So, we toured this place for our daughter and would recommend it. We did end up going with a…read moredifferent daycare because it was closer to our place and just as amazing as this one. The infant room is very clean and the adult to child ratio is what we would have wanted for our baby which was 4 to 1 adult.... The staff were very nice and it's a very clean facility. If we end up moving closer, we will definitely enroll our child!

My only regret is we didn't start sooner! My son attended camp at the Nest prior to starting…read morekindergarten. Though it was only a few months, he learned more than he ever did at two other preschool centers in Lorton. He not only learned skills like sight reading and sign language, but he learned so much about the structures that would be in place in kindergarten. The transition from the Nest to kindergarten has been great- I truly believe it is because of the care they gave him and the boundaries they held. We planned on sending my daughter as well, but a late change to her IEP modified our plans. Despite unenrolling her from the Nest with very notice, the management took the time to understand our situation and did not penalize us for the late withdraw. They truly care about children and do everything they can do support. We are forever grateful!

We love American Day School! Our daughter has thrived in the infants classroom. She gets so excited…read morewhen she sees her teachers and classmates at drop off and she's always in a great mood when we pick her up. Her teachers are incredibly caring and loving and have helped our daughter grow into a happy toddler. She's learned so much at ADS and as parents, we feel so confident in the school and the community. Highly recommend!

When looking for childcare, times can get a bit stressful. As a family, we wanted to have our kids…read morein a comfortable environment where they would feel safe and taken care of. I am a military veteran and we were looking for childcare under the 'Childcare Aware' program. Within this program, we were blocked into looking at certain childcare centers and what we discovered is that is not necessarily a model built to take care of each family as an individual. As we know, there is no cookie cutter fit for each child into a particular center. Knowing this, we decided to seek childcare outside of the 'Childcare Aware' program and to go with one that fit our family.....our child. I can tell you American Day School (ADS), under the leadership of Ms. Pilar Mackay, Ms. Nicole and the rest of the educators, exceeded our expectations. Every morning while dropping off our daughter she was greeted (as well as us) as if she was the most important person around. They do this with each and every kid. We know the love and safety is a focus there because every time our daughter would see a friend of hers outside of school they would always run to each other and give the best hugs. They were always soooo excited to see one another. At ADS their goal is to provide a positive environment where the children develop a sense of community, are confident, and have fun learning. Having our daughter experience ADS set her up for success when she reached Kindergarten. During her time at ADS she developed her counting well beyond 100, was completing math equations, knew all of her letters (capital and lower case), and was writing her name. Kindergarten has been a breeze for her. She's been very confident and a leader in her class and the teachers have continued to work with her on her math equations once they noticed she was already performing well enough at them. There is no doubt from us that our daughter could her gone to first grade after her Pre-K year with ADS. Our daughter spent a total of two years with ADS (Preschool 2 and Pre-K). If you are looking for a great head start for you kid(s), I think you owe it to yourselves and your little one(s) to give ADS a look.

Serious delay in security deposit refund. My daughter graduated from Guideposts West Alex, VA…read morelocation in July 2025. Nine months later, we still have not received her refund despite countless phone calls and email follow-ups. At one point they claimed a refund check had been issued and mailed, but they could not provide any documentation when asked. After that, they stopped responding entirely. We never received the check. Now it appears they are switching ownership and are using that as an excuse not to issue the refund. This level of unprofessionalism and stonewalling is infuriating -- we trusted this company and they have betrayed that trust. What a shady, irresponsible company.

We've had an incredibly positive experience with Guidepost West Alex…read more Our daughter has thrived in both the Toddler cohort, and now since turning 3, in Children's House. The guides foster an environment of curiosity and learning, and I love hearing our daughter talk about the activities and conversations she has throughout the day. Interactions are positive and numerous. This ranges from warm greetings in the morning to getting updates via Smart Classroom to weekly email updates to 1:1 meetings with the guides. We always feel included and in-the-loop on what's going on in the school broadly and how our daughter is doing specifically. From a leadership and administrative perspective, there has been a positive shift since Ms. Mary started in the Summer of 2022. There is a strong sense of community throughout the school, including after-school and outside-of-school events and meetups. She and her leadership team are always accessible and open. If you notice all the sub-par reviews are old and are from prospective parents. I want to recognize that we experienced some of those same challenges too, however the caveat is that this was with the prior leadership team and during COVID when admissions had a modified onboarding process. As a current parent I have full trust for the guides and administrative team to do what's best for our daughter's physical, emotional, and cognitive safety and development.

Consider this daycare if you want to spend $100 to be ghosted…read more... We are a military family who moved to the DMV last year and were expecting our first baby in the spring. When we figured out where we would be living we started our search for daycares and wound up deciding to do a tour of this daycare. The daycare seems very nice and I really liked what they had to offer so we decided to get on the waitlist for the summer. We were directed to go to their website and pay a $100 waitlist fee. We were also told that because we were military we shouldn't have a hard time getting into the school and the summer had good turnover. When the summer came we contacted the school because we were a couple months away from needing daycare and had not heard a single thing from them. I called, spoke to someone who claimed they could help with enrollment and they confirmed they had us on the waitlist and they said yes, you definitely will have a spot even if it's maybe a week after you requested.I followed up again a couple weeks later and heard the same thing but nothing was ever solidified, it was always don't worry, we'll call you. Today, 10 months after my baby was born I can say I've never heard from them. They just took our $100 and never followed through. Being a first time mom and being stressed out about going back to work I didn't want to continue to stress out about maybe getting into this daycare and having to hound them so we decided to shop around. We found a fantastic daycare that we love in downtown Alexandria. It still irritates me that they took $100 from us and didn't bat an eye. I knew going into it that it was a non-refundable $100, however I expected at the very least for me to hear about getting in or not- even if it was a rejection. It's frustrating how stressful it was for me when it didn't need to be so be warned- prepare to have to keep on top of this daycare or even just waste $100! Good luck!

