We've are having a wonderful experience during our daughter's time at OLA with Teacher Magdalena and couldn't recommend her more! Our daughter started at OLA when she was around 16 months and has been there for over a year now. She has grown so much during that time and loves her days at school! Teacher Magdalena has created such a comfortable and nurturing environment for young kids that helps them learn, explore their interests, and create deep bonds with their peers and caregivers. For our family, OLA's daily routine has the perfect amount of structure vs. open-ended play, with plenty of neighborhood outings to connect with the community, visit parks, or go to storytimes. Our daughter was a very late walker with a bit of a gross motor delay, and Teacher Magdalena was so helpful during that whole process with helping our daughter to finally meet that milestone but also not creating unnecessary alarm. All this to say: she is a very experienced educator who really understands child development and how to support kiddos (and families) with a very individualized experience. Teacher Magdalena cares deeply about her students and we trust her whole-heartedly!

We’ve been bringing our daughter to Odyssey Learning Academy for a few months, and we couldn’t be happier with our experience! Magdalena is absolutely wonderful educator—kind, warm, communicative, professional, and most importantly, fantastic with our daughter. We had heard great things about her from friends in the neighborhood, and she has exceeded our expectations. Our daughter loves the environment Magdalena has created. Even during our initial tour, our daughter immediately was drawn to engaging and playing in the space, and it’s clear how much she enjoys her the free play time from the daily videos / photos we receive. After some challenges with our previous childcare center, we’re thrilled to have found a home at Odyssey Learning Academy. We’ve found it to be the perfect nurturing space for our daughter to grow, and we highly recommend it to other families!

We strongly recommend Magdalena! She provides a nurturing and stimulating learning environment that meets kids where they are while giving them the space and opportunity to grow and explore. Magdalena played a pivotal role in our son’s development. We were with Magdalena for almost two years and our son started when he was 16 months old. Within the first month, we noticed a drastic leap in verbal engagement, exponential growth in vocabulary and creating new ways to play. He continued to grow and learn throughout his time with Magdalena. Our son loved all of the outdoor activities, and soaked up all the Spanish immersion opportunities. Magdalena fueled his curiosity and provided him with tools and opportunities to navigate emotions, explore ideas and solve problems. Magdalena also builds and supports a beautiful community for the students and families. We are grateful for the connections and friendships made during our time with Magdalena that continue to this day! A few other highlights: -Available and attentive for child and family needs. We would often reach out for guidance on navigating some particular big feelings, potty training, preparing to become a big brother and more. -Magdalena was also supportive and helped guide and prepare our son for preschool. -She provides delicious, nutritious and diverse food options. Great exposure for kids and so convenient for parents. -Strong communication and constant engagement on the Brightwheel app so we could see all the fun that our son was having at school! We were so sad to leave Magdalena’s class but so grateful for our time together!

Magdalena is truly a gem in the world of childcare providers. My child was under her care for a year before starting preschool. The level of care, love, and attention he received is second to none. Three years later, he will still talk about Magdalena, give a deep sigh and say, “Mama, I miss those days.” Magdalena’s curriculum fosters a culture of care, kindness, and independent thinking. She provided me with a daily update on my child’s development and routines. Having Magdalena as a teacher was a joy for our entire family.

Magdalena has set the bar for what we look for in an educator for our child. Our daughter went to Magdalena’s school for nearly 2 years and it was a truly formative experience for us all. As the first person outside of our family to care for our child, I never had a single moment of doubt or hesitation while she was under Magdalena’s care. She’s incredibly professional and takes her role as your child’s caretaker and teacher so seriously it’s deeply touching. Magdalena approaches everything she does with so much intention, care and compassion. She has supported our family through so many critical milestones. She went above and beyond to care for our child - everything from being attentive to her specific needs, teaching her to advocate for herself and identify her emotions, fostering a wonderful community of families that we continue to be connected with, supporting us with resources to extend learnings and help us overcome challenges beyond the walls of her classroom. Magdalena’s thoughtfully crafted curriculum, focus on social emotional development and building a rich community for kids to learn and grow has been invaluable. We are forever grateful for our experience with Magdalena, I couldn’t recommend her enough. She pours every ounce of love and energy into her work, she’s an amazing teacher and wonderful person.

We were so fortunate to have found Magdelena when we relocated to SF with our 1.5 year old son. We had a lot of changes happening at home and Magdalena provided a safe, loving and consistent environment for him to thrive. She has a deep understanding of child development and tailors her approach to the individual child. She is always willing and available to discuss parents’ concerns and provide support. Her small class size created the perfect environment for the children in the class to bond and develop their social/emotional understanding. We highly recommend Magdelena to anyone looking for childcare!

We're so lucky that our son had the opportunity to be taught by Teacher Magdalena. He was in her care for close to a year from 1.5 to almost 2.5 and I wish it could have been longer. I could not speak more highly of her. She was so loving and caring towards him. He would ask about whether he could go to see her each day on the weekend. And sometimes even after we had just gotten back home he would ask to go back. She did a great job managing the complex feelings he had as a toddler. I could see the skills she taught in use by him at home. She also was able to teach him so much in terms of numbers/letters etc. I had numerous people be shocked at how much he knew at such a young age, and while I would like to say this is because he's just so smart I know that this is largely due to Teacher Magdalena. If you're considering sending your kid to be with her do it! You won't regret it.

