Montessori Children's House (Plano) vs. Creative Minds Montessori: An Honest Comparison for Plano and Frisco Parents (2026)

Two Montessori schools, a creek apart

Montessori Children's House sits at 1900 Hedgcoxe Road, Plano, TX 75025, in the northeast of the city, on grounds the school says were "specifically chosen for the natural beauty of the creek, wildlife, trees and other plants," with three fenced playgrounds overlooking Russell Creek. Creative Minds Montessori is at 5115 Warren Parkway, behind Dua Trattoria at Legacy Drive and Warren Parkway, in West Frisco 75034. Depending on traffic they are about twenty-five minutes apart, and that is the first honest thing to say: very few families will find both on their commute. A family in Plano's Hedgcoxe, Custer or Independence corridors, or on the Allen line, will find Montessori Children's House on the way; a family in Phillips Creek Ranch, Starwood or the Legacy West towers will find us on the way. If you are reading this from Plano, the comparison is still useful, because the two schools differ in ways that matter more than the drive.

Both call themselves Montessori, and both mean it. Montessori Children's House says it is "affiliated with The American Montessori Society," that its founder holds "AMS Montessori Certification," and that its "Montessori Certified Teachers have over 120 years of experience working with more 1,300 children" combined. We describe the same method on our Curriculum page. So this is not a Montessori-versus-something-else comparison. It is a comparison of two schools that share a method and differ in age range, schedule options, setting, what the parent can see and read before enrolling, staff continuity, and what the two state records and two sets of reviews say.

At a glance

Sources: each school's website and Texas HHS record, September 22, 2026; Google ratings and review counts as on each school's listing. Details change — confirm on your tour.

What kind of school each one is

Montessori Children's House: a founder-run AMS school on a creek, from infants to third grade

Montessori Children's House has been licensed at 1900 Hedgcoxe Road since December 7, 2004, which makes it one of the longest-running Montessori centers in Collin County, and it is still run by the person who founded it. The website's founder page describes her as holding a bachelor's in guidance counseling, a master's in educational psychology, a traditional teaching certificate and AMS Montessori certification, with "over 30 years of experience working with children as both a counselor and teacher." That combination, a counselor's training plus a Montessorian's, is unusual and worth asking about on the tour, because it should show up in how the school handles a hard week. The staff page says the school employs "certified Montessori teachers and trained classroom teaching assistants" and that, combined, "our Montessori Certified Teachers have over 120 years of experience working with more 1,300 children." The school says it is "affiliated with The American Montessori Society."

The programme is the full Montessori arc. Infant/Pre-Transitional, six weeks to eighteen months, is "a safe daycare environment... to explore securely" with flexible feeding and sleeping schedules and a gentle introduction of routine. Transitional, eighteen months to three, focuses on "establishing routine, fostering independence, and developing and mastering fine and gross motor skills," with potty training when a child shows readiness. Primary, three to six, is described in eight areas: "Practical Life, Sensorial, Cultural, Language Arts, Math, Geometry, Science, and Geography," worked "in pairs, groups, or individually." Then comes the thing we do not offer: a Kindergarten and Lower Elementary class for five-to-nine-year-olds in a "multi-age, individually paced, stimulating environment" focused on "critical thinking, responsibility and respect for self and others," so a child who thrives in the method can stay in it through third grade. A summer camp takes children who turned six by September 1 through those entering fifth grade, with "a balance of Montessori curriculum as well as summertime fun," and, with permission, hikes on the Hoblitzelle Park Trail to a turtle pond.

The setting is the school's signature. The grounds were "specifically chosen for the natural beauty of the creek, wildlife, trees and other plants"; three fenced playgrounds overlook Russell Creek; children examine leaves and soil, watch squirrels and rabbits and "eagles overhead," and tend a garden to develop "a sense of responsibility and relationship with nature." Field trips come to the children rather than the other way around: "we will not take the students off of MCH property, we will bring field trips to our campus," which over a year has meant ballroom dancing lessons, a drum circle, the fire department, a storyteller, splash days, a petting zoo and hayrides, "sporadically throughout the school year and bi-weekly in the summer months." For a parent who worries about buses, that is a considered answer.

