Welcome to Happy Place

  We are so lucky to have found this daycare. My husband and I toured 2 other places before deciding on Shining Star. I had extreme confidence that this was the... read more perfect place for my 3 yo and 18mo kids to thrive from moment that I stepped foot in the building. I can't thank Mr. Richard and the wonderful teachers (emphasis on the best teachers!!!) enough for cultivating a place of warmth, cleanliness, and love to reassure us parents that our kids are safe and cared for. I'm also very grateful that my son is now potty trained and I literally had no stress in the process all thanks to Shining Star. We also receive monthly newsletters to inform us of the lesson plan and other announcements to keep us in the loop!

  We've had a fantastic experience with Shining Star. Our daughter started at 2 years old and has loved it. The school has a strong balance of structured learning and free... read more play. She's not only growing in her vocabulary, alphabet, numbers, etc., but also in her ability to recognize her emotions and ask for what she needs. The daycare facilities are safe, with a surprising amount of room for both indoor and outdoor activities.

The X factor is that the kids really are happy, as you'll read in the other glowing reviews. Our daughter loves the teachers and her friends, and she talks about them at home. We transitioned from a nanny, which caused anxiety for the whole family. While the first week was tough, the teachers gave her a lot of care, and she was soon excited to go to school. The school communicated well and took all our questions and concerns seriously.

The school teaches cleanliness and communicates any illnesses of other children quickly. Our daughter rarely gets sick, which is not 100% controllable, but the high standards at Shining Star definitely contribute.

Now, we have zero worries dropping her off each morning. At pick up, she's always smiling and and singing, surrounded by happy kids. We're very grateful to have found Shining Star.

  I am so impressed by shining star. Richard is thorough, responsive, kind, and truly goes above and beyond. I toured last year and the center was immaculate and well organized... read more into stations. The daycare felt very safe with great natural light. The teachers were warm and children were happy. The only reason I did not enroll my daughter was due to needing slightly later/ longer hours. I cannot explain how much Shining Star worked with me and tried to accommodate my every need. I have nothing but respect and positive feelings for this school. I recommend this school with the highest regard!

  We found Shining Star a week after a really terrible 2-day experience at a home-based daycare for our then almost 2 year old daughter (you can read about our experience... read more at that daycare in my reviews). The school was recommended to us by a mom we had just met at a local park, and she had shared with us that her ~1.5 year old son was enjoying it and thriving at the school. We considered several options which included two other home based daycares, TinySchool, Bright Horizons -- and ultimately decided to go with Shining Star after much deliberation and vetting of our options. During the tour, we saw the space, observed the kids with the teacher, and importantly Richard had assured us that they would help support our daughter's transition to the school, and that it was expected that it could take several weeks for a child to feel comfortable. He even noted that a second teacher would be there during our daughter's first week in case extra care and attention were needed for her. This was really important to us, again, given the terrible experience we had just had.

As expected, the first few days were hard. Dropoff was hard and she also cried during the day, but I really appreciated that the school helped to support her through this and kept telling us it was normal and letting us know when she showed signs of feeling more secure there. Our daughter would cry hysterically and they would give her the space to just be (eg she preferred eating on the floor and not at the table with the other kids, and she was allowed to do that until she felt ready herself a few weeks later to join them at the table). During this time, we got zero frantic texts or calls -- and after about 2 weeks, there was no more crying and we could consider her relatively adjusted (what a relief for us considering the terrible experience we had had previously at the home-based daycare).

Fast forward several months now, and our daughter enjoys going to school. She is still her fun, playful self after school (which sadly was not the case after just 1.5 days at the home-based daycare). She has learned a ton (ABCs, counting, letter and number recognition, she can hold a pencil properly, and her speech/vocabulary has exploded). The teachers are so kind (eg Ms Xing gave us a thermos to take home to use for our daughter's school meals after noticing that her lunches are always cold in the bento box that we had been using), caring, and help her to feel safe and looked after. They have supported her potty learning as well. The class is relatively small now, and all the kids really take to each other and to the teacher. It's always fun for us to see them all together be silly and energetic at pickup and dropoff.

A plus as well is how easy it is to communicate directly with Richard. He is responsive on text and quick to reply to emails.

The school is just super understanding, and I have a soft spot for it since they really do care about the children. Our daughter leaves school happy and goes to school happy too. I could not recommend it enough!

  We love Shining Star ! The school has been wonderful for our son. Because it's a small class (and not a big institution) they provide personalized attention, with a focus... read more on happiness and learning. There's lots of activities and materials (he comes back singing a new song or playing a new game every day).

The teachers make sure my son eats well (and help him if he needs). He also sleeps well there and also gets a lot of social and mental stimulation. They give us updates about his day and my son loves the teachers and his classmates

They are a Montessori based school (which encourages independence in kids) and are bilingual (English & Mandarin). We love the Montessori approach to learning and this school is truly Montessori where the young ones can interact and learn from elder kids and the elder ones can role model and help the younger one.

While we don't speak Mandarin, we thought it might be nice to expose our son to it and he picked up words very fast. Within the first month he could could to 10 in Mandarin, and could change his intonation and pitch while singing rhymes in English.

  Our 3 year old has been thriving ever since joining Shining Star! We started about 6 months ago and our kid has become more confidant, more verbal, more social, and... read more has really picked up on alphabet, words, numbers, and Mandarin. The teachers care about the kids development and give regular updates or share small details about the day that I really appreciate. Would highly recommend Shining Star and we're so glad we found them!

  We have two sons that have thrive at shining star. We are sad that our eldest has graduated to kindergarten and won't be attending anymore. Teachers are very... read more attentive and keeps us updated. By the end of the program, our son, who's 5, was able to read and write and do basic math (addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication). Would highly recommend the program.

  This was the absolute best experience for our 2-3 year old. If we hadn't moved, we would never have left. Miss Wendy and Miss Xing are the kindest and warmest... read more teachers who made my daughter feel loved every day. We had a new baby while our daughter was attending Shining Star and extra special attention was given to her every day so she didn't feel overshadowed by the new baby or left out. My husband and I do not speak much Chinese and we were amazed at how much our daughter learned in such a short time. Shining Star is the number one thing we miss most about San Francisco and I would recommend to absolutely everyone who is looking for a preschool in the Bay Area.

  Shining Star has been a great experience for my three year old son. This was his first preschool experience and I was anxious about his transition to preschool but it... read more could not have gone better thanks to the director Ms. Wendy's care welcoming him in. He came home the first days saying school was fun (and still does)! He even talks about his teacher's Ms. Wendy and Ms. Sing on the weekends. Within a month, he demonstrated a lot of learning that happened at school. It is always hard to get a lot of details from a three year old about their day but in the evenings and on the weekends I would hear him singing songs and talking about things we had never taught him (ex. talking about spheres/pyramids/cube shapes he sees around him, singing the months of the year, etc). It is fun to hear him come home with new Chinese words and he even points out and says Chinese characters on a sheet he brings home from the week. This truly amazes me as my husband and I only speak English. Throughout the course of the pandemic we felt safe bringing our son there. They have the kids wear masks as well, which I have to admit I was skeptical about at first, but the kids all do great with it. It adds an extra level of safety and peace of mind for me. Also, my son has no issue wearing masks now when we need to go out. Also, a bonus is that they have air conditioning so the kids have a comfortable place in the fall heat waves and the indoor air stays clean during the unfortunate fire seasons. This school is less than a year old but already very well run. I would highly recommend!