I starting taking my child to KinderCare Highland Ave when my baby was 4 months old. Every time he…read moregoes in he is extremely excited to see his friends and teachers. I am at ease and know my child is in good hands whenever I leave. I believe being around other children and the teachers has helped advance his milestones! Additionally they have an amazing app that sends photo or and video updates and keeps a daily report of everything! Kris, who manages the establishment is organized, quick to respond, and extremely sweet. If you're interested they give tours! I'm a very happy Mom!

Very impressed with the teachers and directors! We've had our almost 2 year old son here full-time…read moresince he was an infant, and he loves it. There is a structured curriculum and the teachers work with the children on key development items throughout the day through group activities and open play. When there is open play, we've observed the teachers actively engaged with the kids, helping teach them right from wrong, how to interact with others, etc. They have a lot of patience and genuinely care about everyone. The staff is great about providing updates via the mobile app including daily photos (sometimes multiple group and individual) of the activities, meals/snacks, and nap times. We've felt very welcome here, and we would highly recommend this location.

I love My Zmall World and their staff! It's a small daycare with a small amount of children…read moreenrolled and that is perfect for what I was looking for. My 3 year old goes here and has been coming here since August of 2016 when it recently opened and I will also be enrolling my one-year-old. The director and the teachers are all very nice and very caring toward my child. My son was in need of speech therapy and the daycare was very accommodating to the therapists having the sessions with my son at the daycare. A very friendly and family-orientated day care that I highly recommend for the area.

All 4 of my boys have gone here/still attending here. I love all of the teachers and the…read moreadministrative staff they are all so nice and caring. This daycare is clean and they are organized. I would definitely recommend to anyone with small children.

*specific location being reviewed: Elmwood Park*…read more Wonderful childcare center! Picket Fence owner, Ms. Toni, genuinely cares about the children enrolled at her facility; she even addresses /knows each child by name! Kind teachers/staff all around. The children enjoyed being there /being involved w/ classroom activities...happy, smiling children =always a good sign(: I was also impressed by the fact that numerous Picket Fence teachers have been at this Elmwood Park location since it opened, which I believe (if I can remember correctly) was 1994! Now that's dedication!

The Day Nursery offers a great program and strong overall childcare, however, do not plan on their…read morefacility being open consistently. Do to a combination of Covid-related restrictions that are in place per the Oak Park Health Department and additional restrictions that the Day Nursery puts in place, we have been unable to consistently rely on the Day Nursery as a childcare provider. In the last 6 months our daughter's classroom has repeatedly closed for 5 days at a time, with the latest closure happening despite zero cases of Covid in her classroom. Communication with parents has been minimal, inconsistent, and reactionary. Our experience has been not been a unique one, with similar closures occurring in all the classrooms. There is a significant movement among school families to remove their children due to the ongoing lack of consistent childcare as well as a lack of future strategy. **Full disclosure, we are a vaccinated, science following, and mask-wearing household.

The Day Nursery is incredible! They go above and beyond to help the children. My daughter has…read moreflourished while attending both academically and emotionally. The support and loves she's received in a very tough year is unmatched. We were incredibly blessed she was placed in the sunshine room with the infamous Ms Kira and Ms Latrice! My daughter feels so loved, loves going to preschool, and has made lasting relationships. I would recommend them to any family looking. Your child with be loved and individualized in their approach. It's hard to trust other people to care for your children, this is one place you'll never have to worry!