Schedules are the other thing Montessori Children's House offers that we do not. Its programmes page lists four day-lengths, 8:00 to 11:30, 8:00 to 2:30, 7:00 to 6:00 and 7:15 to 5:45, and two-, three- and five-day options, which is rare among full-day Montessori schools and valuable for a family with a parent at home part of the week. Note that the state record gives the licensed hours as 7:15 AM to 5:45 PM while the contact page says 7:00 to 6:00; ask which applies. What the website does not say, at least in the state we found it, is a lot: the header read "This site is in construction mode," the FAQ page was empty, the infant page was a gallery of images without text, the nutrition page returned an error, and no page mentioned cameras, a discipline policy, screen use, parent communication, meals, or tuition ("Tuition and fees will be discussed during the tour"). We have described only what we could read.

Creative Minds Montessori: one school, one philosophy, ten-plus years of the same faces

Creative Minds is a single independent school in the Legacy and Warren corridor that serves children from six weeks through kindergarten entry and then hands them on to Frisco ISD or a private elementary. Everything about it is built around the Montessori method. Walk in mid-morning and the first thing you notice is the quiet hum of concentration: one child building the pink tower, another tracing sandpaper letters, a third carrying a tray of golden beads to a mat. The guide is not at the front of the room; she is kneeling next to one child, presenting one lesson, and the rest of the room is working on things they chose. Rooms are mixed-age on purpose, so a three-year-old watches a five-year-old read and a five-year-old learns patience by helping a three-year-old pour.

Layered over that structure is what the school calls the Waldorf touch: a weekly music class, process art with natural materials, rhythm and storytelling, and a deliberate reverence for beauty and nature in the rooms. Montessori builds the disciplined, capable mind; the artistic thread keeps the imagination glowing. Our Curriculum page lays out the five Montessori areas and what each looks like at each age.

The people are the second thing. Both infant teachers have been with the school since it opened its doors more than ten years ago, which in an industry where caregivers often change every few months means the same two warm faces greet families at drop-off year after year. Ratios meet or exceed Texas Health and Human Services licensing for every age, with the youngest rooms kept smallest, and because the school is small, the Director personally approves every move from one room to the next.

The third thing is a set of daily-life choices that are easy to verify. Food is treated as curriculum: organic milk and organic vegetables, no added raw sugar, minimal salt and fat, a vegetarian option every day, fresh fruit and milk with every lunch, and a nut-free building. Children under two have no screen time at all, and older children never more than one supplemental, education-aligned hour, never at meals or rest. Every classroom has a camera, and parents can log in and watch any time during the day. Our Our School page covers the rest.

Curriculum and daily life, compared

Because both schools are Montessori, the table below has fewer sharp contrasts than a Montessori-versus-franchise comparison would. The differences are in the edges: how far the programme runs, how flexible the schedule is, the setting, and how each school handles food, screens, rest and discipline in writing.

A few honest notes. Montessori Children's House offers three things we simply do not: a Montessori elementary to age nine, a half-day and part-week schedule, and a creek. If continuity of method past kindergarten matters to you, or a parent is home two days a week, or you want your child's practical life to include a real garden by real water, it is the only school in this comparison that offers those. On our side, the differences are specific rather than broad: we publish our menu, our screen rule, our discipline limits and our fees; we let you watch the room from anywhere for a stated fee; and the state's count of who left last year is 5 at our school and 21 at theirs, which we will come back to.

Food, hours, and the shape of a day

Hours. These are close. The state record gives Montessori Children's House 7:15 AM to 5:45 PM, and its website 7:00 to 6:00, either way within fifteen or thirty minutes of Creative Minds' 7:00 to 5:30. Where Montessori Children's House pulls ahead is flexibility: a half-day to 11:30, a school-day to 2:30, and two-, three- or five-day weeks. Creative Minds is full-day only, caps care at ten hours and asks for a 9:00 arrival so children get the uninterrupted work period that Montessori depends on.

