Montessori Preschool near Ingleside
Preschool II is where the method does its most visible work: children choose their own tasks, stay with them as long as they hold, and start reading and calculating because they wanted to. Mills is about 4 miles from Ingleside, at 1400 Hillside Blvd. in South San Francisco.
Why families here choose it
The question we get from Ingleside is almost always the same one: what happens at six. Here the answer is that nothing happens — the child stays, in the same school, through fifth grade.
Ingleside and the streets around it are an easy run down to Hillside Boulevard, close enough that some families walk part of it in good weather. What brings people here to us is almost always the elementary years: plenty of nearby options will take a three-year-old, and very few will still have them at ten.
What Montessori preschool at Mills actually is
These are the years Montessori was designed around. A three- or four-year-old in a prepared classroom is in the middle of what Montessori called the absorbent mind — language, order and fine motor control are all arriving at once, and the room is arranged so a child can chase whichever of them has their attention today. Reading usually appears not as a lesson but as a sudden realization, somewhere in the fourth year, that the sandpaper letters they have been tracing make words.
- The uninterrupted work cycleA long morning block with no bell cutting it in half. A four-year-old who is deep in something is left in it — protecting concentration is the single most Montessori thing a school does.
- Concrete before abstractChildren hold the golden beads before they meet the number. Mathematics starts in the hands, which is why the abstract version comes easily later.
- Mixed ages, on purposeA three-year-old watching a four-year-old is getting a lesson no adult can give as well. The four-year-old explaining it is learning it twice.
The details that decide it
| Our campus | 1400 Hillside Blvd., South San Francisco, CA 94080 |
| Distance from Ingleside | About 4 miles |
| Getting here | South on Junipero Serra or Mission Street. |
| Area | San Francisco |
| Local public district | San Francisco Unified 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 preschool costs
At about 4 miles from Ingleside, most families choose a full or extended day rather than making the drive twice for a half day.
- AgesAges 3–4
- 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 Ingleside families ask about Montessori preschool
- Is this the same as pre-K at an ordinary preschool?The hours look similar; the day does not. No whole-class instruction to keep up with, no craft everybody makes the same way, and no timetable chopping the morning into twenty-minute pieces.
- Will my child be ready for kindergarten?We do not publish attainment claims about our own children — we have not measured it. What the year is actually for is the readiness that transfers: choosing work, staying with it and finishing it without being chased.
- Is the Montessori preschool different for families traveling from Ingleside?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 Ingleside more often lengthen the day than shorten the week, but both are offered.
- Do you have a campus in Ingleside?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 4 miles from Ingleside. Everything on this page is about that one school and the families who drive to it.
- How long does the drive from Ingleside really take?South on Junipero Serra 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 Preschool in other areas
Come and watch a morning
Tours run mid-morning during the work cycle, year-round, by appointment.