Temple City, CA
Playfactory Preschool

Parents' Comments

Parent #1
Read up on the major different preschool educational philosophies before picking a preschool. Playfactory is mostly play-based but with age-appropriate guidance, materials, and structure. That works well for our kid. We like most of the teachers. They all have child ed degrees. Our child has always looked forward to coming to PF each day after getting over the separation anxiety (which the teachers helped with nicely). Good outdoor play area. They try to encourage parental involvement, but some parents are interested and some aren't. Teachers always gave us reports on the little scrapes and bruises which are part of growing up, and always knew what happened. By contrast, a parent from another school said their kid got two head bruises and that the teachers at that school hadn't even noticed. So, Plafactory pays good attention and keeps a good student/teacher ratio. I saw young Playfactory kids have little spats sometimes and the teachers did a great job of handling it so that it became a socialization lesson.

Parent #2
There currently seems to be a status quo that is concerning. The staff seems overwhelmed by it's students. It is non-profit, so funds are limited. They do have several teachers that are gems, and part of the reason we stayed here. Children begin with Marilyn and Tabassum, who are direct, patient and kind. The next two classes, the children seem to get lost in the program, and then they finish strong in Polly's kindergarten class.

Parent #3
This is one of the few preschools in San. G. Valley which is accredited by the NAEYC which is a big plus. The Playfactory kids' families are pretty diverse -- mostly 'white collar' with some 'blue collar', very middle income. Some parents are doctors or Caltech faculty/staff. Maybe about half the families are Chinese-Americans in the Temple City-Arcadia region. We have found the other kids and families to be almost all nice and decent. None of the children has been a bad influence on our child. Our child has found some good friends there. Most of the children seem pretty bright. We like the school's nonprofit attitude. Their goal is to help the parents, not squeeze money out of the parents. It's a solid education program which is in a good middle ground, not too unstructured and not too strict/formal. They have great field trips several times a year to places like the zoo, the aquarium, KidSpace, puppet shows, pretty educational stuff. The teachers are experienced and handle the children well.

Montessori? Waldorf? Play-based?

What school type is right for your child? Is one model better than another? What does the research say?

View an example from the Savvy Source guide to learn more.

Trace around your child's foot, with shoe on, on a piece of white construction paper or card stock. Have child cut out the shoe print and add a spooky face. Glue it to a popsicle stick and you have a ghost stick puppet!

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