My son is in his second year at La Casa, and we plan to enroll our daughter when she is old enough…read more The building is clean and beautiful, and the teachers are communicative and caring. They respond promptly to text and email, and post pictures weekly on the closed FB group. I know that as soon as my son steps into the classroom, he will be treated with dignity and kindness. He loves all his teachers and gets so excited to see them - he even wanted to invite them to his birthday party! La Casa does a great job of following the Montessori methods, and I have been impressed by what my son has been learning (and is excited to learn!) - at 3, he is teaching Spanish to US! He has become quite and eager helper at home, too. La Casa is excellent at working with parents on potty training, and is much more flexible than most schools at working with the parents of kids with special needs to make sure they are learning to their full potential. Probably what I love the most is how active the kids are every day. They go for walks and to the park nearly every day, usually twice a day. When the weather isn't cooperating, they play "pelotas" and games inside, and they have Zumba at least once (if not two or three times!) per week, which my son LOVES. They also have options for yoga and additional directed art on top of the regular classroom art (and this all starts at age 2!). The only reason I would not give La Casa 5 stars yet is there is still room to improve in terms of administration. They would benefit from FT rather than PT administrative staff, as the organization can be a bit lacking at times. As a parent, you need to be a bit persistent to get all the information you need at the beginning - but at least the staff is very responsive. My son and our family have made some wonderful friends through this school, and we would recommend it to other families looking for a flexible, full-day, reasonably-priced, Spanish immersion school starting at age 15 months.

Best most loving teachers and great classes! We've been at this school for 3+ years. The lessons…read moreand classes are diverse and so rich. Art, yoga, field trips, science for the older kids! I can't say enough about the loving teachers and staff. They're true family.

I hesitated to write this review, but after sharing our brief experience with other moms, they…read morestrongly encouraged me to speak up. While our initial tour with Ms. Krista was reassuring and helped ease my anxiety about sending our 6-month-old to daycare, the actual experience was a complete 180. We pulled our baby out after just four days because we simply could not trust them with his safety and care. Here is why we left: Unsafe Sleep Practices: Despite Illinois state law requiring infants to sleep in their own cribs, we were repeatedly sent photos of our son napping in a baby swing. Even after we explicitly requested he sleep in a crib for his safety, my husband walked in later that day to find him asleep in the swing again. Propped Bottles: Photos sent to us showed our 6-month-old being fed with his bottle propped up by blankets in a swing, forced to figure out how to feed himself because staff wouldn't hold him. Lack of Interaction & Comfort: On his first day, he was placed straight into a saucer screaming, with no comfort. When we checked in later, he was crying alone in a corner swing while toddlers wandered the room. Every time my husband did a pop-in check, the infants were confined to containers (saucers/swings) rather than being on the floor interacting. The caretakers all sitting in chairs and not playing with the babies. No Outdoor Time: We were promised the kids go outside (which is also state law, weather permitting). In reality, they never went outside. We work around that area and never seen kids being taken out for walks. Terrible Communication: Daily updates on feedings, diaper changes, and naps were practically nonexistent. We had to ask for a daily report text through MsKrista. the one report we finally received was completely blank on crucial details like sleep duration, diaper change and food intake. Furthermore, emails from the center were completely anonymous with no names signed. Neglect of Basic Instructions: When we packed up his things on our last day, the diaper cream we provided had never even been opened. Ms. Krista is a persuasive talker who tells you exactly what you want to hear during the tour, but there is little action behind her words. The center takes shortcuts, ignores safe-sleep laws, treats babies like a monolith instead of individuals, and operates with a concerning lack of staff (this is our assumption based on what we saw, we don't have prove) and transparency. Those four days were incredibly stressful for our family. Ms Toni was sweet based on the short interactions we had with her. I think she was trying to her best. I think who ever runs that place is taking advantage of her. It appears to us that she doesn't have adequate support and is alone in the infant room most of the day. They told us someone comes in, in the afternoon to help. That didn't seem right. Our baby is now at a wonderful new daycare where safe sleep is practiced, containers aren't used, they go outside daily, and we get real-time updates on an app. Most importantly, he is happy when we pick him up (his face/eyes aren't puffy from crying all day), and we finally have peace of mind. Trust your gut, parents--i am glad we did!

