Montessori Giving Tree

We feel lucky that we decided on sending our child to The Montessori Giving Tree under the care of Ms. Tasha. We feel our child is in a safe and loving environment, where she is able to socialize and learn the Montessori way. Our child was 2.5 years old when she joined the school, and she had not been in any type of daycare, other than with my parents up until that point. We visited many schools, and were not happy about various things, including safety concerns, overbearing director of schools, the disproportionate student/​teacher ratio, and the lack of concern to our daughter’s allergies.
When we visited The Montessori Giving Tree and met with Ms. Tasha, we immediately had a good feeling about the school. She is calm, caring and understanding. The school is clean, organized, and smaller with fewer kids. We were nervous how our daughter would adjust, and if she would even like it. From experience, Ms. Tasha said that it generally takes 2 weeks for kids to get used to the new environment. Our child went from crying and clingy in the mornings, to forgetting to say good-​bye to mommy on that 2-​week mark. We were relieved.
She has been there for almost a year now, and in that time, looks forward to seeing her friends, loves Sharing Day, enjoys learning and doing projects, feels pride in her work, and respects Ms. Tasha and the other teachers. Also, our daughter has environmental and food allergies, and Ms. Tasha is very accommodating and understanding to her specific needs. Ms. Tasha incorporates fun, learning, and respect among the students, and we are happy to be a part of the Giving Tree family.

Our child has been attending Ms. Tasha’s school for a little over a year and we can not say enough wonderful things about the school. We knew this was the school for her the moment we set foot in the classroom. It was calm and peaceful, the children were engaged with their projects, and the environment was warm and nurturing. In the year she has been there, she has blossomed socially, forming tight friendships with the other children, bringing home new songs and lots of dance moves! She adores every teacher at the school, but Ms Tasha in particular. Our daughter insists on giving her a huge hug before we leave each evening, and a few weeks ago, she asked if Ms. Tasha could be her teacher forever. We know that our daughter is well cared for and loved in this school.
She does lots of art projects in school, but it is all very much in line with the Montessori method — which may not be what parents expect if they are not familiar with the style of education. The art is a learning tool for the children, and is used to decorate the classroom, which gives our daughter a great sense of accomplishment and pride in her work. She doesn’t bring home the mountains of fingerpaintings our son brought home from his non-​Montessori preschool, but instead brings home a smaller volume of work in which she clearly invests care and time (many projects take her several days to complete). This practice at school has translated to how my daughter engages with projects at home too — she will frequently start art projects and return to them regularly over the course of several days or even a week, working patiently and thoughtfully until it is complete. This is one of the developments we are most impressed with since starting at this school.
I do not believe that preschool is a place where children need to be judged by the metrics of elementary school — but our daughter has learned to write beautifully in the past year, she can write all her letters, write her full name (which is no small feat!) and all her numbers. We saw this learning unfold from the beginning when she began to learn to write 1s and 0s as the foundations of letters, and then all of the sudden — she began writing new letters one after another. What a joy to see that learning unfold! Her fine motor skills have gone from doing essentially scribbles on paper to coloring beautiful and detailed pictures. She even brings home Spanish phrases and Chinese character worksheets. We are very confident that she will be more than prepared for Kindergarten when that time comes.
In terms of food — I don’t know what the specific policy is on portions, but I am certain our daughter is well fed. She is getting freshly prepared fruits and vegetables, the school honors our dietary restrictions, and she is not starving when I pick her up at 6pm. When we decided to enroll her in preschool, we were worried about not being able to monitor how much she was eating because she was very underweight as a toddler. We had been very focused on her eating when she was at home, before starting preschool, because we were trying so hard to help her gain weight. I shared this concern about her weight with Ms. Tasha and in the year she has been there, our daughter has shot way up on the weight-​for-​age scale. Her pediatrician is more than pleased with her growth.
Our daughter has a bubbly and sunny personality, and she is deeply happy at this school, and that is obvious every day when we drop her off and pick her up. The only time our daughter ever cried on the way to school was a few days ago when one of the teachers left to go back to university. She was so sad to see this teacher leave that she literally sobbed in the car.

