The San Diego Unified School District is opening its doors to babies as young as 4 months at its first free Montessori center for infants and toddlers.
The new child care center is part of the district's Logan Memorial educational campus, which was already serving 1,300 students from TK through 12th grade.
The new facility's administrator, Belinda Rico, said it took three of four years to get everything just right at El Nido (or “the nest”), which celebrated its grand opening on Friday.
“So much detail, care, blood, sweat and tears to get this open,” Rico told NBC 7. “And you'll see the care in the environment when you walk in.”
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The center has two classrooms, one for infants and the other for toddlers.
“Here it's really about exploring nature and caring for themselves,” Rico said. “From even caring for plants to their personal care, brushing their hair, stitching, even clothing, everything like that, which you won't see in a regular preschool.”
Rebecca Rodriguez’s daughter, Samira, was the center’s first student.
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“When they were doing the training, she would actually come in and be, like, a model,” Rodriguez said. “They would study her movements, and she started when she was 5 months.”
Logan Memorial, which is considered a cradle-to-college/career center facility, partners with San Diego State and UC San Diego to transition kids from infancy all the way through college and into their careers.
El Nido opens for kids on Jan. 7. As of Friday, there were 10 spots left between the two classrooms.
Parents interested in enrolling their kids should know there’s a wait list. To qualify, families need to live in Logan Heights with Logan Memorial as their designated school.
The district said the program was made possible by a partnership with Harvard University.
