Little Munchkins Academy -

andrea serrano

If you are reading this, your little one is on their first step towards success. Little Munchkins Academy is a great place to begin. Before enrolling him in the program, my son had previously been attending a large commercial preschool. With the large student to teacher ratio, I felt that my child wasn’t getting the personal attention that he needed.

Before entering Little Munchkins, my son was unable to recognize, let alone pronounce the sounds of all the letters of the alphabet. Although he was able to count his numbers, it was only through remote memorization. In just the first 2 weeks, Miss Sarah was able to get him to recognize and annunciate all the letters in the alphabet and recognize his numbers in random order. In the short 12 weeks since enrolling, Miss Sarah has amazingly bought him up to speed and he is now on Level 4 of the reading program and loves reading to us.

Not only does Miss Sarah provide one on one attention at nurturing your child academically, but she also teaches the children to speak up and be comfortable expressing themselves verbally. My son has always been a shy and quiet child, but since attending Little Munchkins, he’s now able to walk in the room and say “Good Morning” to his teachers without me prompting him to do so. My son’s confidence in his verbal skills shines through when I hear him express his feelings and opinions.

With Miss Sarah’s meticulous attention to detail, combined with her nurturing style of teaching, each child receives the personal attention they deserve. She is able to focus on your child’s strengths and weaknesses and help them become happy and healthy learners. Miss Sarah’s belief in each child’s potential capabilities really shines through in the results! A very appreciative and proud Mom.

Riya malhotra

Please allow this testimonial to serve as my highest recommendation and reference for Little Munchkins Academy and Miss Sarah.

Miss Sarah and her preschool have been a blessing to my children and me. When my older sone embarked into preschool age, it became apparent that our current daycare was not structured and did not have any kind of curriculum to provide my son with the head start he needed for school. In addition, my infant son did not appear to have a lot of room to explore and did not have any opportunity for quiet time. We decided to explore our options but did not realize what a challenge it would be in finding a quality, safe and reasonable educational environment for a preschooler and an infant.

I had a neighbor who had told me on many occasions how wonderful her preschool was and how her 3-year-old daughter was excelling. Little Munchkins Academy was the preschool.

I visited Miss Sarah’s preschool and felt a sense of calmness and comfort from the moment I met her. My children took to Miss Sarah right away and had no problems with the transition. I feel it is Miss Sarah’s incredible gift of nurturing that made the change so easy for my family.

As for the care and education at the preschool, my older son, who, not for a lack of trying, did not know and was unwilling to learn the alphabet and numbers prior to attending Miss Sarah’s preschool. After only 5 months, he knows and can write almost all of his letters and a good portion of his numbers. It is just incredible what Miss Sarah’s patience and ability to teach has made in my son. His self esteem and excitement about learning is so much more than I ever hoped for. Miss Sarah has truly made a difference in my son’s life and his future.

As for my infant son, since attending Little Munchkins Academy, he has been encouraged to explore and has learned to have quiet time. Miss Sarah keeps him on a schedule that has made him and me happy and healthy. The nurturing and love she provides to the children in her care is inspiring.

Miss Sarah and her staff have become like family to my boys and me. I treasure her and the services she provides for my children, the other children she has in her care and the parents. I cannot say enough good things about the services she provides and I would strongly recommend her to any family.

Sarah Watanabe

For interested parents, I would like to preface my review by sharing that Little Munchkins Academy is a school, not a daycare. Daycares primarily offer childcare services, focusing on supervision and basic care for children while parents are away. LMA has a structured curriculum inclusive of social playtime, group story/singing, and afternoon speech/language development lessons (while the infants nap). I understand that such a structured environment might not be everyone’s preference, and to each their own.

My daughter has been attending LMA since January 2024 when she was about 1-year-old. As first-time parents, my husband and I found the adjustment more difficult than our daughter - she was happy to go to school within a week of starting. Initially, my daughter had some difficulty napping at school as she was unused to sleeping anywhere aside from her crib at home; this caused some anxiety for me as I was worried that our daughter was disturbing the other children. Ms. Sarah was very patient and helpful during this adjustment period; she was able to offer suggestions which resolved the napping issue after about a week. My daughter now takes off for the front door the moment we mention going to school each morning.

For my daughter, LMA has been one of the greatest experiences for her early development. Having a mixed-age class has provided her with the opportunity to watch and learn good manners and behaviors from older, more mature kids (such as cleaning up and sharing her toys). Additionally, as she is modeling the older children, her language skills have accelerated rapidly. At 18 months, she consistently says “please” and “thank you”, verbally asks for snacks and often identifies the food she wants by name. Recently, she has surprised us by attempting multi-syllable words such as “purple”, “doctor”, and “flower”.

The LMA classroom is a wonderful, colorful and kid-friendly space (both indoors and outdoors). The students’ artwork is prominently on display for all to admire and take pride in. The classroom library and toys are at the students’ level ensuring that the students may independently choose what they interact with. Ms. Sarah and her colleagues are very attentive to ensure that appropriate play and safety is practiced at all times.

Ms. Sarah is an excellent teacher; her 30+ years of experience and commitment to early childhood development is evident in her students’ happiness and growth (socially, developmentally, and educationally). I am incredibly pleased with my daughter’s experience at LMA, and am thankful for Ms. Sarah’s presence in my daughter’s childhood.

