Montessori Preschool Program at Josephine Sunset Home:…read more I was really impressed by what the director of the program told me and I had previously had my child in Montessori so I put him in the program after only a quick tour and meeting with the instructor. My initial impression was a little weird, the kids did not seem really happy or friendly. I shrugged off my initial gut feeling because kids are kids and they are not always "on". After the first day of Class my child said, "I don't want to go back there mom, ever!" I tried to ask questions and got nothing from my child or any feedback from the teacher when we went back for school the next time. The teacher said he was a little slow but he will warm up and that is all I got in terms of a report from her. The morning of the next school day my child refused to get ready, dumped toys on the floor of living room so we would be late and even DELIBERATELY MADE HIMSELF SICK SO HE WOULD NOT HAVE TO GO TO SCHOOL! When I picked my child up the second day, as soon as I got my child in the car he started crying! (not typical behavior). After trying everything to get an answer from him on what was going on I again was getting no where. I am not the type of person that will give up when something goes bad but I wanted to know if a kid was bullying my child or what the situation was. I decided to record my child at school by putting a digital recorder in his pocket to see if he was being bullied. Turns out the kids are really nice, but the teacher is verbally humiliating some of the kids and making them feel stupid. The teaching method is DEFINITELY NOT MONTESSORI. the teacher is writing and instructing on board and children are meant to remember and recall what was taught on board over 20min ago. (keep in mind this is 3-6 year olds) When my son struggled and asked for help the teacher in a sarcastic tone asked why don't you know this? I just went over this on the board. That's when he started crying and it did not end for over an hour! He would ask her for help several time but no help was offered by teacher. He would say, "Ms. Thomas." and she would reply "Ms. Thomas has left the building" . She even humiliated a little girl from the class in front of the other kids because she had an accident in her pants before they were to go to the playground..... I can go on and on with the examples from my recording. But after listening to it I just wanted to cry because my son trusted me and I put him in that environment. He is now in a different preschool but still talks about how that teacher treated him. I want school to be a positive experience for my kids so they will have a fulfilling learning experience later. the kids are definitely not getting this with the Montessori program at Josephine Sunset Home.

I have a 8 year old who also has Autism that attends the school-age childcare program at…read moreJosephine's, before/after as well as non-school days and summer camp. I am impressed with their staff as to their professionalism and honest display of affection and patience for all the children there, and believe me it tends to get loud in the different classrooms because they take children as young as 4 weeks old, they have a Montessori Preschool program and ECEAP along with infant, preschool and school-age care. We were concern with how will our son would do at Josephine as he has always had one-one-one care, but he has really improved on his social skills and has bonded with all the teachers and childcare providers and they are trained to deal with special needs children - not to mention that there is a medical staff on duty 24/7 because of the senior programs they have. The best part of Josephine is how the kids interact with the residents, "Grandparents" there. They do sing-a-longs help with activities...the whole inter-generational exposure has been great for our son as he doesn't have any living grandparents. Highly recommend Josephine's childcare program.

Due to the fact that child care and preschools are hard to come by in this military town, we were…read morereferred to the SVC ECEAP preschool. It is a state-funded preschool that is free for families who qualify. Preschool is Tuesday-Friday and there is a morning class(8:30am-11:30am) and afternoon class(12:15pm-3:15pm). Although there are no classes on Mondays, the office is still open. Since this preschool is put on by Skagit Valley College, parents can actually earn elective credits every semester just by having their children attend the school! They do tours of the college so you can see what it's all about. Even though I am not currently taking other classes at SVC, I love the fact that I can still utilize their services being that I'm enrolled by having my son attend the preschool. There are a lot of great other resources for parents to help support their children whether it be educational, emotional, financial, etc. There is a parent council for those who want to get more involved and they have frequent luncheons so you can meet and socialize with other parents. Towards the end of the year, kids who will be going to Kindergarten will get to go on a school bus and get a sneak peak at a real grade school class room. This is an absolutely wonderful preschool with amazing teachers and staff! My sons teachers were Miss Patricia, Miss Jill, and Miss Sonni. They are all very attentive to each of the children and you can see how passionate they are as teachers. I really appreciate all that they do and we will miss them terribly!

