San Diego Mom - Carmel Valley

This school hasn’t shown up yet for me on lists previously and it comes VERY highly recommended if you’re seeking private and a program for gifted students.  I don’t have personal experience with the program, but was impressed with what I read.

http://www.diegueno.com/ 

I admit I love the notion they are so committed to instilling a love of learning.

This page provides a list of the various schools in San Diego that offer Chinese language classes beginning in pre-school or Kindergarten through high school.  All of the schools are in North County, with the San Diego American Chinese School located in Del Mar/Carmel Valley.

http://www.sandiegochinese.net/fcc/education/ 

All the programs are after school, week-end or summer camp programs.  There are listings here too for adult classes in nearby colleges/universities.  Many of these programs were designed for families of Chinese descent looking to keep their children educated regarding language, arts and culture.  A growing number of non-Chinese families interested in teaching their children the language and espose them too to the culture are sending their children to participate.

I have no personal experience with the local Kindercare, but this one seems a popular choice for working parents.  Located conveniently off El Camino Real near Del Mar Heights road, the facility is close the library, the rec center and the shopping center.  They begin taking children at 6 weeks through pre-school age according to their web site:

http://www.kindercare.com/ gets you to their main web site and then you have to look up by zip code for the one closest to where you live.

Here’s an easy way to find the web sites for all the Carmel Valley schools.  http://www.cvsd.com/schools.html

The elementary web sites, middle schools and high schools are all linked from here as well as several pre-school, private school lists.  The pre-school and private school list is not complete, however, so you should check the other lists posted in this category if you are interested in private options. 

Whatever your reasons may be, quality of education, religion, size of classroom, etc. some parents look to private schools for their kids as early as pre-school and on through high school.  There is no shortage of choices in San Diego and Carmel Valley has a number of them locally. 

Here’s a decent list of what is available - though the detail information it links to is just so so.  Visit the school’s direct web site for more information.  http://california.privateschoolsreport.com/schools/CA/SanDiego.html

Another list also with some missing data on the schools, but a pretty exhaustive list of what is available is at: http://www.privateschoolreview.com/county_private_schools/stateid/CA/county/6073  

Whether you are looking for that first baby for the birthing class, or other relevant classes when the baby arrives. Scripps offers some good classes including baby sign classes and the Re-directing Children’s Behavior class.  These classes do have fees.  More on the classes here: http://www.scrippshealth.org/Services.asp?ID=322&pID=226

This site is a find for parents wondering about public schools especially and what they are like: their scores on standardized testing, use of computers in the classroom, even parent reviews/comments about the school. 

The site also provides really strong articles if you provide your e-mail address that are helpful to parents getting ready for kindergarten, dealing with various discipline or parenting issues and more.  Many articles are provided in Spanish as well.

I’m not an educator, and worry sometimes I won’t know how to watch for good curriculum and instruction techniques.  An example of a helpful article is one they produced on "Getting Your Child Excited About Math" - an excellent guide telling you what types of things to look for from teachers, things you can do in your every day life with the kids to show them the value of math, etc.  Check it out at: http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/showarticle/CA/209

Great Schools claims to have profiles for more than 120,000 public, private and charter schools nationwide. 

Savvy Source - Comprehensive list of San Diego Pre-schools - private, religious and public with Director notes and Parent Reviews.  Click here for the San Diego page.  The team focused on pre-schools for the launch and is now going to put their efforts into camps and other classes.  Watch for more from them soon.

Savvy Source is available in several other cities in California, NYC and Dallas and San Diego.  The site is supported by advertising and is free to the public. 

City Lead Maia Starling (Disclosure: a dear friend of mine) is building a terrific resource for us locally.  Contact her at 858-354-1183 or savvysourcesandiego@yahoo.com.  She also has a few part-time jobs available for moms so if you’re interested inquire with her directly. 

If you are interested in filling out a survey about a local pre-school, visit this site to do so and help make their launch more successful by providing valuable information about your experience for all of us parents living in the area.

http://www.savvysource.com/savvy/jsp/review/review.jsp