Food. We cannot compare menus, and we will not pretend to. Montessori Children's House's state record says "Meals Provided" and "Snacks Provided"; its website has a nutrition page, but it returned an error when we tried to read it on September 22, 2026, and no other page describes the food. Creative Minds does not cook on site; lunch is catered by KidzCaters on a four-week rotation, and the choices are in the sourcing: organic milk and organic vegetables, no added raw sugar, minimal salt and fat, a vegetarian option every day, fresh fruit and milk with every lunch, and a nut-free building. Ask Montessori Children's House for next week's menu on the tour; ours is on our Nutrition page.

Flexibility and transportation. Neither school offers transportation on its state record, and Montessori Children's House goes further, keeping children on campus for field trips by policy. Both list part-time care. Creative Minds offers ways to protect a spot during extended breaks and two $50-per-year vacation credits; Montessori Children's House's policies are discussed at the tour.

Safety, security, and seeing your child's day

Both are licensed centers inspected by the same state agency. The difference is in what each publishes about how the building is run, and whether a parent can see inside from outside.

What the state's five-year records show, side by side

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission publishes every licensed center's five-year compliance history in its public Child Care Search. We pulled both schools' full histories on September 22, 2026 and put them in one table. Read ours as critically as theirs; the links go to the primary source.

What Montessori Children's House's four deficiencies were, in full. Three came from a single annual inspection on June 21, 2022. The one rated High: "An infant was observed in the crib standing while the drop gate was down." The playground: "The playground for 3 years and older had less than one inchd of wood chips (loose fill). The playground requires 9 inches. The landscape material was showing," corrected with a photo of installed loose fill three days later. And a records item: "The director's file was not available for review during the visit," corrected July 5. The fourth, at the March 19, 2025 annual inspection: "Of the 10 children's records reviewed, 4 children did not have a health statement in their file," corrected by email a week later. Two complaint investigations, in July and August 2024, evaluated three standards between them and found all compliant, and the annual inspections of 2023, 2024 and 2026 evaluated 582, 669 and 676 standards and found nothing at all. The school has never filed a self-report in the window, which can mean there was nothing to report.

That is a very clean record, and it deserves to be said plainly: over five years the state has found one thing at Montessori Children's House that touched a child's safety, a standing infant in a crib with the gate down in 2022, and nothing about supervision, ratios, discipline, food or fire. The number a parent should ask about is a different one. The state counts the employees who left each year, and at Montessori Children's House that count went from three in 2021 and six in 2023 to fourteen in 2024 and twenty-one in 2025. On a licensed capacity of 226 that is a lot of goodbyes in two years, and it is exactly what the two critical reviews below describe. Ask, room by room, who is there now and since when.

Our own record is the one we want you to read hardest. Twenty-six deficiencies across 3,942 standards is more than Montessori Children's House's, and most of them are paperwork we should have had in order and many of which we reported ourselves. Each finding was verified corrected by the state. The three self-reported incidents on our record are incidents we reported to the state ourselves, because we would rather have a mark on the page than a secret in the building. Zero injuries in five years and 5 and 7 staff departures in the last two years are the numbers we are proudest of. The details are on our state page linked above, and we would rather you read them there than take our summary.

Cost and fees: what each school publishes

Neither school prints monthly tuition on its website, which is normal in Plano and Frisco and frustrating for a shopping parent. Here is exactly what each does say, so you know what to ask.

Montessori Children's House says only that "Tuition and fees will be discussed during the tour." It publishes no rate card, no registration or supply fee, and no deposit or withdrawal terms. One thing we do know from a 2026 review: a family who withdrew after three weeks was told that "because the school requires a one-month notice, our deposit would not be refunded." A month's notice is a common term in Plano and Frisco, including at schools we admire, but it is the kind of term you want to read before you sign rather than learn about at withdrawal. With four schedule lengths and three week-lengths on offer, ask for the price of each, and ask what a two-day schedule costs relative to five.

Creative Minds Montessori bills monthly by age. Published fees: a one-time $150 registration fee per child, a $150 supply fee twice a year (March 1 and September 1), and a $25-per-child monthly camera fee. Published credits: a 10% sibling discount on the older sibling, $150 off tuition for each referred family who stays 90 days, and a current new-family welcome of $100 off tuition for the first ten months. Meals, snacks, the music class and all materials are included. Monthly rates by age come from the Director, and we will give you a written all-in number on the tour. Details are on our Admissions page.

