Foothill Progressive Montessori School

We chose this preschool because our friend’s daughter went there and that there was no waiting list, I needed space for two. My daughter was there age 4 – 5 and my son ages 2 – 5. I loved the school. I was always impressed at how calm it was whenever I was there, especially with so many young kids! The owner and teachers are all very nice, and very interested in the children. I like that it is very diverse and they celebrate many different cultures, even during their shows. My kids were well prepared for kindergarten, and this is my son’s last week of school, and he told me he doesn’t want to leave his school or teachers. They are very flexible and accomodating and kind. And the teachers keep you updated on your child’s progress. I’m so glad this was my kids first school, they taught my kids to be respectful and smart!

Where do I begin about FPMS. I found this preschool through a early education school fair in La Canada when my oldest was around 2 years old. That was the most stressful time for me trying to find a good preschool with after school daycare as well considering I do not have any family close by. I definitely wanted my kids in a Montessori for their early education but the many Montessori schools I had toured throughout Pasadena left me with a frightening feeling that my child was walking into a rigid uncaring environment and the prices were over and above what we could afford. From the moment I stepped foot into that school for my first tour I new it was the school for my children. Yes it may not be the true and precise Montessori structure but the name of the school should give you a clue. It is Progressive in combines both Montessori teaching and structure with the balance of caring, support, fun and playtime that I believe all preschoolers should experience. Ms. Kanthi, Ms Chrissy, Ms Lou, Ms Fatima and the select few teachers that have come through to help with this amazing school gave both my boys now 8 and 6 years old the the core start of what has become an accelerated education for their ages. They still talk about their preschool today and miss there old teachers. Enrolling them into this preschool is a decision I will never ever regret and I thank the whole staff for caring and teaching my boys the utmost value of education, compassion, and togetherness a school should bring. And a strong foundation for their continued education.

My daughter started at Foothill Progressive Montessori School as a two year old and we are so pleased with and grateful for the care and educational foundation she started there. The teachers are all extremely caring and have been at the school for many years (a rarity in many schools and day cares). She has nothing but fond memories of her preschool experience and we made some wonderful friends with her classmates’ parents. The preschool lays an excellent academic foundation. Because it is a Montessori school, the whole child is the focus, so social and emotional growth are also nurtured.
I strongly recommend Foothill Progressive Montessori School and am so thankful that we found the school.

This is an amazing school. Both my daughter and son are in the school.
A few years ago, right after having my son, I was searching all over the foothills for a good Montessori school. I visited several schools and while they were nice, I was not sold. I walked into the school, was greeted kindly by Mrs. Kanthi. she was very professional, very friendly and I could tell had the heart of a grandma. The school was clean, freshly painted, flowers planted and smelled clean.
After discussing the program and system I decided to put my daughter who was 3 into the pre-​school system. She blossomed. She loved her teachers Mrs. Lulu and Mrs.Chrissy. I had no concerns about leaving her with them and knew they would love her like their own.
She did amazing in the class. She has gone from pre-​school to pre-​K, to Kindergarten and just graduated from Kinder and starts 1^st grade. She absolutely loves the kids.
They teach Spanish., My daughter can have a conversation with another kid in Spanish easily. This is part of the program. They also offer extra services such as dancing lessons, karate lessons, piano lessons, gymnastics and swimming lessons during the summer.
They are taught respect, manners, discipline of completing each project. She plays well with the kids, the kids are all very kind to one another and most of all she has top test scores. She has been reading since the beginning of Kinder and is well into 1^st grade level reading.
When my son turned 2, I put him into the pre-​preschool program. He has done amazing. he absolutely loves his teachers, most of all Mrs. Diana. They have done so well with him. Many times he likes to stay till the end of the day just to be with the kids.
He is now 3 and in the pre-​school program and is doing exceptional.
The school is fantastic. they recently renovated again, upgrading all the floor to beautiful hardwood floor class rooms, repainted the entire inside walls. they keep everything at a very high standard and cared for.
The staff are wonderful. The rate is great. You get so much for your money. But most of all the kids are smart and well mannered.
I would HIGHLY recommend the school for everyone of my friends.
Best
Lorianne

Our son started at Foothill Progressive Montessori preschool at the age of 2. He has just finished the Kindergarten class, and if we had to do this all over again (which we will with our youngest son), we would do the same exact thing… and that is to attend this school. The foundation they have instilled in our son is invaluable. At the age of 2, they guided him and taught him how to be in a social setting. He learned to share, play, take naps at a designated hour… he gained STRUCTURE! At the age of three, they refined his fine motor skills, his ABCs and his numbers. At the age of four, he was writing! He knew his continents, and new how to identify the flags of international countries. Not only did they focus on education, twice a year the kids put on a show with singing and dancing. The school outdoes itself with the costumes, props and time they dedicate to these performances. As our soon finished his Kindergarten class, he reads 1^st grade level books, is able to complete multiplication and division problems, is able to complete dictation exams (he writes whatever is read to him), and many more. Their approach for teaching is excellent. A child not only needs instructors that know how to communicate so that they can learn, but they need a good, safe and open environment. From the moment our child set foot in this facility, they have loved him and have always given him the encouragement to move forward. We will never be able to repay Ms. Kanthii, Ms. Joseph, and all instructors for everything they did for our son

