Serendipity Pre-School

Testimonials

“We have been overjoyed with our children’s experience and progress at Serendipity Pre-School.  We have four young boys and we wanted a pre-school that focused on “early education” and we did not want a “day-care” environment.  My husband and I knew immediately that Serendipity was the right place for our boys as soon as we met with Francesca on our initial visit.  Our oldest son spent a year and a half at Serendipity before he was admitted into Stevenson Pre-K this past year.  Our twin boys are attending Serendipity presently and we have seen great progress in them since they started there.  Regular progress report cards, informative newsletters, themes of the month, letters of the month, and Boehm concepts of the month allowed us to work concurrently at home with our children.  Francesca has a wonderful team of loving and helpful teaches that afforded our children an experience of a lifetime.  We have creative art projects from pre-school that might never come down off the refrigerator and some that are framed and hanging on our walls.  We feel quite blessed to have found Serendipity and very grateful to have been able to have our boys attend this fabulous pre-school.  Parents in our community interested in an “early educational” environment that brings out the best in young children need to look no farther than Serendipity Pre-School.

-The Kripapuri Family

“Simply the best! We are a Navy family fortunate enough to have our second son enrolled at Serendipity.  That was the first decision we made when we fond out we were moving back to Monterey!  Our third son starts there in the fall.  All the staff is patient, caring and helpful, and I couldn’t imagine better teachers.  I feel like my son will be prepared for kindergarten in the fall.  Everybody there is also very flexible and willing to work with you and your child through any difficulties he or she might be having. They are well equipped to work with different personalities, as my sons are very different.  They have so much fun to and they want to go to school!  This is the best introduction to school that I can imagine for my boys.  Come for a visit and you will fall in love like I did. I would highly recommend it!

-B. Littrell

“The staff at Serendipity is beyond incredible.  You work miracles with my son by making learning fun. He comes home excited to share his knowledge with us every day.  I feel so much better about my son’s ability to enter Kindergarten both educationally and emotionally because of your great work.  An added bonus is that your staff provides a loving and nurturing environment that feels tailored specifically to my son’s personality.  I can’t say enough great things about how lucky we are to have met you all and to have such an incredible group of people to care for our little one.”

-M. Sciuto, MBA

“Your excellent guidance and care have meant so much to us!  Thank you for all you do for our son and us parents to”.

-L. Pena

“Thank you for the great service you provide to our children.  There were so many wonderful activities that the children were able to participate in!”

-Hughey

“We are very happy with the education the boys have received.  Everyone has been wonderful!

-M Gardner

“Kinsley has loved going to Serendipity.  The curriculum is fantastic and she has learned so much!

-L. Greenheck

“We appreciate and admire your careful attention to detail whether it be the design of your beautiful Victorian and outside area, your selection of learning materials, art projects and play things or your comprehensive curriculum and thoughtful “themes”.  Not to mention the kind and engaging staff and well organized way in which you include us, the parents, with newsletters and information guides.  Your school has “heart” (as well as teaching merit) and that is hard to find and replace and we will miss you.  We hope to return and at least give our other two daughters the chance to learn under you for a while!”

-I. Kerkez

Philosophy

Our philosophy at Serendipity is to open the eyes and hearts of children to the wonder and discovery of learning. Our goal is to set each child up for success and to help prepare them for the challenges ahead. Our desire is to foster a positive sense of “self” by giving each student opportunities to practice making decisions, emphasize the good things they accomplish and acknowledge their unique gifts and abilities. We feel it is important to validate their ideas, emotions and feelings, encourage them to be considerate and respectful of others and to follow defined boundaries and rules. We feel that the school environment not only needs to be safe and nurturing, but also rich in color, dimension and diversity.

Serendipity Preschool’s curriculum is organized into monthly theme based units. These units incorporate music, creative arts, science, history, social skills, literature, culinary arts, language, motor skills and mathematics. When a child enrolls in our school, they are issued a personal assessment file. This file records the student’s daily progress in all the areas of our curriculum. With daily assessments, the teachers are better able to monitor learning and meet the individual needs of each student. In addition to the child’s daily assessment, a Social Emotional Assessment is completed by the child’s teachers twice a year. This assessment gives the parents a good understanding of how their child copes and interacts with their peers and teachers in the school environment.

About our program

Serendipity Preschool was established in 1981 by a family whose history in Monterey goes back to 1801. It was founded by a mother and daughter team who had a dream to educate and prepare young children in an environment rich in art, music, science and history.

To this day, Serendipity continues to offer a high quality program with age appropriate activities that develop good reading and math readiness skills and thematic units rich in music, art, science and history. Serendipity offers a quality and stimulating learning environment that provides materials, experiences, guidance and encouragement that help children to become curious explorers of their world.

To keep parents informed of the school’s events and their child’s developmental progress our program includes the following :

• A monthly newsletter highlighting the themes, letters, children’s literature and special events of the month.
• Ongoing dialogue between parents and teachers at drop off and pick up times.
• Weekly “Activity Cards” that are sent home describing the child’s daily educational activities and assessments.
• A personal assessment file is issued to each student. This file records the student’s daily progress in all of the areas of our curriculum. With daily assessments, the teachers are better able to monitor learning and meet the individual needs of each student.
• In addition to the child’s daily assessment, a Social Emotional Assessment is completed by the child’s teachers twice a year. This assessment gives the parents a good understanding of how their child copes and interacts with their peers and teachers in the school environment.
• Parent/Teacher conferences are scheduled throughout the school year at the parent’s request or when a teacher feels it is beneficial to the student’s progress and development.

Admissions

Join the Serendipity Pre-School community in three easy steps:

1. Explore our website

We’ve provided information about our philosophies and offerings to help you decide if our program may be right for your family.

2. Tour our program

Come see what makes Serendipity Pre-School unique. If we are currently hosting tours, you can request or schedule a tour at the top of this page. If we are not currently hosting tours, you’ll see a “Request Info” button at the top of this page; if you submit your information using this button, we will notify you when we start host tours again in the future.

3. Submit an Enrollment Application

If you would like to enroll, please submit an application at www.wonderschool.com/serendipity-pre-school-10435/apply – note that we require tours for all prospective families. Please do not submit an application if you have not visited the program.