Two practical tips. First, ask both schools for a written, all-in annual number for your child's age and schedule, including every fee and what the welcome credit becomes when it ends, so the two can be compared like for like. Second, ask what happens to your spot and your money during a two-week vacation, a maternity leave, a job change, or a withdrawal in the first month; the answers differ more between schools than the headline rate does. Our guide to what childcare really costs covers FSAs and the child-care tax credit, which apply at both schools.

What parents say

Montessori Children's House

Start with the number: Montessori Children's House holds a 4.8-star rating across 65 Google reviews as of September 22, 2026, the highest score of any school in our comparison series so far, and that should frame everything below. A school licensed since 2004, founded and still run by an AMS-certified Montessorian, on a creek, with the state record above, has many families with good things to say, and one of the two critical reviewers below says as much about the front office ("The office admins are good") and about the first two classes. Read the five-star reviews; at 4.8 they are nearly all of them.

The critical reviews are a small minority. Of the 65, we read two, collected from Google on September 22, 2026, one posted in about July 2026 and one undated. Two reviews are not a pattern in the way five or fifteen would be, so we present them as two accounts, and we note that they agree with each other and with a number on the state record. These are the threads:

• Afternoon staffing and coordination. The July 2026 reviewer enrolled her son after "an excellent tour" given by the warm lead teacher of his classroom, then found the room staffed by "three different teachers, two in the morning and one in the afternoon" with, in her words, "zero coordination" between them: picking up after the morning teachers had gone meant "zero answers about your child everyday." The afternoon teacher, she says, was alone with "approximately 15 children," which "may meet the state ratio requirements" but "is an incredibly difficult responsibility for one person," and "struggled to communicate in English." She describes children at pick-up "sitting still in pin drop silence," and on some drop-offs "teachers yelling at children or having them sit in front of the TV." Her son, "a gentle, easygoing child," cried every morning for three weeks and said his teacher "is not a nice person"; the family withdrew and lost their deposit under the one-month notice rule, and says repeated attempts to meet the director "were unsuccessful due to some or the other reasons." She credits one of the three teachers as "genuinely caring" and hopes the school will improve "consistency, staffing, and classroom support."
• A school that "used to be good." The undated reviewer, a parent who enrolled the year before writing, says "The first two classes are good and they don't have good staff anymore. The office admins are good," that a friend had given the same feedback a year earlier, and that the school needs "more dedicated and certified staff."

The set of reviews collected for this article did not include public replies from the school, so we cannot credit its side; if Montessori Children's House has replied on Google, we will add its replies here, and its director is welcome to write to us (see the note at the end of this page). What cuts the other way is real and we would be dishonest to leave it out: 4.8 stars across 65 reviews; a state record with four minor findings in five years, zero injuries, no supervision, ratio or discipline finding, and three clean annual inspections in a row, which does not support a picture of a badly run building; a founder with counselling and AMS training on site for two decades; and a setting and a schedule flexibility we cannot match. What supports the two reviews is the one number the state does record: twenty-one staff departures in 2025 and fourteen in 2024, up from six and three. So the reviews mean something specific. They do not say the school is unsafe; the state's numbers say it is. They say that, for at least two families in the last two years, the adults in their child's room changed too often and were too thin in the afternoon, and that the office did not make time to hear it. That is exactly what a tour at 4:30 in the afternoon, rather than 9:30 in the morning, will show you.

Creative Minds Montessori

Creative Minds Montessori holds a 4.7-star rating across 44 Google reviews, counted on September 17, 2026. It is a smaller school, so the count is smaller; the score is what we are proud of, and so is the state's record of five and seven staff departures in the last two years, because the reviews are mostly about people who are still here. The Google reviews quoted on our Testimonials page cluster around the infant teachers who have been here since the school opened, the calm of the classrooms, the food, the cameras, the Director's patience, and children who come home and set the table without being asked. We are not going to pretend we have no critical reviews; read all 44 on Google and ask us about any of them on the tour. We would rather answer than spin.

One thing we say to every family who tours us after touring another Montessori school: the word on the sign is the beginning of the comparison, not the end of it. Two rooms with the same pink tower can feel completely different depending on who is in them and how long they have been there. Watch the adults, and watch them in the afternoon.

