About Us

Hello! My name is Graciela Tejada and I am the proud founder of Mi Second Casa. You can call me "Tia"! With more than 25 years of childcare experience and a Bachelor of Arts from SFSU in Child and Adolescent Development, I have devoted my life to providing families with the best care possible. In addition, as a mother of three grown children of my own, I know the importance of a safe and positive environment and its impact on your child's ability to reach his or her full potential. Together, with my husband Miguel, we treat your children as our own and set out to give them the best care possible. 

Mi Second Casa is a licensed (Lic. 414002137) family daycare that operates Monday - Friday from 8 AM to 530 PM and is located in San Mateo, CA. All of our staff are CPR, first aid, and health and safety certified. In addition, we are fingerprinted and background checked. We care for children from the age of 3 months to 6 years old.

We embrace a diverse range of teaching philosophies within our curriculum, driven by our belief that there isn't a single definitive approach to learning. During open play periods, we embrace a Montessori inspired methodology that underscores hands on engagement and self directed exploration. For structured sessions with our toddlers and preschoolers, we offer activities inspired by the Reggio Emilia philosophy. These activities stem from our teachers' observations of each child's interests, simultaneously igniting their curiosity about the wider world beyond their immediate familiarity. Our activities are wide ranging and can include things like painting, gardening, building, dancing and much more. 

We speak primarily Spanish to the children as we believe immersion is the best way for a child to learn a second language. Not only that, language acquisition supports the child's overall language and brain development. And it is not just that we believe it, scientists do as well: many studies have concluded that young children exposed to a second language show some advantages in cultural understanding and cognitive abilities versus a child only exposed to one language.  Given that, we take our responsibility of teaching children Spanish seriously and there have been many times where a child has left our program with an elementary level of proficiency in Spanish - even when the child doesn't have Spanish speaking parents! 

We also incorporate a gender-diverse care environment, where my husband Miguel and my son Michael are teachers. Research suggests that a gender-diverse environment is better for children because it allows children to see that caring can be a characteristic of masculinity and benefits children from father-absent homes.