A-list Montessori Preschool 4812 Sawtelle Boulevard, Culver City, CA 90230

"Our daughter attended A-List from 1.5-2.5 years and loved every minute of it. At A-List, her language and social skills took flight. She soon went from just a few words to hundreds of words. She asks to go to daycare every day, even on the weekends. At night, she says goodnight to her friends and teachers one-by-one, asks us if they're ok, and sings songs to them. (For example, she'll sing, "When Ms Jenny wish upon a star..." or "Happy birthday to Noah," etc.) At A-List, she began dancing, painting, playing music on the guitar, making up her own songs, and just generally playing more with other kids at the playground. Even when she struggles with pushing, hitting, or biting (we went through all these thankfully brief phases...), she knew that it was wrong, apologized, and got us ice packs to take care of us. A-List clearly spends a lot of time weaving empathy and redirects into teaching kindness and caring behavior. Every week, our daughter surprises us with a new learning, like suddenly saying "please, thank you," and proudly proclaiming, "this is MY body!" With the themed academic modules, our daughter took a special interest in the earth, insects, water, gardening and watering flowers, butterflies, body parts, and a range of cultural holidays and celebrations. She learned to read her bodily signals (I'm cold / hungry / sleepy / my ear hurts) and emotional signals (I'm happy / sad / mad). She learned so much with the traditional Montessori sensory work (holding a crayon / spoon to draw / eat, counting to twenty!, arranging, building), but I really felt that A-List struck a perfect balance of collaborative learning and Montessori. They have a higher teacher to student ratio than traditional Montessori. They offer tons of seasonal enrichment programs (yoga, soccer, music, open-air arts and crafts). And they just ooze with warmth. It's very "follow the child" while real bonds with bright and caring educators are formed. It can be so hard to make the choice to transition to daycare, but it was never never a struggle to drop our daughter off at A-List. Our daughter usually runs to go play with her friends, and it was like that from the early days. In sensitive phases, there are always loving arms to cuddle her when she arrives. You can tell the teachers are not only skilled academically and in childhood development, but also truly care about their children. Our daughter regularly talks about Ms Jenny, Mrs Byanka, Ms Natelie and Ms Skylar. It's going to be extremely sad for us to transition, but our commute and family needs with a new baby on the way require it. We will definitely cry. I'm honestly kind of shocked there aren't more reviews for A-List here. But you can see the quality in their consistent 5-star ratings (esp on yelp). My last two cents - A-List is ALSO working parent friendly. Most daycare/preschool programs of this caliber don't accommodate real work schedules, or they require a month-long transition for the parent to be "on call" any time their child wants to come home, or they close for a week any time more than two children catch a cold. A-List is reliable, and they won't shame you for needing to keep your job. They are like a working parent's wings."