I was a first time mom when I started my 12 week old daughter with Ms. Muna. That first day was so…read morehard to drop her off, but Ms. Muna made sure to appreciate that and make me feel better. She has worked with me on feeding schedules, allowing to help this working momma breast feed as long as desired and has become a part of our family. Our daughter is now almost 1 and will jump out of my arms to go to Ms. Muna at drop off. She has learned new skills thanks to daycare. If you are looking for a comfortable home feel with a structured school curriculum, this is the place for you. Ms. Muna spends most of her free time taking continuing education classes. Muna Hassan's daycare is safe, clean, happy, loving, and structured. I couldn't ask for more. Another plus is her early morning hours, and her flexibility for my unpredictable work schedule. Every time I walk in what always strikes my attention is how calm, content and happy ALL of the children are. The children ranging in age from infant to kindergarten age all love each other and play well together.

Our son has been in Muna's child care for 10 months and has had a great experience. Muna is loving…read moreand playful yet firm and disciplined. She has a structured schedule that the children follow. Her home is clean and she provides home-cooked meals. She also has a great open backyard that the children play in when the weather is nice. Our son is transitioning out of daycare into preschool but he will miss seeing Muna everyday, as her house has become a second home for him. We drop him off with the peace of mind that he is well cared for in a safe and nurturing space. We have and will continue to recommend her to anyone looking for trustworthy and reliable childcare for their child!

Leaving Kiddie Academy of Alexandria is so bittersweet for our family. Both of our children have…read morebeen here since they were just 12 weeks old, and watching them grow up in such a loving environment has been a beautiful experience. It's the kind of place where everyone knows your kids, greets them with a smile, and treats them like family. We are so sad to say goodbye. The wonderful teachers will always have a special place in my heart, and I cannot recommend this daycare enough to any parent looking for a safe, loving place for their little ones. They really are the best.

I enrolled my daughter at this location with high expectations for a safe, nurturing, attentive,…read moreand structured learning environment. Unfortunately, my experience over time raised several concerns that ultimately led to me seeing the truth about this location. One of my primary concerns was basic hygiene and attentiveness. On multiple occasions, I picked my daughter up with visible food residue still on her face. I also observed dried nasal discharge on her face and even on the back of her hand, as if she had attempted to clean herself. I began noticing similar issues with other children as well, including children walking around with excessively runny noses for extended periods without staff intervention. I'm sure this is why the kids are always sick. In addition, there appeared to be a lack of situational awareness when it came to children's comfort and supervision. There were times where clothing did not seem appropriate for the weather, which further reflected a lack of attentiveness to individual needs. They would take the children outside without coats while it's cold. More concerning were multiple safety incidents involving my daughter that were handled in an extremely dismissive manner. One incident I personally witnessed on camera involved another child pushing my daughter three times back-to-back until she fell to the ground, while a teacher stood directly beside them without intervening. Later that same day, I noticed a bruise on my daughter's leg. When I reported this to the director, Erin, I was told the video showed my daughter "falling into the teacher's lap," which did not align with what I personally observed on camera. I was also informed that no incident report would be completed because the injury was not from the neck up. Another incident involved my daughter being struck in the head with a toy by another child, leaving her with a swollen bruise and lump that was black, blue, and purple. At pickup, staff appeared very nonchalant about the situation, simply stating that they "put ice on it" and that these things were "normal." While discussing this incident with staff, another child nearby was actively biting another child while staff stood around without immediately intervening. When I pointed this out, the response I received was dismissive instead of reassuring. I also observed what appeared to be inconsistent treatment and favoritism within the center. When I inquired about my daughter transitioning to the next classroom as she approached the appropriate age, I was told it would not be possible because of lack of space and something regarding the way they pick who goes to the next class. However, I personally observed the director's granddaughter transition out of the same classroom within approximately 2-3 weeks. She doesn't talk, isn't potty trained and is only two months older than my daughter. Her mom confirmed these things to me personally. This raised concerns for me regarding whether policies and opportunities were being applied equally to all families. In addition to these concerns, I often was dismissed when attempting to advocate for my child. Erin's communication style frequently came across as condescending, defensive, racist and lacking empathy whenever concerns were raised. Rather than feeling supported as a parent, I often left interactions feeling unheard and uncomfortable. I also recorded my second raised concern that I had with Erin. So if anyone wants proof on the way she handles things, I will send you the video! There were also instances where staff appeared more focused on phones and side conversations than actively engaging with the children. The environment is more like passive babysitting than a structured educational setting focused on child development and attentive care. My daughter went from talking and being expressive to crying and whining all the time. When I asked to speak to the owner Erin continuously lied and made excuses. For $525 per week (approximately $2,100 per month), parents should be able to expect attentive supervision, professionalism, cleanliness, accountability, and equitable treatment. Unfortunately, that was not my experience. Also the front desk worker Suzie as well is extremely disrespectful. I just left the school so upset that this is the way they handle people who pay their hard earned money. Erin is a liar as well. She claimed I was rude and used profanity when my child was hit on by another child. Which is a lie! Watch the cameras for one full day while your child is there and I PROMISE YOU WILL NOT WANT YOUR CHILD ATTENDING THIS EXPENSIVE BABY SITTER! UPDATE: Notice every response is signed "Karim B. (Owner) mine is "Center Administration and Compliance Team". Erin is in fact a big part of the problem. Parents can draw their own conclusions regarding how concerns are handled when serious safety and supervision issues are raised.

