Guidepost Montessori at Foothill Ranch - Foothill Ranch, California

stephanie nguyen

After searching for daycare/Montessori options for our then-newborn, we found Guidepost Montessori and have never looked back. We love the super clean facility, friendly and knowledgeable staff, and other boastings such as:

-brand new equipment/learning materials
-a user friendly app with frequently updated posts about my child's meals/diapers/lessons/daily ongoings, including pictures!
-open 7AM - 6PM, which fits with our normal 8-5 work schedule
-open practically year round, and even open on most holidays
-integrated learning opportunities between age groups
-frequent opportunity for teacher conferences/touch base
-optional healthy meal service delivered straight to their classroom

It was really a no brainer to enroll our child here, and that was over 2 years ago. Now we have our youngest daughter, 8 months, also enrolled in the Nido program. We feel safe and secure with the staff and structure at Guidepost, and can confidently say that their methods have helped make us better parents. We are so thankful our kids are able to come here to learn and be taken care of. Thank you, Guidepost!

Simeon Ivanov

After a very long search, we finally found a school that we love. We had a very enjoyable and professional introduction to the facility and the curriculum by Diana and Sarah (Head and Assistant Head of school).

The sign-up process was all digitalized, very fast, and hassle-free. At every step, you can feel that the place is run by smart people who know what they are doing.

Our children were then assigned to Ms. Gaby and Ms. Shahzia's classroom. We loved both of them (as well as their assistants in the afternoon) from the first day, but the even better news is that our children loved the whole team as well.

Both our kids felt very comfortable and loved their experience at school from the first day. Their classmates and their parents are all great people.

The school is clean, safe, and very well organized.

wei p

Summary:
Pros:
- New teachers seem better and actually teach kids skills
- Looks clean (not actually sure how clean it actually is since my kid comes home with dirty feet all the time)
Cons:
- Naps aren’t consistent
- Expensive (around $1k more than other daycares)
- Tracking is inaccurate
- Items are misplaced
- Diapers, wipes, and food not included
- Lack of transparency about Covid

Napping:
I put my daughter here when she was one after moving to SoCal. It was the only daycare that had an opening and would let the kids sleep more than one naps. I filled out a mountain of forms that described my kid’s eating and sleeping habits, but it didn’t seems like anyone looked at the forms. But they seem to only put her to sleep when she has no energy left instead of sticking to the napping schedule. She’d come home screaming because she was so over tired. Sometimes I can’t even feed her dinner. We discussed with the teachers several times about how and when to nap, but her condition didn’t improve until new teachers started. Even then, there was still no consistency to her napping.

Covid:
After a couple of weeks, there were emails from the school saying there’s teachers who’s family member got Covid. So I asked about the vaccination status of the teachers but got a generic reply saying they can’t disclose that information. Soon after, the teacher decided to quit.

Turn over rate:
After a month or two, all the teachers have changed. They never bothered to read any of the forms either and the old teachers clearly did not pass any information over to the new teachers. The good thing is that the new teachers seem more organized, and actually started doing Montessori activities with my kid, and my kid seems happier than before. However, naps continue to be a problem and my kids would still be fussy coming home sometimes. From this experience, I’ve learned to always ask how long the teachers have worked in the daycare as a major factor for selecting daycare.

Logistics:
They keep track about when naps, diaper changes, and feeding occur and you can see that information on a website. I never trusted that information because sometimes it’d show my kid napping for 3 hours, but when I picked her up, she’s tired. When I asked the teacher said whoever did the recording of the nap probably forgot to stop the timer. Pictures are poor quality and they upload repeated pictures sometimes. Pictures are almost never uploaded on the same day.

Personal items:
All parents are suppose to bring food, diapers, and wipes for their kids with everything labeled. We still get other people’s labeled food containers from time to time. My kid also wears different brands of diapers than we bring from time to time as well.

Pros:
After the teachers changed, my kid learned (somewhat) how to use spoon, fork, and drink out of a cup.

Aftermath:
After a month of seeing my kid unhappy, I signed up for another daycare (waitlisted for a long time) that did not have any of the issues mentioned above. The adjustment time to the new place was less than a week and now my kid goes there happily and comes home happily.

Conclusion:
Would not recommend. I think it’s better to go to a place that gives them one good nap instead of a place that *may* give them 2+ possibly bad naps. Remember, there ARE places that are don’t have ANY of the issues I mentioned.

Bryan Osornio

good.

JaneA