We were lucky to have found this preschool. Our friends’ same age preschoolers were attending and very happy with how much their children had achieved in a year. We attended the open house and had the chance to tour the school. We were impressed with how clean, neat and organized everything was! We also had the chance to peep in the writing journals and saw how well the kids were handwriting. I was sold on this. This was the reason I knew I had to get my son into the school.
I chatted with Ms. Kanthi, the school director and she said they were progressive in style, not rigid or traditional.
My son who was attending a progressive playbased preschool had very little structure and he didn’t have the opportunity to learn how to write or know his ABCs without singing the song. We would try writing letters at home, but he was very reluctant to learn from us and would easily give up out of frustration. He held the pen, like his eating utensils like a barbarian (LOL), but, when we’d correct him, he’d upset easily so, we would ease off. This went on for so long. We even thought of putting him into KUMON to prepare himself for Kindergarten in the fall. Our work schedule didn’t allow for it though, nor our finances — we were tapped and already had to race out of work to pick up our kids from preschool.
We started probably a little too late with getting him some real professional help with writing, but not too long after starting, his teachers and even Ms. Kanthi herself were getting him to hold his pencil properly by their «tweet-​tweet-​tweet» method. Hallelujah! ;) Til this day, he’s still practicing with his writing and we’ve seen some improvements, and we’re so glad we made the move to Foothill Progressive Montessori School. We have a few more months to go before he starts kinder, so we are excited to see how much more he will progress.
We trust his kind teachers, including Ms. Fatema and the director Ms. Kanthi with their academic styles. We’re so glad to have found them, but don’t start too late with your young boys. We will definitely have our next son start Montessori school earlier. Lesson learned.
A side note. We’ve been impressed with how our little guy takes naps there. (At the play based preschool, he does not.) So, when he comes home from Montessori school, he is alert and a cheerful fellow to be around.
Finally, I’m so appreciative that FPMS opens until 6pm for working parents and that we’re able to afford to send our son there as we have two kids total in childcare. Oi!
At the end of the year, there is a show and graduation. Completely cute.
The one thing I wish they were better at are the communication emails.

My daughter started at this school at 2.5 years old and is now completing pre-​school there. This school is wonderful! The teachers have control of the classrooms, there is a curriculum that the teachers follow day to day that provides consistency, and the «shows» they put on twice a year are just fantastic. The teacher turn-​over is really low which says a lot about the school. Also, the Director Ms. Kanthi is really flexible with scheduling, making last minute changes, accommodating weird schedules, etc., and being a working parent I very much appreciated this flexibility. I’m truly sad to say goodbye to everyone at the school but feel that their contribution to my child’s education will last a lifetime. Thank you Ms. Kanthi! I can’t say it enough!

I moved my daughter from a play-​based daycare at age 3.5 to this preschool. I loved the play based curriculum for the early years of social development, but I was looking for something that would give her a stronger head start academically as we prepared for kindergarten, while still giving her enough time to be a kid and play. The combined traditional preschool/​Montessori approach was very attractive as this school doesn’t have the same «rigid» edge that we felt many of the other Montessori’s in the area did. I also liked the diversity at this school as my children are mixed.
My daughter is graduating from «preschool» this weekend and I couldn’t be happier with the choice to send her to this school. She can write all of her letters, read and spell 3 letter words, count to 100 and do basic math. She also has learned geography and flags of the countries that even surpassed my knowledge. Ms Kanthi, the director, is very warm and I have enjoyed that she is often in the classrooms developing a relationship with the kids at morning dropoff. The teachers that are there have been there for a long time, you can tell they are a community and my daughter raves about them.
They also offer supplemental experiences for the kids such as dance class and gymnastics, which is great because I didn’t have to spend my evenings/​weekends taking my daughter to classes. In the summer they have themed activities and a petting zoo. And my favorite part are the holiday and end of the year programs. They do such a great job teaching the kids their performances and it is a real treat for the parents!
If you are looking for a really great preschool, come check this one out. You will be impressed. It is also the cleanest preschool I have ever seen!

All three of my children attended the Foothill Progressive Montessori Preschool and (Pre-​K thru grade 8) Elementary School in La Canada Flintridge over the course of a 12-​year period thru 2013, and I can’t express enough about what a nurturing and stimulating learning environment that they provide, with excellent, caring teachers, spacious and well-​equipped classrooms and playgrounds, fun activities for the kids at every age and hands on learning based upon the needs of every child, while also teaching them the importance of being polite and tolerant citizens of their environment. When I moved to the area and was looking for a preschool for my 3 year old daughter to attend years ago, I had heard good things about the preschool, and proceeded to query a few parents out front of the school one morning, who were unanimous with their positive reviews, prompting my wife & I to enroll our daughter there. And 12 years and 2 additional children later who also attended the schools, we have been nothing but pleased with the excellent education and foundation for success in life that these schools have provided for our kids.

My daughter started here in July 2011 and I have been pleased. Some of the teachers do have heavy accents, but not all. They are attentive to the children, and the children all seem happy. My daughter is happy here and likes the teachers. Like any school, you will have some teachers a bit less attentive than others, but overall they are good.

My son went to this preschool because I truly believe in the Montessori way of teaching. But this school is far from a true Montessori school and actually is not a very good preschool at all. I used it as a day care because the only good thing about it was that it had very flexible times and days, and that was mainly due to the fact that the school was run by a very greedy director/​owner and empty. She would pack in the classrooms with as many students as she can and then hire a non-​english speaking aid and count them as a teacher. Most of the teachers spoke with heavy accents. During the 6 months that my son was there, a boy fractured his finger in the door because the teachers were not watching them closely and allowed all the kids to play with the door. Also, one teacher was fired for hitting a student and the state regulators were called to investigate and call the parents. I witnessed the owner/​director yank a student hard by his arm and then change her tone when she saw me walk in. I would not send my child here, and hope that one day they will shut this place down. Please do not confuse this place with the other Montessori preschools in La Canada. The other ones are better from what I have heard. Try the Kids Klub in Pasadena, or the other preschools in La Canada instead. Hope this helps all parents in the area.