Dear reader.... this is the first time "ever" I am writing a review.... and im doing it with…read moresadness and happiness in my heart... Hapoy because I obviously see what Nasreen has instilled in our two most precious children, how she has cared for and loved them all these years... and much they love her... I was scared about giving them over to someone for their care while we worked during the day... silly me I say now. From learning how to walk and use the potty, both Luke and Layla received more than I had expectet .. and are now ahead of what a normal child would be regardin kindergarten... I could go on for a long long time here... Sad because we moved to MD and will only see her when we come down to Alexandria here and there.... bottom line, i vouch for her without any reservations and if you are looking for a place to not only watch over your childre, but also receive love and real education (absolutely everything, e.g. Luke learned all the planets names and... by distance from the sun in his first week) ... well you found it!!! Nasreen... if you read this... we love and miss you... see you soon

Our daughter started with Nasreen at 10 months old back in 2021. I remember interviewing her, my…read morehusband and baby girl in tow, and we felt nothing but love and consideration for our family in that moment. We were sold! Now at 3.5 years old, our daughter knows her ABCs, can count to 100, spell her name, knows all of the planets in order, shapes, colors, months, days of the week, the list is quite endless. We couldn't recommend Nasreen enough, she is a valuable part of our family!

Sandra was a godsend. As new parents shocked by the cost of daycare, we found safe, reliable…read morecaregivers that we grew to love and trust, and also that our daughter loved to wake up an go to. 3 years in, and Sandra's kiddo's and ours are still good buds.

Sandra has been a great caretaker for our 8-month-old son. We can tell he is well taken care of…read moreduring the day, and we love that he is able to be around other kids and socialize as well, but in a very comfortable and home-like setting (and not in a large daycare center). Being first time parents, we were overwhelmed at all of the options for childcare, but we feel that his care under Sandra has been great for his development. She is also a very good communicator, which is a crucial trait when seeking out a care provider. We highly recommend Sandra's daycare!

This is a small, woman-owned business that I am happy to support. My house was undergoing some work…read morethat required me to be out of the home during the day, and since I work from home, it was challenging. I found Cowo and Crèche, and I am very glad I did! Clean, quiet location, very friendly staff, tons of space to work. I am very comfortable there. I have gone a few times now and will be back. This location would also be great for events. It's a place I will keep in mind for future events, as they have a great space. Highly recommended.

Great location for co-working and for hosting group events! Really enjoyed the time I got to spend…read morecollaborating during the group event I attended, and really grateful to meet the owners! Look forward to going again soon!

