Guidry Early Child Education Program

Guidry Early Care & Education Program (GECEP) is a small, wonderful preschool in the Ingleside. Monique Guidry, the director and owner of GECEP has been in the business for more than a decade. Both of my kids have spent their preschool years (roughly ages 2 – 5) with Monique every day, and both my kids were happy and comfortable at Monique’s and learned a lot there. The first thing that I noticed about Monique as a preschool teacher was that she loves the kids. You would think that loving the kids would be a pre-​requisite for this kind of work, but in fact if you visit other preschools you will see a lot of adults who are exasperated all the time. Monique can be firm when she needs to be, but she is almost always wearing a smile. Even more impressive to me, Monique’s attitude was just as mellow, happy, and contented at 6P as it was at 8A. In addition to showing the kids a lot of love, Monique is a consummate professional. She has an advanced degree in early childhood education. Students from SF State routinely rotate through GECEP to learn about early childhood education from Monique. The best music and dance teachers in San Francisco stop by to teach music and dance. Monique teaches the preschoolers their letters and numbers, at a pace each child is comfortable with, but her main philosophy is to the let the kids learn through play. The families in GECEP are a very diverse set of races, classes, and ethnic backgrounds; Monique likes the diversity. The back yard of GECEP has a lovely age-​appropriate play area with jungle gym, scooters, and a garden.
Because Monique pays a lot of attention to each child, and because GECEP is a small preschool, and because Monique has a graduate degree in child development, Monique knows exactly what developmental stage each child is at, and she will give you a detailed report about your kid. No teacher your child will ever have at any educational stage will know your child as well as Monique knows your child.
I am an educator too (OK, for older kids– I am a college professor), so I feel like I know educational quality when I see it. Monique is all quality, no baloney.
The interior of GECEP is functional and modest, nothing special.
There are a lot of preschools in San Francisco, and most of them are pretty dreary. Guidry’s GECEP is an absolute gem. If your child is lucky enough to spend time with Monique at GECEP, you can count yourself very lucky indeed.