Pasadena, CA
Hastings Ranch Nursery School

Director's Comments

Question to director: Do you have any additional thoughts on what parents should consider when looking at your school? Is there any advice that you would like to provide to prospective parents?


It is a wonderful opportunity to be involved in your child's first school experience. We are a 'family,' a community, who support each other. There is a large time commitment but it is worth every minute that you invest!

Parents' Comments

Parent #1
HRNS has been a wonderful preschool for both my children! The teachers & staff are nurturing, loving, and responsive. The classrooms are well stocked with lots of activites, books, etc. for the kids to explore; each day there are also a variety of directed activities during free play time. The kids get a chance to explore art, science, & math with a 'play' feel. This school is simply wonderful !!

Parent #2
Strenths far out weigh any weaknesses the school may have. Loving environment that is conducive to learning, playing and socializing. Wonderful, hardworking staff that put a lot of time and thought into their lessons. I love the free flowing classroom the most. The children are able to do activities in 3 classrooms and outside every day!

Parent #3
I like allot the way how the teachers and TAs handle the situations with the kids.

Parent #4
A great combination of free play and structured time. The day is divided between time when the kids can choose among several activities (bikes, sand, play structure, art projects, manipulatives, pre-math, science, blocks, trains plus more) and more structured time (story, sharing, circle) where they need to be able to sit quietly and raise hands. Parents are integral to the school. They assist in the classroom on a regular basis and run the business of the school via the board of directors. The staff is MARVELOUS!!!! They take an interest in each child and get to know the whole family.

Parent #5
the teachers and staff are wonderful and truely enjoy working with children. The children are taught in a mixed age classroom, in the upper school (3-5 year olds) but the lower school (2-3 years olds) are in a separate area and playground. Lower school allows children who are not yet potty trained and the teacher is wonderful in helping the younger ones master basic soical skills. Upper school is a busy place with free choice activities offered at art, science, math, and manipulative tables every day. In each of the three classroom all children may also engage in various art, cooking or other activities during open time. Parents are highly involved, as this is a co-op preschool. 2-3 parents work in the classroom with the two teachers every day. One working parent provides snack daily. This is a wonderful and caring community and if you are in the area is worth a look.

Parent #6
I love the co-op aspect, but some individuals can politicize things that don't need to be. This does not tend to affect the kids, it's just an annoyance.

Parent #7
We have had four teachers at this school and found all four to be wonderfully warm and developmentally appropriate teachers. When we run into them now, they great us warmly and remember my children.

Parent #8
We have been very happy at HRNS. It is a warm welcoming community, and as a co-op school we feel we have gotten to know the children and their families. My son's teacher is so patient and I have never seen her at all flustered. I often wish I had a small version of her on my shoulder at home giving me the words to say in challenging situations. About 3 months into school, my son randomly told me how much he was enjoying school and that his teacher was very good at solving problems. He is very excited to go to school each day.

Parent #9
Hastings Ranch has a real family-centered atmosphere. You really feel part of a family when your child is a student at the school. Even though there is a lot of fundraising you can see first hand how the money is used.

Parent #10
The director and teachers genuinely love the kids. As a parent I learn a lot about encouraging kids, redirecting them, resolving conflicts, through watching the teachers interact with the kids. I love that there are so many different really cool art and science projects for the kids to choose from. The kids also take turns visiting the other classrooms and sharing up front with the other kids about what activities their classrooms are sponsoring and invite the other kids to come visit.

Parent #11
This is a co-op, so you have to be willing/able to commit your time. You can pay-out for some of it if you need to. As a whole, this is a special school. The children are all really great and it's a lot of fun getting to know the other parents as well. Since it's a co-op, you get to know everyone very well. As it's a developmental school, the ages are mixed in the classrooms. At first I thought this might be weird, but it's been really great. The younger children learn from the older, and the older enjoy sharing their knowledge. All in all, we've had a great experience.

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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