I was recently walking in our new neighborhood and saw a house with a sign for Rising Sun Montessori. BPN had a few dated reviews and I was hoping that we might be able to get a few more updated experiences. Thank you- searching for the right school parents

Hi. My son will be 21 months in the fall and will need to be in a daycare/school program. We are considering Rising Sun Montessori in El Cerrito. Any reviews/thoughts/experiences of the school & staff would be greatly appreciated. We are a bit nervous because he will be the youngest in a group of 12...ranging to 5 years old. Any input would be helpful. Thanks. anon

i have been looking into diffrent preschools for my babygirl and went to look at the rising sun montessori school border of El Cerrito and Albany....i want to know if anyone has any experience sending their child there and what your opinion and feeling is about this preschool...i had a good first impression but would like some more input... thanks mamma bear

My two daughters (age 2 and 4) attend a wonderful Montessori preschool program located near Albany Community Center (in fact, the teachers walk the kids to swimming lessons there in the summer). The school is located in a large, sunny house with a spacious backyard that includes art area, swing/slide, playhouse, and garden. The two teachers are very skilled with young children, it's such a peaceful/playful place to be, and my daughters has learned so much since attending the school for the past year. The school is flexible to serve the needs of both working parents and those looking for a part-time enrichment program. The school currently has a few openings for girls. Call Teacher Carolina for more information. You can also contact me directly at if you would like a referral from a very satisfied Rising Sun Montessori parent. Contact: Carolina, 510.528.6041
Yali

My daughter's preschool, Rising Sun Montessori, has a few openings available. Rising Sun is a family child care program licensed for 14 that has the best of family child care and child care centers - it's small and homelike but structured and educational (the director and her sister were Montessori teachers for years). Though we got accepted at Step One and Berkeley Montessori, I choose Rising Sun for my two girls (age 4 and 2) because it had all the child development of the other two schools but with better staff ratio in a really superb location. It's two blocks from Albany Community Center (in fact, the kids walk to swimming lessons in the summer and utilize the park for short field trips). There's going to be an open house on Saturday, Oct 18 from 1-3:30. My girls adore their school and don't want to leave at the end of the day! Contact: Carolina, 510.528.6041

Does anyone have any information they can provide on Rising Sun Montessori School in El Cerrito? Pros, cons, anything... Thanks! Linda

When I asked about their food allergy policies since my son's allergic to nuts, Carolina (the director) immediately said that since they were a small school (10-12 kids), she'd just ask all the parents to not send anything in their kids' lunches that contained nuts, and checked on all the ingredients with me of the snacks they regularly provided. Many other schools just try to make sure that the kids with allergies are vigilant about only eating the food they bring, but my son's sensitive enough that if someone with a bit of peanut butter on their hands touches him, he'll break out in a rash from the contact. As you might imagine, I was really excited that she was willing to go to such an extreme, having shared with her that I was nervous about making a decision about the other places I was looking at because of their food allergy policies. So only a few months later, my son came home with an empty peanut butter sandwich bag in his lunchbox! When my husband and I confronted her, livid, she denied our conversation, saying that she wouldn't even let us send a letter out to the other families alerting them to my son's nut allergies because it would be 'inappropriate' to even suggest that they limit their lunch choices. After a few days of keeping him at home and many conversations, they promised to be much more vigilant, the other parents were alerted to the allergy presence, and it seemed to be ok. It was a difficult time for me to look into moving him, since I was working and pregnant, and went on bedrest soon after this incident. So on Valentine's Day, with a newborn at home, our son came home with Snickers in his goody bag that he proudly told us the teachers GAVE him. (They'd also promised that no candy was allowed, but that's a whole nother complaint) Luckily, we'd drilled into him that he needed to ask mommy or daddy before eating anything candy-like (since he'd never even eaten refined sugar before starting at Rising Sun, and the only candy he'd encountered came from there), so he brought it home instead of eating it there.

When I asked about sweets since we didn't give him any, I was told that they didn't allow candy or sugary treats, but lollipops and cupcakes with inches of frosting got handed out at every occasion. It was quite disturbing to a family that had successfully avoided refined sugar for over 2 years, then only encountered moderate servings of ice cream/cake at birthday parties.

Since my son has asthma symptoms (for only a year, so it's not technically asthma yet) that react well to asthma medications, we'd asked that at any sign of coughing or wheezing, they call me immediately. Twice, they let him cough ALL DAY (and even admitted that he'd been coughing all day once the other/older kids told us when he'd started coughing) so that we arrived at his normal pickup time to find him in labored breathing. (I was actively searching for a new school, but needed the coverage, for which I do feel guilty) And I do feel like they let it progress because they knew that he'd be out for the next few days recuperating and it'd be easier for them to have fewer kids there.

Our son was functionally bilingual when he started, since our daycare provider spoke to him in only spanish, and they promised us that they ran a bilingual program. They do speak a few words of spanish now and then, and teach them songs but not their meanings. As you may have guessed, he's now lost most or all of his spanish.

It amazed us when we found out that there were multiple rate schedules circulating, with my sister's neighbor paying more for part-time than we did for full-time, and the 'discount' they gave their first-ever family with two kids there was only $40 less per kid than we paid, starting three years later. It appeared to be on the basis of how much money they thought the family had - luckily, my husband works in the public schools so they didn't think we had much!

And of course, there's the schedule, where they sent notes home in lunchboxes letting families know mid-year that their new schedule was to close at 5:30 instead of 6:00, in spite of the contracts that everyone signed. And now they're only open until 12:30 on Fridays . . .

I hope I didn't sound so angry or judgemental that you disregard my post, but honestly, I am both when it comes to Rising Sun and the way they dealt with our family. I could go on, as you might imagine, but if you have any questions about the things I've covered, feel free to email me.

And I do realize that there are many children who are happy there and whose families have not encountered the situations we did. Reina (the other teacher and Carolina's sister) is wonderful with the kids, all of whom love her, and their location/layout is fantastic. We just couldn't remain there with the experiences we had. amy

I'm looking at Rising Sun for my 2.5-year-old son, and am curious about a couple of things. I'm wondering why there are so few kids there. The other bilingual preschools that I've looked into all had rather long waiting lists. Here, there are immediate openings. Is there something that I'm missing? I liked what I saw when I visited. Thanks. susan