Irvine Community Nursery School

The best preschool ever! I love Ms. Donna! Not only is she knowledgeable with kids and early childhood education, she’s also full of love and patient with kids. She sees the individual needs while having to develop the curriculum for the whole class. Not to mention she’s giving lessons to parents for the monthly meeting to equip parents for better communication with kids. Don’t know how she did that. Simply amazing! I would recommend this school for anyone who is able to volunteer a good amount of time. It’s a co-op school, so the parents must be able to volunteer and have a ‘job’ at school.

One of the best preschools in Irvine. Excellent teachers and truly a community of families. We put our 3 year old in the school and it’s incredible how much he developed in just a few months. He is much more confident and social and should have no problem transitioning to kindergarten.

A wonderful school experience for both my son and me to grow and learn. In this unique setting, I have had the privilege to really be a part of my son's preschool experience. I knew that I didn't want to entirely outsource my child's education nor do I want to keep them at home all day without preschool so this was the best middle ground between the two. Without family nearby and little knowledge on child development, I was desperate to learn how to better approach parenting and child rearing. This school gave me a perfect opportunity to learn, take notes, and practice how to speak to other kids, how do resolve conflicts, how to manage a classroom of children, how to bake apple pies, how to engage in conversation with children, and so much more. Life is just a collection of experiences. Thank you ICNS for providing me all these new life experiences.

My son & daughter each spent 3 years @ ICNS. Every successive year, I appreciated ICNS more. It's not just a school where the casual play-based atmosphere teaches kids responsibility, manners, respect, civics, communication, etc. It's also a community for the parents & extended families to come together, work together, play together, & then remain friends outside of school. What makes ICNS so special is two-fold: 1. The teachers are incredible. Just ask any parent of an ICNS student, & I bet you $1 that parent will gush over the teachers. They have patience, experience, calmness, great communication, enthusiasm, compassion, & cheery attitudes. These exemplary personal attributes spread to the students & especially the parents, because... 2. ...because ICNS is a *cooperative* school in which, on any given school day, 2 teachers & 4 parents are running the class (& every family has a chairship responsibility as a key member of running 1 aspect of the school). a) The parents pick up parenting techniques from the teachers & from each other. b) The parents get to know 23 other kids & how to get through to them, motivate them, soothe them, challenge them, & entertain them. Think how useful this will be when you have your next kid, & this next kid is nothing like your current kid(s) so your same old parenting techniques don't work--good thing you worked at ICNS & learned how to interact with 24 different types of kids. c) Be a fly on the wall & witness firsthand how your child interacts with peers, teachers, & adults. See how your kid participates in school & in which sort of creative play your kid engages. For the parents of those kids whose only answers to "What did you do in school today?" are "I don't know.", "I forgot.", "Nothing.", or "I learned.", you can peek behind the curtain & solve the mystery of what your kid does all day in school. d) And most importantly, *especially* for anxious first-time parents with no real prior exposure to witnessing the rearing of kids of this age, it's *DATA*!!! "Is my kid behaving typically?" "Is my kid coping with challenges as well as expected?" "Are my kid's ABCs, 123s, & other foundation academics where they're supposed to be?" "Is my kid patient/impatient, generous/selfish, focused/distracted, social/solitary, communicative/shy, etc.???" Well, come to ICNS & you get 23 other data points to plot out on a graph in your head & see where your kid falls on that curve & you've instantly become far far wiser about the progress & growth of your child. My ICNS work days were literally ("literally" used per its correct definition rather than in its current trendy sense) the highlight of my week.

2 of my 3 children went to ICNS. It is a wonderful learning co-operative environment. I was fortunate to be part of this wonderful school for several years & supported Ms. Donna as a substitute teacher needed someone.