Our 5 year old currently goes to the child development center and we absolutely love the place. I…read morecan't begin to speak highly enough about the daycare. The center is broken up into multiple rooms. The kids start out in the baby room then it goes toddler room, 2 year old room, 3 year old room, and preschool room. Each room has a teacher and an assistant in it. The best part of this daycare is all of the amenities. During the summer months the kids get to go horseback riding once a week, go on a boat ride once a week, go on nature walks, and swimming once a week. The facility has an indoor heated pool that the kids 3 years and older get to swim in once a week all year long. The daycare has multiple outdoor play areas for the kids to play and they rotate the kids between the different play areas. When we were looking for daycares we called around to a number of the daycares around Ankeny and Easter Seals was one of the cheaper daycares which is amazing considering all of the amenities that you get for the money compared to the other daycares. This daycare is truly a hidden gem.

I have been taking my younger three there since July and they all love it! Love the safety they…read moregive to my kids! The teachers are all great and communicate well throughout the day! I love the live feed I use it everyday! 10/10 recommend for a great childcare center on the Southside!!!

I have two boys, 11 and 9, who have been attending La Petite on SW 9th since Pre- K. They are now…read moreonly a few weeks away from graduating the School Age room. The teachers here are great and genuinely love your kids and best of all my kids enjoy being there! They are able to transport to and from elementary school which is so helpful if you are a parent who works past 2:40pm. I am sad that my boys have now out grown being here because it's all we have known for a long time. I love La Petite and I will always recommend this daycare to others! Thank you for taking care of the boys!

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.

Before I enrolled my son, I checked out several centers. I even looked at inspection reports from…read moreDHS, cause you can't believe everything on the internet. Kingdom Kids has a great record with DHS.. After enrolling, I've been very pleased with the curriculum. My son has advanced so much in just a few months. Most important, I like the open communication at the center. The Director and staff have been great! I would highly recomend this center,

I had a horrible experience. My son was four and I decided that he would continue one more year of…read moredaycare before Kindergarten. He had been in a daycare before this, in Norwalk, that had been getting him ready for preschool. My child came to Kingdom Kids for about a week before I pulled him out. My mom witnessed a "teacher" pulling my son by the arm and yelling at him for not picking up. My mom then grabbed my son away from her and he never went back. I am positive that more abuse occurred. It took forever for my child to transition into another daycare after the abuse. Another note is that none of their curriculum was geared towards kindergarten and with paying over 600.00 a month for one child you had better be teaching them something. The "teachers" are over weight, lazy and always sitting. The room was filthy dirty. Don't waste your time even viewing this daycare. The room stank and the chairs and table were covered in dirt. When I went to view they stated it was like that because they had some outdoor activity and the kids had dirtied up the chairs. I soon realized it is usually more dirty then during my scheduled visit.

My family absolutely loves this school. Yes, the cost is on the higher end, but our children's…read moresafety, well being, and enrichment is worth every penny and so much more. Our oldest comes home each day excited to tell me what she did each day. The teachers and staff have become apart of our kid's extended family.

What our family found most appealing at first about Cadence was they offered a part time program…read morefor our daughter at a part time rate. We had no idea how hard it would be to find a program that didn't charge full time fees for a part time schedule. Cadence was the only location that seemed to truly understand the need for this type of programming for families. In addition to a program that fit our family schedule we were impressed with the dedication and commitment of the director, Ms. Theresa. She is one of the hardest working and most pleasant people we have come across since moving to Des Moines. Our daughters primary teacher is Ms. Nina who has loyally and cheerfully served Cadence for 11 years. 11! She handles our daughter so well- is patient, caring and takes time to talk to us about her classroom development nearly everyday. Ms. Megan's classroom occassionally teams up with Ms.Nina's and her Efforts with her classroom are noticible. She is creative, playful and intentional- both women are. I Admire their profession so much and my family is deeply grateful for the role they are playing in shaping our three year old Girl. She's blossoming in ways we have long hoped for and it's in large part due to the Cadence community. Thank you!

I wen't to this school 4-5 grade and it was one of my best experiences. Halls were nice and staff…read moreis friendly. If you have Miss Berkenholz you are going to have the best time.

I've sent both of my children to this daycare and preschool starting from the age of 3-months to 5…read moreyears! This means that I've been been working with the Director and Asst. Director at Cadence for the past 13 years! They are 2 professionals that know their business and do a great job with the kids, teachers, and parents! That leadership  tenure is so important- and they both do a great job. There are also a good amount of teachers that have been at this daycare for 5, 10, 15, and 20+ years...which is serious retention! That tells me that these teachers want to be there! Things are organized and ran very well. It's always been a great feeling to be able to walk down the hall and the teachers know me and my kids, and all of the teachers and leaders are conversational and happy! I've been very pleased with the school's curriculum! They offer centers for rotation and variety and cover the important development areas of: gross motor skills, socialization, independence, counting- math, speech, reading, writing, shapes, colors, interactive/imaginative play, outdoor play, working with others/team work, music, arts and crafts, and more! I've never had to worry about my children getting bored- and they have fun...they want to go to school everyday! Finally, the food they offer for breakfast, lunch, and afternoon snack is quality and very healthy! I've appreciated the great variety that they put into their menu, which promotes the kids to always be trying new things and to eat what you get! This daycare and preschool has remained my #1 choice for 13 years! I highly recommend this school to anyone who wants their kids to have fun and variety, in an excellent educational environment, with strong teachers who are positive and loving! I wouldn't send my kids anywhere else!

I cannot say enough wonderful things about Heartland Cadence Academy! Our three children are lucky…read moreto attend a daycare that goes above and beyond when it comes to providing a safe, fun learning environment. The staff are very caring and attentive to their needs which makes leaving your kids in their care easy. Not only is there and emphasize on education but also on teaching kids to be kind and caring. I highly recommend Cadence Academy!

This place is amazing! The director is connected with her staff and is always very courteous and…read morerespectful. The teachers here are some of the best, and I can tell that they truly care about, not only my child, but all children in general. The atmosphere is very open and professional. I had one issue while my child attended, but the director took time from her day to talk with me about, and we were able to come to a resolution quickly. It is usually very difficult to get a spot in this center; most parents who are lucky enough to land a spot never leave.