Woolly Mammoth Childcare & Preschool

We first started at Woolly Mammoth during pandemic times with my oldest in the preschool room and Teacher Emilia has been so wonderful. When my youngest was old enough, we enrolled him in the baby room with Teacher Mayra. They have been great and very careful during the height of Covid when things were unknown. The classrooms are amazing! I wish I had started my oldest in the baby room. Both my kids love going to school and always run in hugging their teachers. They learn so much there. They come home talking about who they played with and what they did. My oldest counts to 10 and names colors in Spanish (we don’t speak Spanish in our household) and my youngest names the different planets in order of closest to the sun and is so proud of his artwork. They have so many activities and monthly themes.  In the preschool room, they have weekly dance, music, and Spanish classes along with once a month lunch provided. I am forever grateful to have found a daycare and preschool as loving and nurturing as Woolly Mammoth. I can not recommend them enough. If you are lucky to have a spot offered to you, take it. 

My son has been at Woolly Mammoth for almost four years now - first in Mayra's and then in Emilia's classrooms.  The school has become such a big part of our lives, I can't imagine what it would have been like without them.  

The teachers are just the right mix of warm and firm, enforcing rules and bringing in parents for discipline problems as needed.  I've asked Mayra and Emilia both for parenting advice at different phases including timing on potty training, napping, and how to delicately handle Santa as a conversation topic.  

Recently when I went in for my son's fifth birthday, Emilia sat down on the playground and was bombarded with toddlers hugging her from every angle.  This place is full of love.

There seems always to be a special event happening, a new craft or plant coming home, and so many stories about friends and fun teachers.  My son loves it and I will be sad to leave when he graduates later this summer.

Woolly Mammoth is one of Berkeley's best kept secrets. It's a small preschool in central Berkeley that was recommended to us via word of mouth. Our daughter LOVES her school. The co-directors Mayra and Emilia have been running the school with love since the 90's and they truly shower the children with warmth, love, and kindness. They hug the children and say "I love you." I feel so at ease knowing my daughter has a secure base of love and care when I'm not around. She even calls me Emilia on accident sometimes and it truly warms my heart. There is a great focus on social and emotional development and my daughter has learned so many great social skills including how to navigate conflict with peers. In addition, the teachers expose the kids to academics via engaging science lessons and fun activities. My daughter is already learning to write and recognize letters at age 3. She can spell her name! They have so many enrichment activities built into the schedule including Spanish class, music class, and dance class. My daughter looks forward to the monthly theme days such as silly sock day, superhero day, quesadilla day, and Piñata day for Cinco De Mayo. Woolly Mammoth is a dream!

We have been at Woolly Mammoth for almost 3 years and are so grateful to be a part of the school. Both of my children now attend (one since age 1, the other since age 2). The two owners of the school, Emilia and Mayra, are also the two head teachers of the classes. This is very unique, and in a very positive way. I think it results in the classes being extremely well run with all teachers engaged and getting proper mentorship. We have had our children at other daycare centers in the area, and I can so unqualifiedly this is the best school they have attended by practically every significant metric: school cleanliness, the beautiful environment with many toys and child artwork displayed, the attentiveness and engagement of the teachers, my ability to communicate with the teachers when needed, the happiness of my children, and the level of growth they have exhibited while attending.

My daughters are happy at the end of the day and speak so positively of their teachers at home. I hear a lot about each teacher, particularly from my older child. Emotionally and socially I think they are doing extremely well. Academically, my older child (now 5) has learned to write her letters, has begun spelling, and has learned quite a lot of counting and basic math. I also hear about various units/ themes they are studying. Additionally, they do weekly dance and music class with supplemental teachers. The teachers also do a special quesadilla/ pizza day once a month that my children really love

I can't recommend Woolly Mammoth more highly.

Woolly Mammoth is an outstanding daycare place in Berkeley! Both our kids went there or still go there. Emilia and Mayra and all their staff are so loving, thoughtful, well organized, and always approachable. The curriculum is very attractive and our kids love it. The balance between play time, dancing, learning, reading, music, projects and so much more is really great. In addition, relationship building and social skills are very important and kids learn these skills naturally at Woolly Mammoth.

The pandemic was so very well and responsible handled by the whole team. We are super thankful to all of them for their help and most importantly the love they give to the kids.

We highly recommend Woolly Mammoth to new parents!

We've had a great experience at Woolly Mammoth for our two daughters. We enrolled both in August 2022, since they were 3 and 1: our oldest is in the preschool room and our youngest is in the toddler room. We've been very pleased with the level of care and attention they've both received there. Our oldest has made a ton of friends and talks about them every day. It seems they've cultivated a loving and respectful atmosphere among the children at Woolly Mammoth; we've been very happy with the way she talks about and interacts with the other kids there. Our youngest has clearly made leaps and bounds in her verbal and motor skills while she's been there, and she sings a concert's worth of songs every night that she's learned at school. The teachers seem experienced and cheerful, and the owners Emilia and Mayra in particular are a joy to work with. They do a great job of keeping us up to date on what the kids have been up to and giving us the high and low points of their day. We couldn't recommend Woolly Mammoth more highly.

Both of our children have either gone or still go to Woolly Mammoth. We have had great experiences using them, after searching for and touring multiple facilities. We chose Woolly Mammoth because they seemed to really care (and do) and come from a play-based, child-centric way of taking care of the children. We trust them in their judgment in how they take care of children and our kids seem to really have had a good experience.

We highly recommend Woolly Mammoth to anyone who is in need of childcare in a daycare setting for children ages 1 to 5.

