Daycare/Preschools in SD (San Diego, Carlsbad: 2013, rental, credit)

[sxb317]

As many others on this board, we are considering a move to SD. As we evaluate job prospects, neighborhoods, cost of living, etc, one thing I have not been able to find information on is daycare and preschools. We will have an infant and a 3 year old and while we eventually will prioritize school districts, at this time finding quality daycare and preschools is going to be key to our move. So a few questions:

- Is it possible to find quality daycare/preschools in SD without long waitlists?
- Are there a good variety of preschools with different teaching methods (play based, montessori, etc) in most neighborhoods?
- How much should one expect to pay let's say for infant care in a top notch (I know this is subjective, but just for the sake of the question) daycare with better teacher/infant ratios than mandated by state regulations?
- Any recommendations for good preschools/daycares that I can start to research?

Thank you for your help.

[lrmsd]

I don't have specific quotes or recommendations, but can say that yes, there are a variety of approaches, play based, montessori, etc. [obviously not so much for infants], though the majority i have seen are more of the chain places-kinder care, etc.

Also, what primary neighborhoods are you looking at for residence? Where are your jobs? Do you want daycare near the job or home, or will you live and work in the same relative area?

As for waiting lists, greatly varies. Infant programs are often full.
It really does depend on where you will be located, b/c SD is a very large, spread out city with many suburbs, [which are usually where people want to live and send their kids to school].

The boys and girls club in carmel valley, just south of del mar, hosts a montessori based preschool. And, sorrento valley area is just south, and many office parks/business located there, as well as in UTC neighborhood. [which is also next to UCSD] You can try searching these areas for preschool/daycares, to get an idea of options and prices. I could list you 10 different suburbs to try, but it's better to know where you'll be.
For the sake of dicussion, look in Poway, Rancho Penaquitos, Del Mar, Encinitas, Carmel Valley, Sorrento Valley, as in or near desireable areas where people raise families in SD. Though there are many other locations. And, how far do you want to commute to your job? 20 minutes is a reasonable assumption, so you have still further options in this regard.

[earlyretirement]

I can't speak for all daycares and preschools in the San Diego area. I can only speak for my neck of the woods.

We moved to San Diego last year and at the time our daughter was 3 years old and our son was only 1.5. We enrolled our daughter in Poway's pre school program (PUSD Preschool Program). We have been really pleased with the quality of the school district and the school and teachers, etc.

Just keep in mind that you should probably apply early. Enrollment for the 2012/2013 school year just started February 1. Many schools fill up very quickly. For example, we preferred to send our daughter to Willow Grove's pre school program as it's very close to our house but the waiting list was over 20 kids last year. So we had to send her to another school further away in the Poway School District. This year we enrolled on the very first day possible which was February 1 so we'll see if we get our top choice. They will announce next month if we got our choice. We had to put our top 3 choices so we'll see if we get the school that we wanted near our home.

You can see the prices on that link that I posted above. Prices are generally around $900 a month for full day preschools.

Our son was born in December and he won't yet be 3 years old next year when school starts and will miss the cut off for Poway School District's Pre School so we'll send him to Lifetime Montessori near our house. That runs $1,050 per month. Our daughter will also be in pre school next year so needless to say it will be an expensive year with two in preschool.

Lifetime Montessori School > Toddler Program


We visited a few daycare type centers like Kindercare in Carmel Valley and it was a clean facility but we wanted more of a curriculum and we've been really pleased with Poway School Districts Preschool program.

Our daughter has learned quite a bit and the parents and teachers and teacher's aids are very involved.

I agree with lrmsd that it will totally depend on where you will live/work on where you ultimately decide to send your kids to preschool at. It will be good to look at the student to teacher ratio but also consider that some of these schools have heavy parent involvement so you have parents that volunteer to help the teacher several days of the week so make sure to ask about that. Our daughter's preschool there are around 23 kids and there is 1 teacher with 2 teacher's aides but also many days of the week there are parents there helping.

There are lots of choices regarding preschools and day cares. Most of them that we looked at were around the $900 to $1,000 a month range for pre school. You might find some more and some less but that seemed to be the general range based on the places we looked at in our area.

Also, you might want to invest $20 and join San Diego Parent - http://www.sandiegoparent.com/ It's a good investment. They have playgroups that you can join for your little one so even if you don't send him/her to preschool, he/she can interact with other kids their own age.

[sxb317]

Thank you for the feedback despite the vague question. As far as neighborhoods go, unfortunately not too sure yet since we're at the early stages and I was hoping this question would be an input to it. From current leads, it looks like our jobs will be north of the city and from the research I have done, I can see us being a good fit for some of the North Coast neighborhoods (sorry if my SD lingo is off) due to proximity to jobs, good schools, near beach, etc. However, we will be renting for a year and I was hoping we could do that in a more central/fun/slightly more urban neighborhood like Hillcrest, Normal Heights, etc. that will allow us to get to know the city little better. I would like the daycare to be close to our home vs work since both of us may be working remotely to an extent. In our last move, we did not consider the daycare issue up front and ended up in a non-ideal situation where we either had to drive out of our way quite a bit to go to a daycare we liked or keep our son in a conveniently located one that was not a good fit. Thank you again for the help.

