Suggestions for daycare/pre-school

E

escrowbear

New member
Does anyone have any recommendations for daycare/preschool? Currently my parents are taking care of our 1.5 yr old, but we have another one on the way.

Ideally, we would like to enroll our second child in daycare when she is 1. Our daughter would be 3 years old and we want to enroll her in pre-school.

I'm asking now even though its more than a year way because I know some of the programs here have LONG waitlists (ie. Northwood Montessori).

Does anyone have any other recommendations?
 
It may depend on your biggest needs such as proximity to your home / work, hours of operation, cost, type of program, etc.

I understand your concern about the wait list as most preschools in the Irvine area seem to have them. I found one that does not and I believe it's one-of or the only in Irvine that does not. Good Shepherd Preschool @ Irvine Center Dr. & Yale. On that hyperlink there is a section called "2009-2010 Programs". If you click that, you can see what the cost is this year and what schedule they offer for that age group. Even though there isn't a wait list, you should visit the year before to tour and get a new student registration number (which gives priority in choosing schedule but they seem to fit in everybody if you're flexible). They do that in October and have new parents pick up packets in February for the following September. Good luck -- hope this helps out. Congrats on the pending arrival of the new baby, too!
 
I would tour each one that you can, because your opinion may differ from ours. I've toured all of these:

Good Shepherd
KinderCare (2 locations)
The one near the Irvine city hall (forgot the name)
Jenny Hart
Montessori of Irvine (multiple schools but long wait list)
Christian Montessori (not sure if it's still around)
ChildTime

I think all of them are good, we ended up with Montessori of Irvine but we were on a wait list so we used Westpark KinderCare (right next to our home at the time) for a while.
 
We used Turtle Rock Preschool for two+ years, and were very happy there. Not sure your location, so that may or may not be convienent.

http://turtlerockpreschool.com/

We went on the waiting list at Westpark Montessori when our daughter was 2.5 years, and they still have not called us (she's is 1st grade now). <!-- s:( --:mad:<!-- s:( -->
 
[quote author="ck"]We went on the waiting list at Westpark Montessori when our daughter was 2.5 years, and they still have not called us (she's is 1st grade now). <!-- s:( --:mad:<!-- s:( -->[/quote]
They purge the list after a year I believe.

We got lucky... since we had siblings... they had a space for both at the same time.

Turtle Rock huh? So you're not as ghetto as BK says you are.
 
We were looking for something in the Northwood/Woodbury area preferably but don't mind venturing wherever we need to go. As long as the price is reasonable, we are good to go. I've seen prices range from 900-1300 so that's what I'm expecting.

We've only visited Northwood montessori and put our first daughter on the waitlist (still waiting!).

I know some of the programs give preference if you have siblings. But what if you have friends. Do they give preference for referrals?
 
Check out Spectrum Montessori in their Woodbury location.  My son goes there and we are very happy with the school. 

There is also Great Foundation, which has a campus near Irvine Boulevard and Yale and another campus in the Woodbury Town Center.
 
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