We are so thankful our family’s path crossed with Teacher Magdalena, she took the most amazing care of our son from when he was 1.5 to 3 years old. Even at this young age she provided our son with structure, working on some academics such as counting and letters. But even more important was her focus on social emotional learning. Magdalena helped our son develop a foundation in building relationships with other children and identifying/working through different emotions. She also encouraged exploration both in the classroom and outdoors. Teacher Magdalena observed the children under her care and created mini lessons about topics they were interested in (ex caterpillars turning into butterflies). Magdalena treated every child as an individual, finding ways to help the kids under her care grow and develop in ways that worked best for each child. She worked with us to make sure our son was getting the same messages at home and at daycare to keep things consistent. Magdalena is also a wonderful resource with her knowledge of child developement. We were able to ask her questions, and if she wasn’t sure of an answer she would go above and beyond to research an answer or provide us with an approproach to try. I can’t recommend Magdalena enough, she is a wonderful individual and an even more amazing child care provider. While we were sad to have our son leave her care, we knew she set him up for success and provided him with a valuable, solid developmental foundation.

Our 2 and a half year old has been with Teacher Magdalena for 8 months and we could not recommend her more for so many reasons. First of all, she is a role model in how she interacts with the children - calm and clear boundaries that WORK. She builds a thoughtful curriculum that balances kid's choice with learning. Our daughter has learned so much with her - "academics" like numbers and letters but also life skills (emotional regulation, food prep, cleaning, interacting with friends, etc.). Finally, she is a partner to parents - having transparent discussions about how our daughter is doing, what is working at daycare, and listening to what works at home. She asks what is important to us and plans around that. For example, when we told her we were going to have another child, she dedicated special time with our daughter helping her prepare for baby brother with a special baby doll toy set up where she learned about gentle touches with baby. Our daughter absolutely LOVES Teacher Magdalena and runs to her door every day. We are so thankful Teacher Magdalena has been part of our village!

Teacher Magdalena is very experienced and takes care of our 2-year-old daughter. She is conscientious, thoughtful, and a good communicator for parents. She created a curriculum and reported on our daughter's growth. Under her care, our daughter learned how to interact with friends, manage her emotions, read books, and develop her language communication skills. For our daughter, who is growing up with Japanese parents, Teacher Magdalena respects our cultural background. She plays Japanese songs that our daughter likes and has even started learning Japanese to communicate better with our daughter. This is just one example of her dedication. For these reasons, both we as parents and our daughter love her very much! Her care hours from 8:00 AM to 5:30 PM are also very helpful for us as working parents. We couldn't have managed without her. I highly recommend her!

Teacher Magdalena has been an absolutely incredible teacher for our son. After two years in her class our son has excelled at all of his milestones, learned to talk about/manage his feelings, and interact kindly with others. It's clear this comes from the top. Teacher Magdalena is a perpetually calm, patient, fun fostering yet masterful corrector of toddler behavior. She's committed to enriching the children in her class' lives with new experiences and adventures, an incredibly transparent communicator with parents, and integral part of our son's young life. I could not recommend an early childhood educator more strongly. Incredible teaching aside, her site is centrally located in dogpatch - walkable for those in the neighborhood and with an easy drop off area outside for those who need to drive. Trips to nearby safe and well maintained playgrounds and journeys to the library are a frequent feature - always with transparent communication.

Ever watch one of those gentle parenting Reels and think to yourself, "Well THAT would never happen in real life"? Yeah, me too. But that's Magdalena—just as calm, patient, and in control at 8am as she is at 5pm, having unbelievable interactions with the children. And she's doing it while caring for six emotionally volatile toddlers. Magdalena is one of the best educators I've ever met. She brings expertise, passion, organization, and kindness to a tough job. I am in awe of M's ability to pack so much learning into every interaction. Our son has big feelings, and M has helped him work through his emotions and self-regulate since day one. It was also with M that our son learned his ABCs and how to count to 20. M challenges her pupils physically, intellectually, and emotionally, creating an age-appropriate lesson plan but also meeting each student where they're at. Our family is grateful for M's focus on community engagement and physical fitness; since 18 months, she has taken our son on walks to playgrounds, Crane Cove, etc., and even on field trips to story time at the local library while using public transportation. She offers art activities and teaches practical life skills; she gives lessons on culture and science; she lets the kids be kids and have free play. And, critically, M is very engaged with families, working with us to reach common goals and offering advice backed by research on child development when appropriate. M is a professional through and through, and a skilled, loving teacher. We are heartbroken that our son is aging out of M's classroom and hope our daughter can be in her care soon. Thank you, Magdalena!

I cannot recommend Magdalena enough. My son was with her from 18 months to 3.5 years, and he adored her! - Probably the thing I appreciate most is how great Magdalena is at teaching emotional intelligence and emotional regulation skills. My son learned to identify his feelings (mad, sad, etc) and learned appropriate ways to respond to big feelings. When he went through a phase of trying to hit (!), Magdalena helped him learn to redirect those feelings into better avenues, like getting a hug or asking for help. - The kids got outdoor time everyday when the weather was good, plus plenty of indoor movement time. My kid turned out to be quite the dancer! - Magdalena was an incredible partner during potty training. This was our first kid, and she helped us figure out an approach and keep to it. - Her curriculum is really well-developed and Montessori-based. They learned about letters, numbers, shapes, culture, plenty of sensory play, plus practical skills like hand-washing, utensils, cleaning, how to peel oranges, etc. She's not just playing with the kids; she's teaching them. - Magdalena is a GREAT communicator, both with the kids and with the parents. I always knew what was going on with my son, whether any issue had cropped up, and how Magdalena was approaching it. - Finally, Magdalena really approaches the work of childcare as a profession. She's thinking deeply about kids' development and what's best for them. I remember asking her advice on some behavioral issue (my son was refusing naps on the weekends), and she not only offered multiple ideas but sent links to articles/books!