We are so happy we found Hamdi's Childcare. Hamdi and her staff are excellent with the children and…read morehave become like family to us. The daycare is super clean with lots of activities for the children. Hamdi spends a lot time teaching them and reading with them and I honestly believe it is the reason why my 2 year old is so well spoken. I have a 2 year old, who has been at Hamdi's since he was 4 months and now I have a 6 month old with her as well. I trust her and her staff wholeheartedly with my children. We are so grateful that our kids are wonderfully cared for everyday. I can't say enough good things about Hamdi's Childcare!

Wonderful place. Hamdi is just awesome! she cared for both of my kids. highly recommend herread more

I was in DC for a 2-day work trip with full-day meetings and needed someone who could come to my…read morehotel so I could continue exclusively breastfeeding my 8-month-old between sessions. Honestly, it's really hard to trust a service like this with your baby, especially in a city away from home. I had a few things in place so I could keep an eye on my daughter throughout the day, and because of that, I know she was genuinely well cared for. Alison from The Educated Babysitter was great. She arrived on time, took my daughter on walks outside, changed diapers, and kept her happy and comfortable throughout the day. By the second day, even the hotel staff knew my baby and would stop to say hi. The only reason I'm taking the time to write this review is because I know there are other moms in similar situations trying to balance work travel and motherhood, and trusted childcare like this can make all the difference.

Good babysitter was provided for me the first time but when I reached out again two other times for…read moreadditional babysitter service, I was told that they would get back to me regarding whether or not they could get a babysitter for the requested date/time. I was pretty much ghosted and never received a follow up response...on two occassions.

Deba Daycare is a wonderful, loving environment. We have been sending our children there for five…read moreyears and have never been disappointed with the love and attention they receive. When we started looking at daycares years ago we looked at Deba's and a larger facility. We decided to go with a small, in-home daycare because the our children have kept the same caregivers for all these years - they know them and they love them. Everyone at Deba's has become part of the family - even their own family! i highly recommend checking out Deba's (and be sure to look at the backyard which is lovely).

We found Deba and enrolled our son when he was 5 months old after our Nanny Share did not work out…read moreas expected. My only regret is that we did not find her earlier! Deba and her staff are so wonderful! They truly love the children and care for each one so well. Some of our sons first words were the names of Deba's assistants! I never hesitate to ask questions to Deba or any of the other ladies and they are always willing to chat to understand better for themselves or to help teach me. My son has an egg allergy which requires an epi-pen. I have no doubts that they are alert about his allergy and never guess on what he can and cannot eat. My son is currently 16 months - we are coming up on one year at Deba Daycare.

My almost-four-year-old son currently attends Griffin Academy. We are working parents and needed…read morefull-day care, and we did a pretty exhaustive search in the area for an affordable preschool. I cannot BELIEVE how lucky we are to have found this place. Let me tell you why you should send your kids here. Even before I talk about my son's experience, I need to mention how well this program is run. Kristine Lee, the preschool director, is one of the warmest, kindest, most competent and professional humans with whom I've had the pleasure of interacting. She was so responsive and helpful throughout our enrollment process that we felt like we were already family members from the first contact. This was not our experience with other preschool programs. Many private preschools, like the one our older daughter attended, have strict arbitrary rules, parent work hour requirements, and intimidating admission processes that (for us) made us feel a tiny bit unwelcome. None of this from Westminster. This private school, with its classical focus, has managed to wrap us in its arms and surround us with a community of funny, warm, and down-to-earth people. It feels EASY, not stressful, to attend school here. As private school first-timers, we had to adjust to uniforms, but it's been no sweat. Teachers. We knew that our son liked his teacher, and that she (and all of the Griffin teachers) had been kind to him, and patient as he adjusted to a full day of school. We were so incredibly impressed when we met her in person at back-to-school night. Beyond having exactly the personality you would want for a preschool teacher (gentle, nurturing, and understanding), Miss Horner brings incredible expertise and professional knowledge to her job as classroom teacher. I myself am a board-certified teacher, so I have some clue about what they do, and my son's teacher is at the top of her game. Literally every aspect of her students' experience seems to have been designed with their development in mind. Everything in the classroom is accessible to the children, with the goal of fostering their independence, improving their fine and gross motor skills, and promoting harmony. The children are taught to greet each other respectfully, refer to their classmates as "friends", and express appreciation frequently. We toured other schools in our search, and at some well-known schools, we were dismayed to notice that the teachers did not seem to have a loving relationship with their students. My son's teachers LOVE him, and it shows. This was the single most important thing that we as parents were looking for. Every child deserves to experience preschool in a class like my son's, and we cannot overstate how fortunate we feel to have landed here. Here are some other fun things that we love: - They go on field trips (on the Westminster bus!) on almost a monthly basis. That is so many out-of-class experiences! - Each classroom has an imaginative play area that changes monthly (post office! garden! cave! grocery store!). - You can pack your child's lunch, OR order hot lunch from their service! Or both! - Excite Soccer offers a short after-school class on Thursdays, and our son goes to this and LOVES it. - French. Library. Music. Science. Our preschooler's schedule is as varied and rich as our 1st-grader's. My son is a wiggly little boy. Was I worried that he wouldn't have enough opportunity to move and play in the course of his rigorous classical education? I was. I've got one word for you: GYMNASIUM. If you can show me another preschool where kids get to run around a huge gym first thing every single morning, I'll be astonished. My guy comes home happy and tired every day. I'm typing all of this because when we were looking for preschools, there weren't a lot of parent reviews to read, and parents need to know that this wonderful option is available. Look no further!

