Hi C.,
I do not live in the Granada Hills area, but I do know a bit about the different preschool chains as I taught preschool for 8 years.
California law states that you cannot have more than 12 children (aged 2 & up) per teacher in a classroom, plus an additional 6 if there is an aide. A good school will have much less. In the last school I worked in, we had 6 children to each teacher in the 2 year old room, because the 2's were still potty training & 10 to one in the older classrooms. Obviously, the less children in a classroom there are, the more individualized attention your daughter will receive.
The law states that a teacher must have at least 12 units of child development. They do not have to have any credentials in a private school, and so most teachers don't bother to acquire one-it involves filling out an application & paying a fee, but the required courses to qualify are the same as would be required to be hired in a private school. Feel free to ask about the teacher's qualifications because an experienced teacher will be proud to brag about what degrees they may hold and how many years experience they have. (For example, I have an Associates Degree & over 30 units in Child Development).
Pinecrest & Montessori are two extremely different types of school. Pinecrest is a good example of an academic school- they will definitely "push" your daughter, if that's what you're looking for. They do not allow children who are not potty trained & will ask you to leave if your daughter has frequent potty accidents, so make sure that she is fully trained before enrolling her. As far as credentialing goes, their preschool has the same requirements as any other private preschool, but I do think that their elementary teachers do not have the same requirements as public school teachers, which doesn't seem to matter because they have very high academic standards, so the children in the elementary often enter public Jr. High or Highschool ahead of the average public school student. Kindercare is another academic school, but without as high of a reputation as Pinecrest. I know that they enroll infants, so they may allow two-year-olds that are not yet potty trained as well, but I don't know for sure. Almost all preschools are also daycares- meaning that your child could potentially be enrolled for up to 12 hours a day, 5 days a week. This does not mean that they will have only free time all day, but scheduled activities are usually focused between 9am & 5pm when the majority of children are in attendance, with the rest of the day spent having free play, or watching videos.
Montessori schools are very similar to Developmental schools (which I think Waldorf is). They definitely do not "push" children. They believe that children learn best through hands on playing and experimenting, so they do not have a lot of ditto work. For example, if they were to teach matching, rather than having a child sit down & draw a line on a ditto connecting two matching items, they will give a child a bucket of different colored and sized bears and ask them to find two that are alike. Then they would talk about what is alike and what may be different about the child's choice and help the child narrow down an exact match. Also, while children are encouraged to join in a planned activity, they are usually given alternative choices and can move from one "open" activity in the classroom to another freely. These schools tend to believe in promoting creativity, and you will rarely see a craft that resembles something you would recognize sent home as art is usually viewed as an activity that should be child a led process, rather than teacher directed. What sets Montessori apart from other Developmental schools is that they have their own specialized Montessori toys and they limit the number of children that can participate in an activity at one time.
Now personally, I went to Pinecrest (Granada Hills coincidentally) as a child, but after majoring in Child Development in college, I chose to only work in Developmental schools. I believe that children learn best through hands-on activities, and they will have so many years ahead to take tests and do homework, that they deserve a little time to just be kids and explore their world with little to no pressure. As far as what to look for when touring a preschool, I answered that in another member's question a while back & I think you can look it up, but I hope this helps for now!
C. : )