Lakshay Malhotra

Seeking a preschool program for my child was one of the hardest things I’ve had to tackle so far as a parent. The thought of leaving my son with a stranger in an unfamiliar place was very scary. After visiting 15 different places, I was relieved to have met Miss Sarah and her Little Munchkins Academy. Miss Sarah provides a loving and caring environment with enough structure so that the children learn about sharing, playing together and interacting with each other in a kind manner. I appreciate her emphasis on learning Spanish and Sign Language during circle time along with songs. There are plenty of age-appropriate toys to develop motor skills, creative play, roll play and a love for books. Miss Sarah offers a reading program that provides each child with a book bag to take home each week. My son has thoroughly enjoyed exploring all kinds of new books outside of our own collection. The room is always filled with creative bright decorations to coincide with the season or holiday and each holiday is filled with all kinds of crafts. I have also been impressed with the quality of teachers she has supporting her. It is not a revolving door of employees, and they seem very happy to be there caring for the children alongside her. I would highly recommend Sarah Kazmi as an educator and have been very happy over the last year. As hard as it is to say goodbye each morning, it’s a little easier knowing that it is Miss Sarah, I’m leaving him with.

Dominic Pierrce

Our search for preschools for my then 3-year-old son was not what we expected it to be at first. We were first time parents of a preschooler, and we were also pretty new to the area. We found ourselves feeling lost and a little overwhelmed at the process of researching, visiting, and applying to preschools, not only in our immediate area but also in neighboring cities.

Little Munchkins Academy was the last preschool that we had decided to visit on our two-day tour of schools. We met Ms. Sarah one morning while school was in session, and my first impression was pleasantly surprised. The children were having circle time with another teacher and they all seemed very calm and engaged into what they were learning. The school itself felt like a calm environment also, which was something I had not experienced at any other preschool. LMA’s small ratio is intimate and I didn’t feel worried that my son would become lost in a crowd of kids.

My son and I visited with Ms. Sarah that day, and she quickly noticed that he would benefit from being at Little Munchkins. The curriculum, structure, and teaching techniques were what we were looking for and we decided to enroll him.

With it being my son’s first school experience, he did have some separation issues. But with Ms. Sarah’s help and guidance we overcame them. I feel that he has come a long way since his very first day at Little Munchkins. He has just turned 5 now and is reading mostly by himself, he is doing 300-piece puzzles, and can count to 100. We are pleased with his overall improvement, and we are very thankful to Little Munchkins Academy for helping him get to this point.

E V

When I decided to go back to work after being a stay-at-home mom for four years it was hard to think that I would leave my children in the care of someone other than myself. I started to look for a quality preschool and after many interviews still couldn’t see my children in any of those places. I was referred to Ms. Sarah through a friend, and as soon as I met her and spoke with her, I felt at ease and comfortable. The environment is warm. I felt at ease and could see my children, at the time 4 years old and 11 months old, spending time with her. I loved the fact that she not only is caring but has a structured curriculum. I decided this is the place for my kids. My daughter at the time was months away from attending kindergarten. She has not only learned her alphabet but learned to read before entering kindergarten. My son has learned so much, he loves to sing, and I hear him hum songs that Ms. Sarah teaches the children. It is clear that my children enjoy the time they spend there. It is always hard trying to pick them up as they are upset to go home. I highly recommend Ms. Sarah and Little Munchkins Academy. She brought me peace of mind.

Lien Pham

Our son has been enrolled at LMA for 6 months now and he really enjoys his time there. He tells me how much he likes school when we pick him up. We picked LMA for their small classroom size, book program, communication and structure of their school. We also believe that Ms. Sarah and staff have the best interest in the development of our child. In the short amount of time there, we are amazed at his improvements in speech, Spanish, sign language and vocabulary.

zohaib ahmed

Our son has had the good fortune to attend Little Munchkins Academy. The thought of entrusting someone, other than ourselves, to care for our son was daunting. Ms. Sarah was the last one on a long list of prospectives. After initially visiting with her and Little Munchkins and watching the interaction between the staff and the children, we knew we had found the one. She created an environment that was nurturing, enriching, fun, peaceful and respectful. At one point, our personal situation resulted in our son attending both a preschool in San Francisco and attending Little Munchkins. While the school was good, we noticed a dramatic difference between both schools. In San Francisco, it seemed he was re-learning a lot of things he had already learned at Little Munchkins. In fact, we found he was learning even more at Little Munchkins: Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, Sign Language, and Spanish. Moreover, we were having intelligent conversations with our son about manners, animals, the weather…. you name it. All we could think, were we ever this adept at 3-4 years old? Our son has also thrived socially with activities such as singing, dancing, art projects, puzzles, book reading etc. The children are constantly learning, whether it's learning about colors to respect for one another to responsibility (i.e. cleaning up at school and at home). Currently our son attends Little Munchkins full-time and loves going to Ms. Sarah’s every day. Ms. Sarah strikes the perfect balance intellectually, socially, and just plain having fun. Little Munchkins offers a unique environment with a beautiful outside play area and a wonderful group of families. As our son enters kindergarten this year, we are all so heartbroken to leave her and her staff. However, we know our son’s experience at Little Munchkins has been invaluable and has provided a solid foundation for the many years to come. We highly recommend Ms. Sarah and Little Munchkins Academy.