Our son went to Griffin Academy for preschool and he attended some of the Griffin camps (winter,…read morespring, summer.) Griffin Academy is part of the Westminster School, however, it is on a different campus and it is run by a different headmaster. So first, I must say that this review is for Griffin Academy not Westminster as we do not have any experience with Westminster directly. The best part of Griffin Academy is the teaching staff (actually, all of the staff) and the facilities. If you take a tour of the facilities I have no doubt you will be very impressed. Having an indoor gym-type of space in the winter was hugely beneficial. Also, the teaching staff was excellent, and I mean really excellent. My son had a primary teacher who he adored and then he did rotate through other teachers who teach specialty subjects, and they all got to know him and I was really impressed with all of them. The expectations, educationally, were set very high which works well for my son and our family because I felt that he was pushed just the right amount. The class sizes are small so the teachers are really able to work with the kids at the level that they are at. They also worked a lot on his manners and his social interactions. My son came out of Griffin at age 4, able to sight read entire books on his own, silently, to himself. So educationally, I cannot fault Griffin at all; I was very impressed. Our son was definitely not bored, which is a big thing for us. The hours that they provide childcare/school for are also very good for working parents, as they provide a variety of options to allow the parents to be able to choose and manage the hours of school and childcare that they need. The price was also surprisingly much more affordable than a lot of other preschools. The only reason I am not giving the school 5 stars is because, just out of bad luck, is our son really didn't have that many other boys in his class, so unfortunately a lot of the stereotypical boy activities, he was not able to partake in to the fullest extent of what he would have preferred, so I ended up having to enroll him in some outside extracurricular activities (karate, etc.) just to kind of make up that deficit. The class he was in was almost all girls. However, as I say, I realize that experience was probably just unique to us and unfortunate due to the way the classes broke down. The reason that is a big deal to me is my son needs a lot of physical activity to get his energy out and that really requires him basically running around like a maniac playing soccer, etc. He is already at the age where he doesn't want to play what he thinks of as girly games so that was a bit of an issue during the school times, was not having enough physical activity for his liking. (***During the camps sessions it was a better mixture of boys and girls so this problem actually completely went away for us during all of the Griffin camp sessions.) The only other pretty minor complaint I had about the school was at times I felt they were a bit too strict on some things that I myself am pretty relaxed on - especially the "clean your plate" mentality, I am not really that into. On the flip side, his manners were much improved and he is able to do a lot more on his own and for himself than he was when he went into Griffin, so I have mixed feelings about that. All in all, I would really recommend Griffin, it is a very good preschool, and when our daughter is old enough we will probably be sending our daughter there.

