Montessori International Academy, Santa Ana | Fees, Rankings, Address, Admission, Vacancies, Reviews & More

Our daughter started attending M.I.A. at 2.5 years old, and we love this school! The teachers and staff are so nurturing, kind, and attentive. It’s a wonderful Japanese bilingual preschool/school.

Each child gets so much individual attention. The teachers always take time to speak with us about our daughter. We are always greeted at drop-off and pickup. The buildings are very clean and new. The playground has lots of balls, bikes, and play equipment that come out during outdoor time. The kids are encouraged to play with each other. To see our daughter making friends with other kids after 2 years of isolation in the pandemic has given us great joy.

We don’t speak Japanese at home, but over the course of M.I.A’s summer school classes, our daughter already can understand and speak some Japanese! The toddler classes are total Japanese immersion (but the teacher’s can speak English as well, so they talk to us parents in English). Our child learns Japanese culture, manners, compassion, and lots of practical skills at school. Every week they have fun activities, and even school-wide activities where the younger kids get to observe the older kids. It’s a great community.

Our child was not potty trained when we started at M.I.A., and within 4 weeks, she’s now wearing regular underwear and using the toilet at school! Her teacher updates me on her potty-training progress every day. We’re so impressed with her progress at M.I.A. They are great about making sure our child washes her hands, too.

There is also a skilled chef at this school that makes fresh, healthy, Japanese-style lunches every day. You can purchase a hot lunch option. I wish I could eat lunch there everyday, too!

Principal Sumikawa is incredibly intelligent, hard-working, caring, wise, and wonderful with children. She lives by the mission to develop the whole child so they can blossom into creative, independent, empathetic, responsible adults. She takes time to meet with all the parents. We’re first time parents, and her advice has already helped us become more confident in our parenting choices. I hope they expand the school and add higher grades one day, because we’re going to send our daughter here for as long as we can. Our daughter is growing into a kind, respectful, confident, imaginative, and intelligent individual thanks to Montessori International Academy.

Best school around. All the staff are very communicative and willing to work with you to focus on what is important in your child’s development. I feel very comfortable to leave my children at this school as opposed to many others I visited before deciding on this one. Also, this school comes with the added bonus of been multilingual. My 5 yr old son who has been attending for 2 years and is starting kindergarten here really enjoys being here. He now speaks japanese in addition to notice languages and even doesn’t like missing school even when facing the occasional seasonal illness.