Church of the Good Shepherd Preschool 348 Corral De Tierra Road, Salinas, CA 93908

"I spent a lot of time researching preschools in the area, and this is the one that checked all of the boxes for us...Good Shepherd is a wonderful, amazing school. Many preschools say that they are play-based, but few actually demonstrate this with their programs. Good Shepherd is legitimately a play-based program with thoughtful curriculum and activities that are age and development appropriate. If you aren't familiar with play-based curricula and worry that your child won't learn anything, I'd strongly argue the opposite. The Good Shepherd curricula pursues learning in a way that puts the material literally in the kids hands - through play - which is the way they learn best at this age (and probably any, right?). We tried attending another preschool that considered itself play-based, but kids were expected to sit in one place for much too long, the mixed age ranges made many activities developmentally inappropriate, and many of the learning activities weren't truly play based. My son is extremely happy at Good Shepherd, and looks forward to each of his school days. As his parents we couldn't be happier that he's enjoying school, learning how to follow the structure required in a school setting, and also learning the kindness and compassion that is a big focus in their program. The teachers and staff are very well trained, knowledgeable, kind and student-centric. I'd highly recommend this preschool to any and all."