Centro Las Olas

Our boys did not attend. This review is primarily for the entire admissions process. We applied and no one got back to us for 6 months… only to say there were no spots but that if we wanted to attend we could submit another application for the new school year (and pay more money, presumably to not hear back). No thank you.

My two sons had the immense privilege of having attended Centro Las Olas for preschool. We were so happy with everything at the school and incredibly grateful to Bethica and Rosalina, the two amazing teachers! The children truly learn through their play at Las Olas and they are learning and practicing Spanish. Both of my sons left Las Olas for Kindergarten well prepared with a solid foundation for success in school.
The school is a coop so parents are expected to do their assigned jobs and help with maintaining the school… so if you can’t put in the hours, don’t apply. Children will also be speaking only spanish, so parents are expected to support the language at home with other activities. Las Olas is a school that need parents to do their part and commit to making it a success… BUT you will be paid in dividends with how your child grows and flourishes here.

I feel so lucky that my son attends this preschool for so many reasons. We came to it because of its Spanish immersion focus, and indeed my son’s Spanish has blossomed there because the children and teachers really do come close to speaking 100% Spanish during school time, a difficult feat for immersion programs to achieve. But I quickly came to realize that the school stands out for the way it embodies a really joyful progressive educational philosophy. It is a stimulating, challenging, nurturing environment, largely because of the vision of the founder and director Bethica Quinn, a locally recognized master teacher who has taught early childhood education at Mills and who is dynamic and passionate about play-​based education and the latest developments in research into child development and bilingual education. She is a very intelligent and I would say intellectual person who is constantly finding new ways to encourage creativity and inquiry and language expression. Rosalina, the other teacher, has been there since the founding, and is also wise and funny and amazingly skilled and affectionate. Both are extremely perceptive observers of individual children’s styles and quirks and strengths and areas of difficulty. The school is a co-​op, though parent participation in the classroom is optional, so coming to Las Olas means joining a community, with plenty of work but also shared camping trips and just shared knowledge of each other’s kids and family life. It’s a diverse community on all levels – socioeconomic, political, sexual orientation, country of origin, language background, etc. There is also a wonderful nature focus through weekly hiking trips to Glen Canyon. If you are interested, see
for open house information.

Our son had the wonderful opportunity to attend Centro Las Olas for 1.5 years, and our daughter will be attending in the Fall. It is an incredible community of families dedicated to raising their children in Spanish.
The director and lead teacher, Bethica, has over 20 years of preschool teaching experience. She is an expert in the field and gives several workshops in the Bay Area to support both Reggio Emilia-​inspired programs, as well as Spanish Immersion preschools. The assistant teacher, Rosalina, is incredibly caring, creative, and intuitive; she is able to support students problem-​solving in a way that appears magical.
The school supports outdoor education by way of a small garden with chickens! and a weekly trip to Glen Canyon park. The students become very adept at scrambling over rocks and trails, and learn to look closely at the life around them. The days in the canyon are the days I feel my child benefits the most; he is free.
The Reggio Emilia approach is child-​centered and focuses on the 100 languages of children, intending to provide «offerings» for young children to investigate, based upon their interest. One such project began with curiosity over the house remodel next door. Students were able to interview one of the carpenters, experience planning, building, and working with many tools and mediums, including hand saws and hand drills. This deep level of investigation allows students to probe further, and hone their ability to observe, question, investigate and question again.
I have also greatly valued the friends I have gained through working in a coop. Parents are very involved in the school, and are invested in working with all students, so it felt like a big family. I have felt grateful that my son has been able to find not just me or his teacher, but several adults with whom he has developed a positive relationship with to work something out.
I can’t wait to do it all over again with my daughter!

We were very lucky to find a Spanish immersion pre-​school, much less Centro Las Olas. Things I really value about the program are (1) the weekly Friday hikes through Glen Canyon that expose the kids to nature, (2) the project based nature of instruction, and (3) its Reggio Emilia approach which gives the children some control over what they do at the school.
It is a co-​op and we dedicate time to the school, but I’ve found the time commitment reasonable. I’ve found the commitment has benefited my children and helped us integrate into a community of friends we like.
The school is reasonably priced and offers need based scholarships, which results in a diverse enrollment profile.
Overall, I’ve been very satisfied with the school and the way in which my children’s development and language has flourished at Las Olas.

Centro Las Olas has greatly exceeded our expectations on three fronts: Language, pedagogy and community. First of all, the classroom language — even among the kids at play — is Spanish. Having Spanish as the children’s social language creates a huge incentive for children just learning the language. By the time the kids graduate, they are truly bilingual.
The program’s pedagogy is play-​based, with rich offerings to encourage an interest in art, science, math and reading. Over the course of a week, a child might feed the chickens, gather their eggs and harvest veggies or fruit from the garden, use those ingredients to prepare snack or lunch with one of the parent volunteers, spend an hour in the art workshop working on a multiple-​day project with the lead teacher and 3 – 4 kids, give a presentation during circle time explaining their latest lego creation or drawing, and climb rocks or investigate insects during the preschool’s weekly hike in Glen Canyon.
The director, Bethica Quinn, is a real expert in child development. She has a Master’s degree in Early Childhood Education from Mills College, where she also worked in the Lab School and taught/​mentored aspiring preschool teachers. She takes parent education very seriously and has created an incredible program *and* community of caring families committed to raising bilingual children in San Francisco.