Teachers make this place, however the Owner of this place is petty, bitter and can never get a hold…read moreof her. I am posting my email to the "Owner" of the daycare so you will see what we went through and how she is. "It is a shame that we were not able to discuss this in person before today and YOU decided that this would be my kids last week at your daycare. You made this their last day when nobody was ready for it. Not us, not the teachers and especially not our kids. We had to break it to them that today would be their last day, and you should have seen the devastation on my baby girl's face crying telling us that she will miss Ms. Tora. Similar to when you told Miss Moni not to come back after she gave you her notice that she was leaving. My son and Miss Moni have created a beautiful bond but you stripped them of their proper goodbyes and you broke their hearts. It's hard to believe that an owner of a daycare would be responsible for breaking the hearts of teachers and children in this way, by taking away their moment of a proper goodbye. It's unfortunate that you could not work with us to be able to have them there for one more week, even if that meant charging us a late fee to process a payment on August 15. We didn't say we would not pay, just that it would be late. You could have worked with us and accepted payment on the 15th with a late fee or another option that would help us all, as working parents, yet you choose to shut the door on us. Now we need to decide what to do about childcare during the week that was supposed to be their last with you. This is extremely unprofessional and uncalled for. I'm sure there could have been a solution that would work for all of us, but you decided to be bitter and give us options that would not work with us due to our work and salary schedules. It is a shame because we have been loyal customers of yours since 2019. My daughter was only 2 and a half months old when she began attending your daycare. We've been spreading nothing but good things about your daycare center. All through the pandemic and the renovation of 78 W. Van Buren, we were patient and ready to have both our kids return to your daycare. We have even called so many times during the renovation to check to see if it opened yet, out of excitement and this is how you send us out??? I feel you may have some sort of resentment towards people who plan to leave your center. Just like with Miss Moni, who has been such a blessing as a teacher to our kids, when you told her not to return after she put in her notice. Miss Moni has the nicest heart and beautiful spirit and she did not deserve that. You took away her chance at saying goodbye to her kids and you took away the chance for us to explain to my son that he would no longer see her unless she stayed until the day she said she would. Now that we put out our notice, you have given us the go around through email, because clearly you have a problem meeting in person, as I have asked you to give us a time and day to discuss and you ignored it. Because of this, today was indeed their last day. You gave us no room to discuss and come up with a reasonable solution that would work for all of us. You can be assured that I will no longer be recommending this daycare center to those around us and will not hesitate to talk about this situation and leave a review. Parents should not have to deal with this kind of unprofessionalism. We enjoyed this daycare center because of the teachers here like Miss Moni, Miss Shenaya, Miss. Tora, Miss Annie, Miss Ivy, Miss Brenda, Miss Christa, Miss. Barbara, Mr. Chris and even going back to Miss. Jan, who have all been super wonderful with our babies. We are indebted to them for all they have done in helping our kids educational and emotional growth. You are lucky to have them and they are definitely the backbone of the center. I hope you know that and value each and every one of them, even if they decide to resign from your daycare. I also hope that in the future you allow others to have their proper farewells, especially for the sake of the children. May God be with you"

I been coming here for ever is so safe and clean. The manager MrMoe is so kind and sweet it is…read morewelcoming to bring your kids of all ages to play. They have private rooms to have your special events at the privacy of your own room. The food is so delicious and not over priced. My kidzplay is under new management and is always they have the same polite staff. The bathrooms are always clean. Bring your family and have tons of fun.

