Rancho Co-op Preschool 2551 Motor Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90064

"Both of my kids have attended this school. We started our oldest child out in a fancy, Waldorf-inspired, picturesque, language-immersion school that, as you can imagine, was difficult to afford. I'm an educator myself, and I just could not stop nit-picking the place in my mind. I was never satisfied. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I just wasn't happy with my family there. I found Rancho, and realized what I had been missing. Community. Rancho Co-op Nursery School is a school run by families, families who parent like me. As such, after a month there I felt more at home, more included. I *knew* the other kids, and their parents because I spent my days with them. After a month at Rancho I trusted those other folks more than I had trusted my previous school's teachers after more than a year. In Los Angeles, it can be hard to find community. But, not at Rancho. These people are like family. We raise our kids together with similar parenting philosophies. If I had a life threatening emergency and had to leave my kids with someone, I would literally leave them with ANY of the families at Rancho. It's a pretty special community. The facilities aren't fancy, but my kids love it there. It's play based. They encourage creativity, and independence. They foster the skills for children to learn how to work well together and get what they need - be it asking a friend to respect their body, or more politely asking an adult for help. If you're unfamiliar with how co-ops work, at Rancho we have a Director who is there every day, and each family is responsible for covering one "work shift" a week per enrolled child, plus other responsibilities, in addition to tuition."