Tender Loving Care Montessori 30 North Park Avenue, Lombard, IL 60148

"I have had the privilege of knowing the director of Tender Loving Care Montessori, Mona Johnson as a friend and colleague for over 35 years. She is a true professional. During that time, she was the lead social worker at Proviso West High School. She was responsible for a huge caseload of high school students. She was always a positive source of information in working with the teachers, staff, and administrators. Her skills and guidance helped parents and faculty through many stressful and critical times in our district. Mona has administrative skills that are necessary to own & operate a child care facility. She truly cares for the children enrolled there along with there parents. I am in awe of her ability to handle the day to day operations of her program. She is a dedicated parent herself which gives her the empathy to work with the families in her day care center. Any parent would be lucky to have their children enrolled in the Tender Loving Care Montessori center."

"My two children attended TLC from the time they were 18 months old through kindergarten and had amazing experiences there. When we decided to send our older child to day care so I could return to work, we looked at several places before deciding on TLC. I felt immediately comfortable with the building, staff, and curriculum of Tender Loving Care. The things that initially impressed me were that the children were not only taught academics but practical skills such as setting tables, cleaning up after themselves, and dressing, and the age groups had time together, so the older students were able to help the younger ones in play and activities. My children benefited not only from learning from older students but also helping younger ones when they were able. To this day, my children are compassionate, thoughtful, and helpful to younger family members and friends because of these opportunities. I was also impressed with the staff's ability to understand the academic needs of my children and provide them with individualized curriculum suited to their abilities. Both my children were reading, and doing addition, subtraction, and simple multiplication before they left TLC. These fundamental skills were invaluable to them and placed them in excellent academic standings when they entered first grade. Today, both my children are in advanced reading programs and in the tops of their classes, and I firmly believe the foundational education, along with the encouragement and support from TLC staff, contributed to their continued successes. The most important part, however, were the bonds they created with their teachers at TLC. Even though it has been four years since my younger left the program, they still talk about being there and want to visit when they are able. The love and attention the teachers have for each of their students is evident in how fondly they are remembered. As an educator, I knew I could not send my children to just any preschool program, so I was thrilled when we found TLC because they exceeded my expectations. I will be forever grateful to how they helped my children grow, learn, and develop a genuine appreciations for others and their academics. Thank you!"

"As an educator with over 35 years of experience in public education who lives in the western suburbs, I always love to give a "shout out" to local high quality early childhood programs, and TLC Montessori certainly falls within that category!! Mona Johnson, the owner, is not only an expert in the field of child development but also a clinical social worker with over 45 years of experience. Her expertise, attention to detail, and, most of all, an absolute commitment to ensuring that every child in her care is thriving and progressing are beyond compare! I could not recommend TLC Montessori and its superlative staff enough!!"

"As long as Mona owns this school, never send your child here. My daughter went here for a couple years and was happy overall. She is now 7 and still remembers a traumatic incident where she lost an earring and at the time she was 3 and I didn’t believe her when she said a teacher hit her. She still gets upset when that memory pops in her head. We absolutely loved Ms. Maryem, and she was a wonderful teacher. The absolute worst part was the owner, Mona. My daughter was hospitalized and diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, and I did not feel comfortable sending her there anymore due to the low staff ratios knowing that my daughter would need special attention at that point in order to receive her insulin shots plus trainings for the staff to be qualified. I kept Mona in the loop throughout the entire thing as it happened and then gave her as much notice as possible when I knew we could not continue there. Once my daughter was released from the hospital, I was arranging for her to say good bye to her friends and teacher because she loved everyone after being there from the age of 2 to 4.5 years old. Mona told me we were banned from the school because I would not agree to pay a full month additional tuition because she said I didn’t give her the full two week notice. She wanted to stop a 4 year old from saying good bye after she just got out of a traumatic hospital stay because she cared more about money than about the children. It was the most despicable experience and interactions I have ever had in my life. I also found out from multiple teachers that she did not give them sick pay, no vacation pay, no overtime but then was understaffed often and overworking them while still charging the same tuition. That math adds up to a lot of extra money that should have but was not going to the staff that ran the school. It’s been 2.5 years and I still am not over this horrific situation. The only silver lining is that the teachers made it so my daughter still got to say goodbye because they actually cared about her emotional well being and thought Mona was cruel with trying to stop it."

"My toddler has been attending TLC since he was 18 months old. He has learned so much! His verbal skills have improved along with his attention span and fine motor skills. He enjoys going to school and I appreciate all the teachers and their ability to design appropriate lessons that meets each child’s individual needs. Highly recommend!"