Safari Kid Menlo Park - Menlo Park, California

Marisa Casillas Tice

We spent one lovely week at Safari Kid while visiting the area. Our child (almost 3 at that time) had never been to preschool, so we were a little nervous about how things would go. We had no need to be worried—the kind and warm teachers, the fun atmosphere, and the slate of interesting activities on offer ensured that our kid loved every day of her visit. Months later, she's still talking about the teachers, friends, and activities she encountered there.

Bhuvnesh Pratap Singh

We had an excellent experience at Safari Kids Menlo Park (SKMP) and recommend it highly to parents in the Menlo Park and Palo Alto area. Our 3yo boy had a great time there, receiving  exceptional care, nurturing and a well rounded education for his age. Safari Kids Menlo Park is just the perfect balance between free play, outdoors and a fun learning curriculum. Teacher Bev and Stephanie go out of their way to help kids develop and grow in a way that works best for them. Sandhya runs the facility with great care and attention, and the whole team is highly responsive to any messages. Highly recommended!

Melanie Rottgardt

Nothing but 5 stars for this school!
We have both our kids signed up, for preschool and aftercare and know the school for 3 years now. We are extremely happy with the super star teachers, facilities, communication and flexibility.
The teachers are outstanding and offer the kids continuity and professional experience with teacher Bev being there for 20+ years! Sandhya pulling all strings together as Director, Stephanie extremely caring and empathic and Julie the haven of tranquility. They are making sure that kids are seen with their individual strengths and characters and offer fun activities every day all year round. Most importantly our children love going to Safari Kid school every day. They are learning so much and have gained important life skills and made close relationships. We will miss you all when we return to Germany this summer.
Thank you for all you did! ?

Anju Suryawanshi

My son has been at Safari Kid Menlo Park since July 2023 when he turned 2 and he has been thriving since then. All the teachers are very experienced in early childhood education and most importantly they are all very caring. They help children communicate through words what they feel which is so important in this toddler age. Their Reggio style curriculum is perfect for early childhood development. The facility is also very nice with a huge outdoor play area where kids can practice their skills through a variety of activities. My son loves his school and his teachers.

Bria Long

We have had a great time at Safari Kid Menlo Park. Our daughter has been at Safari Kid since Nov 2021, and our son has been at the school since July 2023. They both started just after they turned 2 and have really thrived at the school despite having fairly different dispositions (our daughter is shyer and did not speak much English when she started, and our son is fairly gregarious). We have really enjoyed the particular size of this school -- the outdoor playspace is really lovely, the student-teacher ratio is great and the kids really receive individualized care and get to know one another. In the mornings the kids have some structured activities that our kids really like (e.g., music time, art projects) yet they still have enough free play time in the afternoon (we have always done full time days). Now that we are moving away from the area we have struggled to find another preschool that is as good as SK! Teacher Sandhya and Teacher Bev and Teacher Stephanie have all been fantastic; Whenever there's been a hiccup they have made sure to reach out to us asap. Teacher Bev has been at SK for more than 20 years and is so experienced with younger kiddos (and has helped us with many things, e.g. how to go about potty training for each kid). We have even made friends with other parents/families in the community. And feel confident that our daughter is going to be prepared for kinder next year despite being on the younger side. It's easy to leave our kids here every morning, and we have recommend the school to others and want to spread the word since we're moving!

Priya Baldua

Great pre-school with awesome teachers. Their unique outdoor area provides kids with ample of space to play and the classrooms are open and well lit. Teachers genuinely care about the kids and their development. Love the school!

Ian K

We had a wonderful experience with Safari Kid Menlo Park! Our son attended from ages 4-6 for the afterschool (after TK and K) program. Sandhya was always incredibly reliable with pickup. All of the teachers were fantastic, and our son loved his time there. When he began to have some intermittent problematic behaviors, Sandhya and the teachers were very supportive and attentive and worked with us to address them. Highly recommend!!

Bahadir Bolukbasi

Update 4 years later, with our second kid graduating thru here:

New review after our son has also graduated from here: It gets even better. Thank God for the day we met Sandhya and her great team of teachers including Bev. The team has pointed all things noticed in school and teamed up with us for developing all sorts of great positive habits - including which words to use so the school and home teams can have consistency.
Our son never hesitated to go to school any day, he was looking forward to it, and also looking forward to showing off the new things he learned at or did in school to us, including their online gatherings during the Covid lockdown 2 years ago. Looking back, it's quite a lot of things they learned and did, we even learned new stuff from them.

Our daughter continued to talk about the teachers during her time even after a year has passed. Still deserves the 5+ star year after year.

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Previous review four years ago:
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We are super happy with this school, and the attention and personal care of the team here. Having heard great things about this place, we decided to take our 2 year-old here even though she would be the youngest after having recently become Safari Kid under a new lead teacher. They have retained some fantastic teachers from the previous naming, and also acquired a great energetic lead teacher. All the teachers here genuinely care about the kids, and they love their job, and it shows. Our daughter acquired new skills and better control and discipline in just the first 2 weeks. They are doing a good mix of building skills on regular activities as well as doing new things to keep things exciting and challenging for the kids. There is also a very healthy balance of mingling with older kids a few times during the day, which we observe is beneficial for our child. In our second month, but so far, nothing less than great.