Which school fits which family

And a third possibility that is more common than either school likes to admit: some children are simply happier in one room than another, and you will know within ten minutes of watching them in it. Bring your child to both tours if you possibly can.

Ten questions to ask on both tours

These are the questions that separate a good tour from a brochure read aloud. Ask every one of them at both schools, in the same words, and compare the answers side by side.

1. "What is the exact ratio and group size in the room my child would start in, today, and at 4:30 PM?" Not the licensing maximum, the actual number this month, morning and afternoon.
2. "How long have the teachers in that room been here, and how many adults will my child see across a full day?" Tenure is the single best predictor of how your child's day will feel. At Montessori Children's House, ask what changed in 2024 and 2025.
3. "What happens when a child says, 'I can't do it'?" The answer reveals the whole philosophy. We explain why in our guide to choosing a whole-child program.
4. "Can I see my child's room during the day, and how?" Cameras, an app, a window, or an open door. Get the specifics and the cost.
5. "What will I hear about my child's day, and from whom, if I pick up after the lead teacher has left?" Ask to see yesterday's report.
6. "What did the children eat yesterday, and where was it cooked?" Then ask to see the menu for next week and the allergy policy.
7. "How much screen time will my child have, and what is it for?" Get a number, not an adjective.
8. "What is my all-in annual cost for this age and schedule, including every fee, the deposit, and the notice period?" Then ask what happens to the deposit and the spot if you withdraw in the first month.
9. "When a parent raises a concern, what happens in the next 48 hours, and when can I meet the director?" Ask for a real example. Compare the answer with the school's state page.
10. "May I come back on a normal afternoon?" The answer, and the tone of the answer, tells you nearly everything.

For the longer version of this checklist, including the unannounced-visit test and the difference between settling-in tears and real red flags, see How to Choose a Daycare You Actually Trust.

The bottom line

Montessori Children's House is a long-established, founder-run Plano Montessori with the widest programme and the best setting in this comparison: six weeks to third grade, half-day and part-week schedules, three playgrounds on a creek, a garden, field trips that come to the children, an AMS-certified founder with a counsellor's training, a 4.8-star rating across 65 reviews, and a state record with four minor findings in five years and three clean annual inspections in a row. The one number that runs against it is the state's own: twenty-one staff departures in 2025 and fourteen in 2024, and the two critical reviews we read describe the afternoon consequences of that. None of it is about safety, and the state record backs the school on safety.

Creative Minds Montessori is a smaller, narrower, more transparent offer: one philosophy carried out faithfully from six weeks to kindergarten by adults who have been here for years, with a food and screen policy you can read before you enroll, positive guidance with published limits, fees on the website, a daily email, cameras you can watch all day, and a state record that by count is far worse than Montessori Children's House's and includes findings of kinds theirs does not, which we have set out above rather than hidden. It cannot offer a half-day, a creek, or the Great Lessons at seven.

Those are different products, and a family can be right to choose either. The wrong choice is the one made from a website, including this one, and including one that is under construction. Tour both, and tour at least one of them in the afternoon. Bring the questions above. Watch the children more than the adults, and then watch the adults. And if you would like to start with us, book a 40-minute weekday tour at Creative Minds, call (972) 338-4304, or email director@creativemindsfrisco.com. Montessori Children's House schedules tours at (972) 517-5437 or through the form on its website.

Quick answers

How far apart are the two schools?

About twenty-five minutes. Montessori Children's House is at 1900 Hedgcoxe Road in northeast Plano (75025), on Russell Creek; Creative Minds is at 5115 Warren Parkway in West Frisco (75034), behind Dua Trattoria at Legacy and Warren.

Are both schools really Montessori?

Yes. Montessori Children's House says it is affiliated with the American Montessori Society, its founder and director holds AMS Montessori certification, and its teachers are certified Montessori teachers; Creative Minds has certified Montessori guides, mixed-age rooms and the classic materials across the five areas, with a Waldorf-inspired arts and music thread.

Which has longer hours and serves older children?