[sxb317]

Earlyretirement - thank you for the links, very helpful.

[earlyretirement]

Originally Posted by sxb317

Earlyretirement - thank you for the links, very helpful.

You're welcome! I think the best thing is once you know where you will work/live, then you can repost your question and ask about daycares/preschools in specific areas.

As you noted, it totally makes sense to select a daycare close to your home.

There are many facilities and they will all allow you to visit and meet the teachers and do a tour of the facility. I'd recommend that so you can get a good feel for the place.

There are also some bigger chains with many locations around the city. I know Kindercare has many facilities around the area.

Also, if you join San Diego Parent, I believe they have message boards there and a Yahoo group where you can post questions and people have been really helpful on the Yahoo forum.

[DCStudent]

See the below link to a thread started last year discussing Preschools.

Academic Based Preschools in the Carlsbad/Encinitas Area

I have also straight copied one post I made on that thread that looks specifically at Preschools in the Carlsbad/ Encinitas areas. But defiantly search through that thread because other preschools were also discussed.

(In the end we went with La Costa Valley Pre-school and Kindergarten for it's early entry transitional kindergarten.)
http://www.lacostavalleypreschool.com
La Costa Valley Preschool & Kindergarten - Organization, Education - Carlsbad, CA - Info | Facebook

Kindergarten - YouTube

Originally Posted by DCStudent

We are in a similar situation. We are moving with a four year old later this month and he is use to an academically oriented preschool and has flourished in it. I flew out this past March for do rental property visits and preschool visits and ended up with a couple that looked promising online and checked out in person as well. Here are some that I visited and some that I liked. Hope this is helpful!


La Costa Valley Preschool - had nice security in place, has a National accreditation (one of very few [three I think] in the San Diego area from what I gather.) accommodates 2 yo - kindergarten and has reasonable tuition rates for the area. (not cheap but not the most expensive) they have a curriculum they follow and are very academically based. (one of my top choices for our son.) Follows a math, science, and literacy curriculum . Has a room dedicated to science, a garden, and large spacious classrooms. Tuition is $975 per month for full time.


Olivenhain Country Preschool for the Arts - On a nice piece of property. They emphasis play based preschool. It has a beautiful garden and orchard on the property , that the children help tend and harvest. They are not as focused on academics (If I was a kid I'd like it but not a good fit for our son.) They accommodate 6 week olds - 5 yo. They are located a bit away from I-5 so... not the most convenient . Director has owned the facility for years so the school has a very homey feel to it. (does not have a kindergarten) $1000 per month for full time.

Carlsbad Children's Garden - accommodates 2yo - 5 yo (does not have a kindergarten) School is in an old house. Summer registration is kind of funky to sort out but the director is nice and fully involved in the school. Tuition is very reasonable. Very play-based environment. $865 per month for full time.

Leucadia Children's School - Located in a artsy section of town. The school is run by a young mom, and is curriculum based. Tuition is on the higher end. $1010 per month for full time , other than being relatively close to the beach, this school was only so-so in my book. Nice staff, mostly college age girls.

Sanderling Waldorf School - interesting curriculum. Many like it but it was not academically focused enough for our son. Emphasis on movement and natural skills (i.e. learning through daily life) No formal academic focus in the preschool classroom . Accommodates 18 months-5th grade. This is a very different approach to preschool. Has a Montessori feel but is defiantly NOT Montessori. The children help make lunch each day, they eat family style, they have no electronics in the school, and the preschool classroom has no books, only simple toys for imaginative play. School days end at 12:45 for preschool, extended care until 3:00pm is available three days a week. If you're interested I'd recommend going to one of their open houses or family days for a visit. Then you could get a good feel for the school and whether or not the teaching philosophy would work for your children. Tuition is $8900 annually or $741.66 per month for full-time care (8:00am - 12:45pm) extended care to 3:00pm is extra.

Creative Expressions - Home based school. I did not realize this was someones back yard until I tried to find the place and was driving down a one-way dirt road . Good thing I went early to find the place. I don't know how you feel about home based schools but I am not particularly a fan, especially when I am new to an area and don't know who to trust yet. Plus the neighbors kept staring at me in a not so friendly way. Needless to say I just back right back down that dirt road, called the director and politely canceled my appointment.

[sdn]

Good preschools in Carlsbad:

Aspirations Child Learning Center in Carlsbad, California
Carlsbad Country Day School - A Carlsbad Childcare Facility

Also there's a new preschool coming up that looks good. Goddard is pretty big on east coast and midwest.
http://www.goddardschool.com/san-die...bluff-place-cacarlsbad.html#ixzz2T0i9fk81