that keeps all the parents connected and informed."

 - Sharleen

"My son has spent a year and a half at Luna's Montessori, and he has thrived mentally, emotionally, and physically beyond our expectations. He will definitely be well prepared for Kindergarten. The school offers an age appropriate challenging environment, and the teachers are especially nurturing and understanding of pre-k feelings and needs. And we think it's pretty awesome that we have a Spanish speaker in the house!"

 - Sherri Stewart

"Prior to attending LMBS, our now 4-year old daughter had never attended any day care nor pre-school. She was 3 years and 1 month and was still not potty trained at all. She was shy around strangers and though she learns things quickly, she's also very stubborn about changing her ways, which unfortunately included not wanting to potty in the toilet.

Our son was just born and she was getting very edgy around the house. We had put ourselves on a wait list for a school on the west end, but we had not heard from them for over 18 months (talk about planning ahead and yet still fall short on schools). So we started looking for schools for her. We visited a number of schools, many are highly regarded on the island and we took her to a few, but none of the schools felt really good to us, some were too military, some were too crowded (we visited one which smelled like poop), and some were simply not as good as they were made out to be.

Then I started to think why not LMBS, which is just around our house and looked decent from the outside. The moment I walked in I felt really good about the school, from the teaching philosophy to the teachers to the campus (which is a large bright sunny Victorian house with a big backyard). The teachers / students ratio was great (meaning not too big but not too small, just right for us), and they had many tuition / schedule options which was great since we did not need her to be in any school full time.

We took her to the school and she felt very comfortable which we did not see when we visited other schools, including some of the well known Montessori schools in Alameda. Because it was her first ever preschool and she's never been to day care before, and her English was OK but not as good as her Chinese (English is her native language but she was primarily cared by her grandmother who's Chinese and speaks Mandarin to her at home), we did not want to overwhelm her. We signed her up for two full days a week (9 AM to 6 PM), and thought it would be a good introduction to her, but she loved it so much that on her request, we switched her to full time (school starts at 7:30 AM to 6 PM, but we take her in before 9 AM and pick her up around 5:30 PM), right away from the very first week. It's been 1 year and 2 months at the time of this review, and we are very pleased with her progress. Within a very short period of time, she had potty trained herself, and she speaks better English than we do (so it feels), and she is also learning good amount of Spanish. The school is sparkling clean, the teachers are great and encourage strong, independent thinking while providing ample guidance and discipline, and there are a lot of different subjects they teach.

We've always known our daughter to be very advanced (emotionally and academically) for her age, and LMBS really brings out the best in her. Getting her started took a while for us, but mainly because we were following the "word of mouth" method and did not investigate on our own. LMBS is a relatively new school and does not have a lot of Berkeley Parents network postings but it's a fantastic school with great women teachers. Our son is now 15 months old, and his favorite daily activity is to go to LMBS with his grandparents to drop our daughter off and then again pick her up. He can linger for hours there. It is a no-brainer for us to decide where to send him to school when he's old enough. "