I liked that it was conveniently close to home. Unfortunately, I had my 15 month old in the Pink…read moreroom and the lack of communication bothered me so much. At the beginning, I had to ask for pictures and check in on my son because of course when I would drop him off he would be crying. I understand that as teachers, they're busy. But if there are 3 adults to 12 kids, one should be able to send messages during nap time. I'm not sure what the point of having Class Dojo was if they don't communicate anything. I also didn't like when I registered, it was such a quick process that I felt uneasy because I had no clue who the teachers were or what the room set up was like. When I asked to see the room to get a better picture of where I would be leaving my son, they had to show me a video of it on their iPad? The whole thing made me hesitant. I was thankful that they accepted my son, but ...eh. And what I disliked the most was that although I understand COVID is still going around and there are little ones...they wouldn't let parents in yet and we had to pick up one at a time even though none of the teachers were wearing masks. I feel that if they were really concerned about COVID then they should let parents in with a mask since now it seems that things are returning to normalcy. I feel like it was a way to not let parents in. I wanted to be able to pick up my child and see what he was doing instead of waiting for them to pack up his things and give him to me. And I had no idea who was giving me my child. I didn't know if they were his teacher or not. I only knew Joy, the director, and she was nice but no one else ever introduced themselves to me or shared one thing that my child did during the day. As a first time parent, I desperately wanted to know how my child was doing and develop a relationship with his teachers but the drop off and pick up process was so quick. and as someone who used to work in a day care, you gotta share something the child did. Anything! What was he playing with? Were they a great eater or sleeper? They did provide a paper copy of the child's day supposedly but I honestly felt it wasn't personalized and they probably put down the same thing for each kid in the pink room. It felt like pulling teeth trying to develop a relationship with his teachers. Maybe it's a great place for the older kids. But it wasn't for us.

It took me a minute to write this review, but after careful thought I decided to help out anyone…read morewho might be considering care for their child. My daughter was enrolled here through COVID and looking back on our time here, I realize it was a mistake. My daughter was 2 at the time and would come home saying things like "shut your mouth." There was also an incident where she came home with a bite mark on her arm, and when I asked her teacher (who I believe no longer works there) she stated that they had to stop her biting herself. Later came to the conclusion, it was a child who's grandmother worked at the center that she was covering for her. They always had her (the little girl who was biting) sitting in a high chair in the mornings to avoid interaction with other kids. Anyways, although my review is a bit dated, I would advise others to think twice about enrolling their children in this center. As a mom, who now has my second child enrolled in another center, I regret choosing Little Magnolias. Originally, I was impressed with how the center looked and how clean and colorful it seemed, but the staff is not who I would choose to care for any child.

If I can leave 0 stars, I would! Please.... PLEASE do yourself a favor and avoid this daycare at…read moreall cost! The owner is so unprofessional and nasty! She insults kids for crying and feels she can talk to you like you're stupid! I recently registered my son for part time care and it was by far the worst mistake I've ever done. He was in Taronda's toddler class for just two weeks and now I'm starting to wonder how those days there were for my son! On October 10, I dropped him off like usual and of course he cried dropping him off like he always does because he's still trying to adjust and is away from his mother. Or so I thought. I didn't think much of it, I picked him up 7 hours later and got home and do my usual inspection on his body and noticed nail marks that look like they were dug into his skin, through his T-shirt And another on his wrist! Fresh still with blood, I was livid. I asked for the video footage to be reviewed, they stalled stating they needed a pin for the camara to check back later. I show up following day and Taronda says "she might have scratched him while changing his diaper before pick up." And the one on his wrist was possibly from him scratching the table. Proceeds to wave her hands showing me her nails and saying they're getting long and that's what might've happened Because he moves so much. Duh, he's a child and that's what they do. Also, said I have him used to the bottle as if that was relevant! When not one time did he ever take or use a bottle there. There is no way that was an accident, for it to pierce through his skin it must have been done aggressively!!. I go in next day because they say they got the footage and they didn't see any wrong doing, the owner is there and I ask how much of the video they viewed if it was the whole time or just the 2 minutes of around the time I picked him up. The owner says she's not about to waste her time for that many hours! Wtf. You obviously do not care if they have an abusive teacher or not. I'm furious. The owner continues to yell at me to sit down and watch the video, I most definitely didn't like the way she was talking to me like if I was stupid! Mind you all this time my child is sleeping on my shoulder, I yell back because clearly I'm gonna defend my son and need answers for what happened to him under their care! That lady shouldn't be allowed to work with any kids or run a business at that! She does not care about them!! I pick up my sons stuff that same day, and when I got home notice his cup that Taronda clearly said she washes everyday, with spoiled milk and mold on the inside and so stained. Howwwww!!! This is unacceptable, just to think that they had my son drinking out that cup like that makes me cry. He could have gotten sick! I regret ever making this choice! Please, be careful with daycares like this one.