I have had the worst experiences when it comes to childcare in the DMV. When I first applied to…read moreCelebree, I could not believe how open, transparent, and informed they were. There was a little bit of a waiting period because the school wasn't open just yet. But during that wait period, my son and I still had a chance to interact with both the teachers and the parents. Every question I had was answered with meaningful intention. They truly and honestly made it feel like a second home for my toddler. The time and attention given to each parent, child, and staff member shows how much effort is put into upholding the Celebree Values. * Communication: 10/10 They use the "HiMama" app where everything from the fire drills to the daily report is consistently uploaded daily. Recently my toddler was sick and had to stay home for a week. If I didn't reach out to the team someone from the team would reach out to check on him. * Culture: 10/10 They focus a lot on the kids and parents comfortability. If my son isn't feeling well or is just having a bad day they go above and beyond to understand what's going rather than just brush it off as an off day. They have parent events to have the parents connect with not only the teachers but other parents as well. * Curriculum: 10/10 I love the structure the curriculum because it's geared more towards comprehension and not solely memorization. For example: He knows how to count to 20 but does he know what the quantity actually looks like. * Procedures and Policies: 10/10 Safety is a number one priority for me so I spent a lot of time interviewing them about the safety procedures and policies. They have a policy in place for every and any issue you could possible think of. They have an open door policy and I can't count the amount of time I have dropped in to say hi or ask questions. * Facility: 10/10 I love that everything is always clean and childproof. The playground is on top of the roof which I know sounds like the most dangerous thing but the security around the playground is very reassuring. The structure of the multiple fences does not allow any devastating accidents. They do not leave the building outside of fire drills. The toys and books are up-to-date and well kept. Everything is very aesthetically pleasing. * Staff: 10/10 Each and every teacher has been amazing! My son is extremely excited each day to go to school so that he can see his teachers and friends. Life happens and sometimes teachers have to rotate out but the quality of care does not change. The staff makes sure know each student whether they are in their class or not. The Admin team really is the DREAM TEAM! The work like a well oiled machine the way the support each other, the staff, the kids, and the parents. * Ms. Shawn has to be one of the best support manager. She takes her time to connect with every student and parent. When I have a problem she has already began working on the solution! One moment she will bring doing Admin duties and the next she is in the classes teaching the kids. She does a lot of work to make sure the needs of everyone in the Celebree Family is met. * Ms. Jana is AH-MAY-ZING! She is the conductor of this train. Although she has worked in childcare for many years she is not jaded and somehow is able to give each child and parent consistent love and care. She brought us in and made sure we felt like family. She has even improved my parenting with all types of advice, tips, and tricks. * Mr. Mohammad and Mrs. Ayesha have been welcoming and open from the very beginning. I was hesitant because you never really get to form a bond with the owners of a daycare but they make sure to not just "show face" but actively be inside of the classrooms assisting the teachers with anything they need. I really wanted to make sure that this team of amazing people received their praises! I really appreciate each and every person that is apart of the Celebree Family.

Our experience at Celebree School was profoundly disappointing, and I feel it is my responsibility…read moreto warn other families before they enroll. While the individual classroom teachers are wonderful, kind, and clearly doing their best, the management and operational practices are completely unacceptable. From an administrative standpoint, management consistently put enrollment numbers and profit over the well-being of the children: Constant Shuffling & Neglected Basic Needs: Our boys were constantly shuffled between classrooms all morning to make room for new infant enrollments. Because of this, they were pushed into older classrooms before they had even learned to feed themselves. On multiple occasions, our children were sent home having barely been fed all day because the teachers in the older rooms were overwhelmed and unable to assist them. Health & Safety: The facility environment led to our children getting continuously sick with severe illnesses for an entire year straight--while, of course, full tuition was strictly charged every single time. Questionable Financial Practices: Management solicited funds from parents for teacher holiday and appreciation gifts, claiming it was for a group fund, only to withhold or refuse to disburse the money when the time came. The teachers who actually care for our kids are being shortchanged. It breaks my heart because the frontline teachers are wonderful people, but upper management is completely mismanaged and untrustworthy. Save your money, your peace of mind, and most importantly, your children's health and well-being, and look elsewhere for childcare.