When searching for a preschool, my criteria was an environment that epitomizes the Montessori method as well as being safe and clean. Not only did I encounter that at The Montessori Giving Tree but I found an environment that my little one thrives in. My child has been with the school for almost one year and is excited to go to school every day. Tasha teaches the children respect and helping others out when needed. She is always there to answer any questions I have regarding the curriculum or if I feel my child needs to focus on an item she is more than happy to assist.
I visited 6 different schools and this school was the only one that held up to my standards. Children are not running around screaming when in the classroom and Tasha ran me through each Montessori learning item and explain how the child will use the tools. The other schools just showed me where the tools were and that they were available to the kids. She has a little area outside where the kids can run around and play (this is when they probably do scream and it’s okay) when the weather is nice.
I read the review about limiting the snack quantities. Personally I find this acceptable because this way all the children will get an equal amount of food. If you just let the kids gorge themselves on what they like then they will not learn to share and inevitably 1 or more child will not get the item. In addition, if a child is given a bowl of carrots and a bowl of crackers, which snack do you think they will inhale? This way, each child will get a more balanced snack.
Overall, my little one is extremely happy with the school and has never complained. In just a little under a year, she has already learned so much and made some great friends.

My Child spent four months at Tasha’s school before we knew how very unhappy our child was. After our «assessment «we realized she didn’t even know our child. Didn’t know favorite color, didn’t know favorite food (another problem there too) and She didn’t know our Child could spell.
To break it down here is what we felt were the issues.
— Tasha teaches Philosophy over Happiness and these are Babies she teaches.
— She fabricated the child assessment
— our child was always crying in the morning on way to school.
— Tasha does not share her curriculum with the Parents
— music, song, fun, ART are all absent
— Her morning ritual is dark and strict
— Ours wS always starving, kids never get enough to eat. You can’t put strawberries in front of Kids and tell them they can only have TWO. They are Babies and need to EAT!
* EDIT– Have to add, my child left some time ago and is at a new Pre– School. Last week «unprompted» my child said «I don’t go to Ms Tasha’s anymore She is Mean! I go to my new school and it is my favorite»! Very telling and makes me feel awful that it is still a thought in my child’s head!

We absolutely LOVE Ms. Tasha! It has been a joy to see our 5 year old daughter grow with Ms. Tasha’s attentive care and passion. She has only been with attending The Montessori Giving Tree since September and the way Ms. Tasha can connect with our daughter’s learning process is just amazing! She has truly blossomed right before our eyes (and talking more too).
Thank you Ms. Tasha for opening a school with your passion, dedication, and wonderful staff!
For those of you that are looking for a safe, loving, growing, and exciting school for your child (ren) to attend this is it! And, we are coming from Oakland to attend her school. So please do not let distance stop you. :-)

Ms. Tasha has been my child’s teacher for over 2 years and I could not ask for a better teacher! She knows how to connect with each child on an individual basis, while not singling any child out or ignoring the rest of the class. She is highly trained and comes highly recommended. She is so wonderful that the parents of past students still bring their children to her current events. She provides an environment of structure AND of love and that has been so great for my child’s development.

Ms. Tasha is the best teacher my granddaughter has ever had. When she was having problems in school Ms Tasha took her aside and showed her new ways to feel confident in herself and helped her to practice what she couldn’t understand to make it easier for her. Ariana was very excited to see her and learn what she was teaching because she could understand her. I like that she would take her time with the children and talk to them and get them excited to learn. It is so important to get the children’s attention and she is excellent in doing so.

Ms. Tasha is the best teacher that I have encountered and still one of my son’s favorites when you ask him. She is patient, kind, firm and knows how to change her teachings to fit each child. I was not familiar with Montessori until finding Ms. Tasha, but think it is a superior way to teach kids. Montessori allows kids to accelerate at their own pace. There is also a great component of social learning which I found wonderful. The kids learn how to talk about their experiences and resolve conflict in a constructive way. Ms. Tasha excels in all of these areas and we were blessed to have her teach our son for 3 years.