Montessori Kindergarten near Colma
The third year of the three-year cycle, and the one most families are tempted to skip for a free public place. It is the year the two before it were building towards. Mills is about 2 miles from Colma, at 1400 Hillside Blvd. in South San Francisco.
Why families here choose it
The honest pitch to a Colma family is a short one: one campus, one method, ages two to eleven, and a price list you can read before you call.
Colma is effectively next door — close enough that a forgotten lunchbox is a ten-minute problem rather than a disaster. Families here are often choosing between the Jefferson district schools and a private Montessori program that runs from age two straight through to fifth grade.
What Montessori kindergarten at Mills actually is
In Montessori, kindergarten is not a new stage — it is the completion of one. The child becomes the oldest in a room they have grown up in, the one younger children ask, the one who demonstrates. Academically it is where the concrete materials finally hand over to abstraction: reading fluently, writing at length, four-digit operations, fractions and geometry. Families who leave after year two have paid for the investment and moved out before the return, usually without anyone explaining that is what they were doing.
- The third year is the payoffThe first two years are largely investment. In the third the child consolidates, abstracts, and uses the whole environment fluently.
- Leadership that is earned, not assignedBeing the person who knows how does more for a five-year-old's confidence than any certificate.
- And it does not have to endBecause Mills continues through fifth grade, the kindergarten year is a step rather than the exit. That is unusual on this part of the Peninsula.
The details that decide it
| Our campus | 1400 Hillside Blvd., South San Francisco, CA 94080 |
| Distance from Colma | About 2 miles |
| Getting here | A short run along Hillside Boulevard or Mission Street. |
| Area | San Mateo County |
| Local public district | Jefferson Elementary School District |
| Ages served | Two through fifth grade |
| Hours | Monday to Friday, 7:30 am – 6:00 pm |
| Enrollment | Open year-round, subject to availability |
Distance is approximate and measured in a straight line. The honest test is to drive it once at drop-off time — book a tour and you will.
What Montessori kindergarten costs
From Colma the drive is short enough that a morning-only place is genuinely practical — plenty of families this close start there and lengthen the day once their child has settled.
- AgesThe kindergarten year
- Rates$1,200 morning · $1,400 full day · $1,750 extended full day, monthly. Every fee is on the tuition page.
- SchedulesMorning, full day, or extended full day 7:30 am to 6:00 pm — three, four or five days a week.
- EnrollmentOpen year-round, subject to availability, with a one-time $200 new-student fee.
What Colma families ask about Montessori kindergarten
- Why not just take the free public kindergarten?It is a fair question and cost is a real factor — we wrote an honest comparison at free TK vs. Montessori. The short version: the public option is free and perfectly good, and the Montessori third year is a specific thing you give up to take it.
- What happens after kindergarten?Children can continue at Mills through fifth grade — no new school, no new method, no starting over.
- Is the Montessori kindergarten different for families traveling from Colma?No — there is one program and one campus. What changes with distance is the schedule that suits you: families driving further usually choose the extended full day so they are not fighting the peak twice a day.
- How is tuition actually paid?Annual tuition is based on a 180-day school year. You can pay it in one payment for a 5% discount, or in ten installments. Every rate and every fee is on the tuition page.
- Can we come part-time?Yes. Three, four or five days a week, and morning, full day or extended full day. Families driving from Colma more often lengthen the day than shorten the week, but both are offered.
- Do you have a campus in Colma?No — and we would rather be straightforward about it. Mills Montessori has a single campus at 1400 Hillside Blvd., South San Francisco, CA 94080, about 2 miles from Colma. Everything on this page is about that one school and the families who drive to it.
- How long does the drive from Colma really take?A short run along Hillside Boulevard or Mission Street. We will not pretend to know your morning — the useful thing is to drive it once at drop-off time. Book a tour for 8:45 am and you will find out on the way in.
Montessori Kindergarten in other areas
Come and watch a morning
Tours run mid-morning during the work cycle, year-round, by appointment.