Kiddie Cove is such an oasis for parents of younger children on the island! We stopped in here to…read morelet our babies play and walk around, since there aren't many spots for them to do so anywhere else. The space itself is pretty big. There were probably 10 or so kids when we first arrived, a lot of them being much older than our son and our friend's daughter. They were running around wreaking all sorts of havoc, but that's to be expected in a play space. The bathrooms are clean and have a changing table which we appreciated. There's also a kitchenette type area where you can use their mugs, grab coffee from the Keurig, and they've even got local ice cream for sale. Cute idea. They've got lots of toys, pretty much every type you can think of! They've also got a cool little rock climbing wall which is great for the older kids. Some other stand outs were the ball pit, the ring toss game on the wall, and the little playhouse with the loft up above. My only gripe about this place is that there was only employee to the 8 or so older children that were here. As children tend to be, a few of them were very..... not good about sharing space with babies and would yell in my son's face if he came close to them. Obviously it's not my place to reprimand these children, but it also created a sense of anxiousness for me and not wanting to have my son near those other kids. Once those older children left and we had most of the space to ourselves, it was a great time! At $8 for an hour, it really isn't too bad of a deal for all the toys they can play with and things they can do. It's $11 an hour if you choose to leave your child there and leave them with the attendant.

I had a very poor experience with Alysha and Kiddie Cove. I was on Friday Harbor for a wedding and…read morehad arranged child care service for my daughter and a friend's son for both Friday and Saturday evenings. Alysha was very responsive with setting everything up - we re-confirmed all details the week before the wedding via text message. Come Friday evening no one showed up. I texted. I called. I even left voicemails. Zero response. I visited the business on Saturday morning - closed for a building inspection. I called again. Left a voicemail again. Zero response. I can understand if an emergency came up but the lack of communication from her should make you think twice before booking off site childcare through kiddie cove. I was able to do without childcare Friday night and a friend of a friend's grandmother saved the day for Saturday night. Be very careful trusting Alysha or kiddie cove with any off site childcare services.

This is a YMCA program that is actually hosted at Whitney Elementary School in Anacortes. The…read moreprogram shares a lot of the same spaces as the school; however, for toddlers is housed in a portable building near the playground. Hours: 6:45am to 5pm (actually it may be 5:30) Staff: Currently run by Crissy Floe and a fairly stable group of teachers. Ages: Starts at age 1 Overall this is a GREAT option for child care in Anacortes. They have a good toddler to teacher ratio and are always doing some sort of different enrichment activity. The other awesome thing is they provide meals, so no more making a ton of food to take in if you have had to do that in the past.. You do need to provide diapers, wipes, a blanket, and a change of clothes. Activities include taking walks, going to the library, playing outside, reading, etc etc etc. There are also at least monthly evening activities including a Parent's night where they will watch the children in the evening so the parents can go on a "date night" if they desire. Overall if you are looking for daycare this is THE PLACE to go in my opinion if your hours follow theirs. They do have part time options as well. The spots can be filled so get on the wait list before your child turns one if you want them to go here.

Love this program! Teachers are exceptionally helpful and adjust to the learning style of each…read moreindividual student.

I brought my son here. I asked if I could sit at a table to work on my pc until he was done. They…read moresaid yes, just like every YMCA we have been to. Then they said I couldn't be in there since I'm not a member. They kicked me out, so then I sat in a chair in the entrance to wait for him. They said no! I need to leave the building. I'm sitting outside on the curb waiting for my son for the next hour. It was very humiliating. I won't be bring him back here again. I love that I can pay for his yearly membership, but can't wait for him in the building. If it was raining out today I would have been so pissed.... I'm very disappointed. There are a lot of other YMCA's that are kind. Stay away from this one.

I competed at the Skagit Valley Family YMCA a few times as part of my high school swim team…read more(Shorewood High School) over a decade ago (I am writing this review Tuesday 5 December 2023). Oak Harbor was in our competition circuit and the high school did not have a school on campus, so the swim meets were contested at this YMCA. It was the regular season pool we traveled the furthest to compete at and offered a different competition experience than some of the other pools we competed at. I may have competed/coached at this pool as part of my YMCA swim team circuit as well. The pool was shallow for the full length, meaning no blocks for starts. Some of the swimmers were really irked by this, I did not mind. There was space on the pool deck for bags and a little bit of bleacher area seating. The locker rooms were clean and easy to find. The parking lot was large enough for regular YMCA users as well as both teams. During one of my high school swim meets here, my grandparents (who lived in Oak Harbor) even stopped by and we had space to talk on our own in the parking lot.