Preschools!

I got a ton of suggestions for preschools so I thought I'd make them into a post. These come from parents on the City Kids LA message board.

Here is a list of day care options that my husband and I investigated when we were looking for day care for our son. Some of these include preschool. Our son is now at the USC Child Care Center just off of Adams.

• County Kids Place
  http://www.kindercare.com/our-centers/center-details/070368/#email
  
  This one is close by and seems to have a lot of space available for kids. It's located just across the freeway. The only thing we didn't like about it was that it was in a sort of strange location.



• Mount St. Mary' College Child Development Center
  http://www.msmc.la.edu/pages/730.asp
  
  We didn't visit this one because it's for toddlers, but they are located close by on Adams.



• H. Pregerson Child Care Center
  http://www.hpreg.qpg.com/
  
  This was probably our favorite program. It seemed that the teachers there really enjoyed their jobs and the kids looked really happy. Unfortunately, it's also really hard to get into (at least for infants) since federal employees have priority.



• White Memorial Medical Center – Rainbow Children's Center
  http://www.whitememorial.com/community/rainbow_center.php
  
  We didn't get to visit this one because they we could never make our schedules work with their schedule. However, a co-worker told me she really liked it there when she visited it. They also have a bilingual program which sounded kind of cool. If you speak Spanish, it might be best to speak to them in Spanish when you call. I think you get better service that way…



• Cal Trans Tiny Dots Early Education Center
  http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist07/tinydots/
  
  This is another one we didn't have a chance to visit. I sent in my paper work, but for some reason they didn't get it. The facility is new and looks pretty cool though.



• Union Station Gateway Child Development
  http://www.yellowbot.com/union-station-gateway-child-dev-los-angeles-ca.html
  
  This one is located at Union Station. There isn't much outdoor area here so the set up is kind of weird. It might be worth checking out though.



• I also heard that City Hall has a day care center, and that there is one associated with the Buddhist Temple in Little Tokyo which is supposed to be really good. We didn't have a chance to check them out though, so I don't know too much about them.
  
  I hope this list helps!

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I spoke to one of the ladies at work and she thinks the Nishi Hongwanji Child Dev. Center is AMAZING!

Nishi Hongwanji Child Dev. Ctr
815 E. First Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Susan at 687-4585

I guess it's over by the 1st St. Bridge. Her son goes to Kinder there and she raves about it. They may not take 18 mos old babies though,they might need the baby to be potty trained. :)

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Both of my kids are at Tiny Dots, and we love it! It's clean, the outside area is HUGE, and the teachers are really caring. The only drawback is that Lupe, the director, seems to be a little overworked (she has twin boys of her own, so I think she is a little distracted
sometimes) If you want to visit the center or get your child on the waiting list (and yes, it is a rather long list, unless you are looking for part time) I suggest calling in the morning before 10 am, and don't leave a message. Just keep calling until you get through to her. Otherwise, you just get added on to the pile of messages :) They start at 6 weeks, and go all the way through preschool.

GREAT list Noemi!

BTW, we have friends who have their kids in Serendipity (In the ronald reagan building) Our neighbors have one of their kids in the Buddhist temple in Little Tokyo...they all love them!

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Pilgrim School at 6th & Commonwealth

They have an amazing preschool and kindercare and they are also K - 12 school
gorgeous facility
amazing people and staff

my son is at Kindergarten there

takes 5 min from center city

(note from Li: Pilgrim is very reasonably priced)

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http://www.hhbt-la.org/lumbini/AboutUs.html

HIgashi Honganji Buddhist Temple

Director's Name: Leslie
LUMBINI CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTER

505 East Third Street
Los Angeles, CA 90013

Telephone: (213) 680-2976

My daughters are very happy here.

If you're a Downtown parent and you haven't joined the Yahoo group, you should! It's great to connect with other parents and you get access to a ton of information on resources for parents downtown.