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    Ankeny Lil Tots

    2.4 (9 reviews)

    Services - Ankeny Lil Tots

    Multiple children care

    Single child care

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    4 years ago

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    5 years ago

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    6 years ago

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    7 years ago

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    7 years ago

    I absolutely love this daycare and so does my son! They've done great with him since he has started to attend this last October.

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    10 years ago

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    10 years ago

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    Montessori Children's Center

    Montessori Children's Center

    (5 reviews)

    MCC is simply the best. We have taken our two children there for seven years as have had nothing…read morebut an incredible experience. MCC is like family to us! It's so wonderful having a place we completely trust and are thankful to send our kids to. I love the Montessori philosophy and inquiry based learning methods. They do such a great job supporting children's natural curiosity while also teaching independence, responsibility and important life skills. I've been so impressed with how's much my kids have learned and how's much fun they have! They love their teachers, they do so many fun activities and never seem to get bored. I'm also impressed with how often the activities in the room change, and all the cool arts projects they bring home! The owner and all the teachers are truly the best people; kind, nurturing, patient with a solid sense of humor. We're so lucky to have MCC in our lives!

    Overall I like this daycare. I've taken my son here since he turned 2 and plan on continuing until…read morehe has to enter Kindergarten. While, they're not as strict as other Montessori daycares, I find that a good approach. Children are meant to be children and they discover with play. Applying strict rules to everything restricts kids imagination but that doesn't mean that they are not given structure. As far as I've seen, they keep the kids active during the summer, and whenever weather permits during the winter. I like that they don't have TV and their playground is great. They are right across from a park so they go there during the summer sometimes. The only thing Im not too happy about is when I've called to let them know about something, I feel like i'm always rushed by the person at the other end.

    Little Endeavors

    Little Endeavors

    (6 reviews)

    We have been at the Ankeny location for 7+ years. They have become family to us! The teachers are…read moreso loving and care deeply about the kiddos! Highly recommended!!

    We had been taking our kids to Little Endeavors since 2018. It is extremely unfortunate that our…read moreexperience has turned so negative. Before I get to the recent negative experiences, let me first share that the pros of Little Endeavors (Ankeny). The facility is a good size and includes both an adequate space for use as an in-door gym and good age-appropriate equipment. As for teachers, there are good (Denise, Allie, Maggie, Peg), and there are bad ones (which I will not name). Until a month or so ago, the list of pros included the amazing director (Sara), which really set this daycare center apart from the others. Since her departure, the pros have not outweighed the cons for us (which includes an annual tuition increase), so we decided to leave Little Endeavors. 1. Three minutes before drop off/center opening, we were notified that three classrooms would be closed for the day due to staff shortages. Three minutes! This forced us and other families having to find alternative care at the drop of a hat before we could go to work. 2. Also due to staff shortages, they reduced the center hours by up to two hours for weeks, causing obvious impact to families and work schedules. There were some other minor things that just started adding up that I won't go into detail here, but all of this to say that we felt it best for our family to leave for a more dependable, affordable daycare center. So, we put in our notice on a Wednesday, which gave two weeks of what our youngest (oldest no longer attends daycare) would have been at the center. We were aware of the two week notice policy, which states, "....A two-week written notice is required for families wishing to terminate our services. Failure to provide notification in writing will result in being charged for the two weeks." Since the policy does not provide a definition of a week (calendar week? week of services?) AND because the new director did not give any notice of two-week policy infringement upon confirmation of receipt of our termination request, we were completely blindsided by being charged for a third week of services (for the week after our youngest's last day at the center)! Thinking it was a clerical error initially, we emailed the new director asking for a correction. From then, it has been back and forth with different reasonings and information. First, she said that since we notified on a Wednesday, that the two-week policy would get us to two calendar weeks (another Wednesday), and in her explanation she made it sound like had we notified her one day earlier, then we would not have been charged at all (because our youngest was not attending Little Endeavors on Mondays or Tuesdays). Later, she said that they run their billing cycle on Mondays, so we would to have notified before Monday...like, what? She said that she consulted the General Manager, which also felt that they were justified according to this unclear policy in charging us for a third week! We even looked to compromise; if they would refund us for the two of the three days, then we would consider the matter resolved. That was over a week ago. On top of all of that, the same Parent Handbook that references this two-week policy also states that the initial deposit will be used for final week at Little Endeavors: "This security deposit will be applied to your account balance the last week(s) you are in the center." This was NOT done. So, we had to pay three weeks for our full tuition, meaning we were charged for an extra week AND our deposit was not used. AS OF 12/02, WE HAVE NOT RECEIVED OUR DEPOSIT REFUND! As a business, if your policy is unclear, you do not give appropriate notice, and you give the wrong information, that is considered a mistake (or a few). An ethical business will fix their mistakes. To the families that send their kids to Little Endeavors - GOOD LUCK! And be sure to read the nonexistent fine print. Needless to say, I am glad that I am no longer giving my money to Little Endeavors and its unethical business practices.

    Generation Next Child Development Center and Preschool

    Generation Next Child Development Center and Preschool

    (3 reviews)

    Their Urbandale location is terrible when it comes to hiring, I was lied to about pay and hours,…read morewas hired when they were no longer supposed to hiring anyone so therefore I only got to work 2 hours a day. They told me when they hired me that I would be a full time employee and that was not the case, no adult can live off of $200 biweekly. As for the center itself it's not managed well, kids are out of control and they even let a child that was formally kicked out for endangering her classmates, come back to the center because they "felt bad for him" it's unacceptable. Children are not corrected enough for their bad behavior so it continues to happen, their are children constantly being bitten, scratched, and kicked by others and most of the time parents are even informed when their child misbehaves so therefore nothing changes, as far as center cleanliness goes that is one thing they actually do a good job with, the entire center is cleaned and sanitized each night, all and all I wouldn't recommend working at this center or Johnson due to the fact that majority of Urbandale employees originally came from Johnson's center.

    One of the most unprofessional and awful experiences I've ever had. I had my son enrolled here for…read morejust shy of two years. Since then, he has experienced personal growth due to some of the teachers there, but his current teachers have no place being around any children. My child has been bullied and provoked on multiple occasions by other children, even mentioning to me that he has shared this with the teachers. When confronted about it, management was unaware, either pretending or communication between classrooms is really that poor. I'm aware that my child can, at times, be stubborn, as four year olds are. He doesn't always follow directions when given at the daycare (I refuse to use the word Preschool, since there is no actual teaching). However, the staff is ill-equipped to handle any kind of disobedience he had, which only made his behavior worse. We know this, because we can compare his behavior and experience to the public daycare he attends most days, where he receives shining reviews for his amazing behavior. When confronted with the above issues, management was either blissfully unaware or refused to change due to lack of staffing to watch children, citing that the law only requires that they have 12 children to one teacher. The owners were extremely rude in the chain when they finally did butt in, saying they didn't have to change anything. Management recommendation from the beginning was that we find a new daycare for our child from the start. In summation, please PLEASE enrolling your child here. Especially if they are in the 3-5 age. They may be treated as poorly as our son was.

    Ankeny Lil Tots - childcare - Updated May 2026

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