Our Little Sunshine Girl

I've been debating whether or not to continue touring schools as a public service or to just to make this announcement and be done with it. I've chosen the latter. We received word that E's been accepted at Little Sunshine House starting in June!!!!!!! I am overjoyed as this is our absolute first choice school (perhaps tied with Little Owl which is not an option). There are a million reasons why we loved it, but here are a few;

• The staff. With the directors both having master's degrees, and Ms. Gerry even being an MFT we felt that the staff at LSH was the crem de la crem. The classroom teachers are well educated, engaged and friendly too.
• The feel of the school. It feels like a happy place and we've decided to trust our guts and go with the school that made us happiest.
• The location. It's super-close to Scott's work so drop off will be a breeze. 
• The ambiance. We mentioned warmth a lot in our reviews and LSH was super warm and home-like. The cheerful colors, the bright and sunny classrooms, the warm hardwood floors, the wooden furniture, the neatly organized classrooms - all of it. It's an attractive space where we can see E spending her days.
• The price. It came in under budget!
• The focus on art. LSH has an art-based curriculum and the children create beautiful and individual artwork.
• The program. We like the Reggio approach best of all the philosophies so it's great to know we've found a Reggio inspired school. We like the flow of the day and everything the children get to experience. The schedule and the activities seem well thought out which we appreciated. 
• The balance. We saw schools that were really nice and polished looking but kind of institutional, and schools that were homey and warm but seemed to lack that structure and professionalism. LSH is the perfect mix of these qualities. 
• The reviews. Everyone we've spoken to from Yelp reviews to random parents we ran into at the tour seems to love this school. 
• The parent community. Between my work in the environmental world and Scott's dedication to information access and literacy we have a lot to give to a preschool community. LSH is a wonderful program, but we can also see where he and I can contribute to the growth of the school. We now know who will be the beneficiaries of all of those great condition low-cost books from the library sale and I can't wait to help them grow their gardening program as I discussed with Ms. Gerry on the tour. 
• They're certified. Ever since being super inspired by Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg and learning about "high quality" childcare we've been wishing for a certified school. But it seemed like so few of them had gone through the process. LSH is a member of CAEYC which is amazing!
• The size. LSH has a maximum capacity of 28 children
• Their score. No one scored higher on our crazy rubric.

I decided that it would be hard to continue to tour schools and review them objectively knowing we've accepted a place at a school we love. So this will be it for preschool reviews.

It seems like this has been such a long journey. We toured our first preschool in March of 2013 at Maple Village, and after seeing 10 different preschools (Maple, Little Owl, Creative Beginnings in Downey, Montessori Children's Academy in Downey, Rancho Los Amigos in Downey, Memory Lane Preschool in Downey, Around The World Children's Center in Downey, Carousel Preschool, Edgewater Preschool, Little Sunshine House, Great Beginnings, and finally ABC123 Learning Center) I think I've done my due diligence and I'm 100% comfortable ending the search even though I never got a chance to see Kidworks, Long Beach City College Child Development Center, and Creative Arts preschools which we have appointments on the books to tour. If anyone would like to review a school and post it here I'd be happy to put it up for you. Or if you'd like my detailed impression of any of the unreviewed schools listed above I'd be happy to post. For now we've found a place for E and we're thrilled. Thank you for taking this journey with us!