Paul and Jenn Rubin

I highly recommend Woolly Mammoth to my family and friends. The children clearly thrive in a loving environment. Emilia is thoughtful, and my son can't stop talking about all the fun things he does at school, such as dancing, baking cookies, drawing, crafting, and attending Spanish class.

My son has attended Woolly Mammoth since he was 2.5 years old. The curriculum there is well-rounded and engaging, which has helped him develop his creativity, social skills, love for learning, and a strong sense of empathy towards others.

Overall, I am very happy with my experience at Woolly Mammoth and highly recommend it to any parent looking for a nurturing and stimulating environment for their child.

We love love love Woolly Mammoth! Our daughter was there from 18m - kindergarten (minus a Covid year, by our choice), and our son has been there since he was 14m old. Mayra and Emilia have been running the school for decades, and manage to love and care for every single kid that comes through as if they were their own (they are in the classrooms full time along with managing the school). They are so knowledgeable, thoughtful, kind, and loving-- they truly put their heart and soul into the school. They hand out a monthly calendar of events, birthdays, and holidays, and do projects and activities to celebrate each holiday and season. The graduation ceremony is the sweetest celebration of each kid and the relationships they've built with their friends and teachers. My son runs in every day and practically jumps into Mayra's arms, and proudly shows me his artwork at the end of the day. My kindergartener still comes in at pickup every day to hug the teachers. Emilia came to one of the kid's birthday parties on a Saturday recently (a real celebrity guest appearance!)-- they really go above and beyond. They have also hired and retained a team of amazing teachers who bring the same love, care, and joy to the school and the kids. 

They manage to balance play, fun, relationship building/socialization, and learning very well. My daughter's kindergarten teacher said she came in with a great foundation of learning and was ahead of where she needed to be, thanks to her preschool. In my opinion, they also handled Covid and all its implications very thoughtfully and compassionately, and I give them so much credit for getting themselves, their staff, the kids, and parents through that time. Parents and families are very friendly in the lobby at drop-off/pickup, and we have developed close friendships with other Woolly families.

Mayra and Emilia are very communicative and responsive via text, and share pictures or flag a parent for conversation at the end of the day whenever necessary. All of the teachers truly love the kids and have their best interest at heart. We could not be more grateful to be part of the Woolly community! 

We cannot say enough good things about Woolly Mammoth. Our son was there from the time he was 13 months old until kindergarten. Mayra and Emilia have truly helped raise our son with love, grace, compassion, and curiosity. They have a created an environment that is loving, low-pressure, and most importantly, kind. They have encouraged his unique interests while helping him learn healthy ways to socialize. The school runs like clock work, instilling good patterns, clear respectful rules, learning themes of the month, and celebrating a variety of holidays to learn about different cultures. The teachers are very communicative with parents, so feels like a true partnership. 

As my 5yo says as I write this -- "we do LOTS of projects and Emilia's really funn! They have the best teachers in the world. Santa comes to our school. We celebrate birthdays and there's ice cream day too!" Plenty of arts and crafts, music, dance, lots of attention from different teachers, so much care in celebrating birthdays, exploring gardening, healthy eating, great outdoor play areas separated by age. In comparison to other kids his age, he's picked up letters and addition quickly - and that's thanks to WM. 

We were lucky to get a spot at Woolly Mammoth when my son was 18 months old. He is now 4.5 and I will be sad next year when he needs to leave for kindergarten. The head teachers/owners, Mayra and Emilia, have many years of experience, and their love and care for the kids is very evident. They are very adept at fostering good behavior and caring relationships between the children. My son truly enjoys going to school and is learning and growing so much with their guidance.  Even the very old reviews below are completely accurate in my experience, even though the center has grown in size over time. 

We highly recommend Woolly Mammoth.

We have had our son at Woolly Mammoth for the past 2 years, since he was about 5 months old.  He loves it.  We are now moving away from Berkeley, and one of the things we will most miss is this daycare.

The care providers are extremely attentive, and creative when it comes to activities.  Every time I show up our son is engaged doing a different activity.  Most importantly, Mayra, Rosa and the other providers helped my son develop strong connections with the other kids in the daycare, helped him learn patience and good manners, and made him feel loved.  He is always excited to go to "school" and constantly asks about his friends and care providers there.  We also became close with a number of the other parents, and would meet up for playdates or birthday parties.  

We strongly recommend this place, and hope others enjoy it as much as we have.

I love this place so much. Everything runs like clockwork -- they've got the systems down. And there's so much love. Mayra and Emilia have about a thousand years of cumulative child rearing experience. At this point when they suggest I try something with my kids I just do it.

My older one started there when she was three. I was immediately struck by how much the teachers gushed about my kid. It makes me feel good, and even if it's for my benefit, I can tell there's genuine feeling there: I see the affection between parents and teachers and I see the way my kids develop real attachments. When my younger one came along I knew she was in great hands when she started at three months. My kids have really benefitted from the gentle but firm rules on manners, and both were potty trained in short order there. They got lots of time to play and lots of fun extras (weekly dance - music - Spanish classes).

I also just appreciate that the systems work - there's no emailing back and forth, it's not necessary. The school throws a few parties a year and parents can bring a dish, but most of the work is just taken care of -- which is a blessing for working parents. We're not the ones planning these parties and field trips after the kids go to bed at night. And so there's time to socialize. We've gotten to know the other families well - it's a multicultural mix, with a lot of Berkeley postdocs from all over the world.

I really admire the women who work here and am happy my daughters have them as role models.