Montessori Children's House: 7:15 AM to 5:45 PM on the state record (7:00 to 6:00 on its website), with half-day, school-day and two- or three-day options, serving six weeks through a Kindergarten and Lower Elementary to age nine and a summer camp to fifth-grade entry. Creative Minds: 7:00 AM to 5:30 PM, full-day only, six weeks through kindergarten entry. Neither offers transportation.

Is Montessori Children's House a licensed center?

Yes. Texas HHS lists it as "Montessori Childrens House," a Licensed Center – Child Care Program with a Full Permit since December 7, 2004, Operation No. 838893, licensed capacity 226, licensed for infants through school-age children, with meals, snacks and part-time care on its record.

What do the Texas licensing records show for each school?

Over five years, both have zero injuries, zero penalties and no corrective or adverse action. Montessori Children's House shows 4 deficiencies across 3,211 standards: in June 2022 an infant standing in a crib with the drop gate down (High), playground loose fill under an inch, and a director's file not available; and in March 2025 four of ten children's files missing a health statement, all corrected; its 2023, 2024 and 2026 annual inspections found nothing; the state counts 14 and 21 staff departures in 2024 and 2025. Creative Minds shows 26 deficiencies across 3,942 standards, including three supervision findings (2022, 2023 and a self-reported one in June 2026), all verified corrected, plus 3 self-reported incidents, zero injuries in the same years.

Does either publish tuition?

No. Montessori Children's House says tuition and fees are discussed at the tour; a 2026 reviewer describes a deposit forfeited under a one-month notice rule. Creative Minds publishes its fees ($150 registration, $150 supply fee twice a year, $25 monthly camera fee) and credits (10% sibling discount, $150 referral, $100-a-month welcome credit for ten months); monthly rates come from the Director.

What do the critical Google reviews of Montessori Children's House say?

Against a 4.8-star rating across 65 Google reviews as of September 22, 2026, we read two critical reviews, one from about July 2026 and one undated. Both are about staffing: one describes three uncoordinated teachers across the day, an afternoon teacher alone with about fifteen children, no daily updates, a child who cried at every drop-off, a forfeited deposit and a director the family could not get a meeting with; the other says the school "used to be good" and needs "more dedicated and certified staff," while crediting the office. The state counts 21 departures in 2025. The reviews we read contained no public replies from the school.

Do both have parent cameras?

Creative Minds has cameras in every classroom with all-day secure viewing for $25 per child per month and grandparent logins available. Montessori Children's House's website does not mention cameras. Ask on the tour.

Keep reading

• How to Choose a Daycare You Actually Trust — the full checklist, the unannounced-visit test, and real red flags.
• Alpha Montessori Frisco vs. Creative Minds Montessori, Acepire Montessori vs. Creative Minds Montessori, Primrose School of Lakehill vs. Creative Minds Montessori and Kids 'R' Kids Legacy West vs. Creative Minds Montessori — our other comparisons, same method.
• What Should Parents Look For? Choosing a Whole-Child Program — eight questions that reveal a program's beliefs.
• Early Childhood Education Methodologies — Montessori, Reggio, Waldorf, and seventeen other approaches compared.
• How Much Does Childcare Cost — FSAs, tax credits, and why continuity beats the cheapest slot.
• Our Curriculum and Our Nutrition Program — see the claims in this article for yourself.

About this comparison: written by the teachers of Creative Minds Montessori, Frisco, TX, in September 2026. Facts about Montessori Children's House come from its public website (home, Montessori education, founder and staff, mission, programs, outdoor learning, field trips and contact pages, read September 22, 2026, when the site described itself as in construction mode and its FAQ, infant and nutrition pages were empty or unavailable), from its Texas HHS Child Care Search record (permit, capacity, programs, hours, director, and the full five-year inspection and compliance history, pulled the same day), and from public Google reviews as of the same date; review counts, ratings and policies change. Facts about Creative Minds come from our own website and our Texas HHS record. Quotations from reviews and from the state record are reproduced as posted; individual reviews are the opinions of their authors and are unverified, and the state's findings are the state's, not ours. If you are the owner or director of Montessori Children's House and find an error, or want to add context or your public replies to anything here, email director@creativemindsfrisco.com and we will correct or add it promptly and note the change. Nothing here is a substitute for your own tour of both schools. Our legal disclaimer applies.