u/Top_Photo_1528

I'm touring preschools right now and finding almost nothing useful online. Every school's website is a marketing page, and the threads I can find on here are mostly from 2019 or just "we loved it!!" with no details. So I figured I'd write up each place I visit with the stuff I actually wanted to know before I drove out there. This is the first one.

Little Montessori

Infrastructure is genuinely good. Clean, open rooms, materials at kid height, no clutter. It reads as a real Montessori classroom and not a daycare that bought some wooden toys.

The thing that surprised me was the conversation itself. The head of school and the program director spent as much time asking about our family and how we're raising our kid as they did talking about the program. No other school has done that so far, and honestly it changed how I heard everything else they said. Could be a good sales instinct on their part. It didn't feel like one.

This is classic Montessori, not Montessori-flavored. Eton is the only other place around here I'd put in the same category.

Placement

Two classrooms are relevant if you have a toddler. Savannah is early preschool, LAM is the actual preschool class. They don't place by age alone. Your kid gets observed first, and they decide based on age, toileting readiness, social and emotional development, and some other factors. Mine is in a home based daycare now, and I liked that they wanted to see her themselves rather than take my word for where she's at.

Money and hours

• $150 enrollment fee. They offered to waive it for us.
• They also offered an observation period before any enrollment conversation, which I think is the single most useful thing a school can offer. Nobody else has.
• Regular hours are 8:45am to 3pm. Tuition ~$2,200/month.
• Extended hours are 7:30am to 5:45pm, ~$2,850/month. That's the one we need.
• On regular hours they want kids in between 8:45 and 9. Circle time runs 9:00 to 9:15 and they don't want anyone walking in during it. No drop off after 9 either way.
• Meals included, organic. Adds up compared to packing lunch five days a week.

We haven't enrolled yet, so I can't speak to what it's like day to day. This is just what the tour looked like.

Happy to answer questions if you're looking at this one. And if you've toured somewhere decent in the area, drop it below. I'll post more of these as I go.

I'm touring preschools right now and finding almost nothing useful online. Every school's website is a marketing page, and the threads I can find on here are mostly from 2019 or just "we loved it!!" with no details. So I figured I'd write up each place I visit with the stuff I actually wanted to know before I drove out there. This is the first one.

Little Montessori

Infrastructure is genuinely good. Clean, open rooms, materials at kid height, no clutter. It reads as a real Montessori classroom and not a daycare that bought some wooden toys.

The thing that surprised me was the conversation itself. The head of school and the program director spent as much time asking about our family and how we're raising our kid as they did talking about the program. No other school has done that so far, and honestly it changed how I heard everything else they said. Could be a good sales instinct on their part. It didn't feel like one.

This is classic Montessori, not Montessori-flavored. Eton is the only other place around here I'd put in the same category.

Placement

Two classrooms are relevant if you have a toddler. Savannah is early preschool, LAM is the actual preschool class. They don't place by age alone. Your kid gets observed first, and they decide based on age, toileting readiness, social and emotional development, and some other factors. Mine is in a home based daycare now, and I liked that they wanted to see her themselves rather than take my word for where she's at.

Money and hours

• $150 enrollment fee. They offered to waive it for us.
• They also offered an observation period before any enrollment conversation, which I think is the single most useful thing a school can offer. Nobody else has.
• Regular hours are 8:45am to 3pm. Tuition ~$2,200/month.
• Extended hours are 7:30am to 5:45pm, ~$2,850/month. That's the one we need.
• On regular hours they want kids in between 8:45 and 9. Circle time runs 9:00 to 9:15 and they don't want anyone walking in during it. No drop off after 9 either way.
• Meals included, organic. Adds up compared to packing lunch five days a week.

We haven't enrolled yet, so I can't speak to what it's like day to day. This is just what the tour looked like.

Happy to answer questions if you're looking at this one. And if you've toured somewhere decent in the area, drop it below. I'll post more of these as I go.