Our two daughters spent 4 years at Bright Start, and my wife and I were amazed at how quickly they…read moreprogressed. My oldest could recognize letters and numbers, as well as perform simple addition before she turned 4. My youngest has a vocabulary far exceeding her age. Neither my wife nor I can take credit for their progress, all credit goes to Bright Start's one-of-a-kind staff. I'm so glad we put my daughters here, it's easily the best day care in the area.

Reviewing the Nest Academy on Mt Vernon: It's scary having…read moreto find a new daycare but I had one video call with the principle and immediately knew this was the place :) The principle is literally your favorite Filipino auntie and her energy is infectious. She works incredibly hard at her job and it shows. And you can tell the whole place is filled with her joy. The staff love working with children and are always happy to welcome you and your child at the beginning of the day and wish you well at the end. There's a strong sense of community here - really fitting within the Del Ray neighborhood. There's even a Fb group for parents to connect and we've used it to announce birthday parties, exchange items and tips, coordinate thank you gestures for the teachers, and dare I say sometimes gently complain! Of course every daycare will have some annoying logistics but at the end of the day, my child is loved and cared for and that's what's important. Also, logistically - they qualify for child care aware for my military families and they have the best hours in the area (7am-6pm). Most other places are 730-530 and that extra 30min on both sides are crucial for my family and our work situation.

I wanted to express my thanks and appreciation to Mr. Adada and Nest Academy for their tremendous…read moresupport of the Del Ray community. While I have several neighbors and friends that currently or have had in the past, their children enrolled at Nest Academy and speak extremely highly of their time at Nest Academy, I do not have children enrolled. But I can speak on behalf of Mr. Adada's continual and generous support of the community, including numerous children's events. He has either sponsored or allowed us to use his parking lot during our Halloween Parade and "Best Decorated Stroller" event, during Art on the Avenue with attendance at over 50,000 and numerous other events often supporting non-profits such as Friends of Duncan Library and Senior Services. Thank you for your great work in shaping little lives and for all you do for the community.

This review is based off the staff member Valentina. I started here and on my first day this woman…read morewas so rude to me and quite frankly if shes like this to staff, she doesnt need to be around children. The owner says "that's just who she is." That is no excuse for someone to be such a horrible and hateful person. I was told she ran out the girl who I replaced! She is a nasty person.

I am taking time to write this review and share our journey. With our dd (dearest daughter) we…read morestarted off with a nanny for about 9 months. The experience was not favorable and we concluded that it was just not a good fit for our family. Plus at 9 months, we felt it very important to get her around other children and have more engaged time during the day. Enter the search for childcare in the Washington, DC Metro area!!! eeeeek! I researched, interviewed, and toured over 15(+) schools in DC, MD and VA. We ended up on the waitlist at 4 schools... Flagstone, Madison, ADS and BH Carlyle. Within a month our dd started at Flagstone in the infant room and after the experience with our nanny, needless to say, I was petrified to leave my child with anyone... BUT Miss Keisha, Miss Suriya, Miss I and Miss Dawn were amazing in the infant room! Not only were they kind and gentle with our daughter, but you can tell there was a genuine LOVE for her and all the babies in their care. Over a short period, we really felt apart of the Flagstone family and watched as our daughter flourished into an independent, loving and outgoing little lady. Needless to say, there is not a perfect childcare facility. The place is a bit older and does not have all the bells and whistles of some of the newer day schools in the area. With that said, Flagstone has the BEST outdoor space in Old Town and children go out twice a day. That is super important to our family. Also, most of the staff has been at the school for over 10 years, which is huge in an industry with high turnover. The biggest plus for us is the staff. The teachers and administrators have a genuine LOVE for each and every child, whether they are in their classrooms or not. It truly is a family environment and that is what we want and need in a day school. Since our daughter started at Flagstone, we have received offers from the other 3 schools and politely declined. We LOVE Flagstone and our Flagstone Family!

My family and I love La Petite. The Director really cares about our children and making sure she is…read moresupporting the teachers in the classroom. She greets us every more and a small conversation in the afternoon. My daughter's teachers are excited to see her and greet us with a smile and my daughter gets a hug. It was a smooth transition and the teachers are really caring. I love the live camera feed it helps us stay connected to her learning. They have made it an easy transition to go back to work.

I preface my review with that I did not send my child here (yet) but I went for a tour. The staff…read morewas pleasant but it was clear they are trying to staff up and get more kids at this center. I liked that the staff seemed generally friendly, they have a meal calendar for the kids, and the preschool looked active and lively. The infant -toddler room kind of looked sad though. Kind of inactive and quiet, I guess is the best way to describe it. And I have a toddler. It was a small room and I think it would be better to separate the two rooms but I think it might be a staffing issue? Either way maybe down the road I may consider them, as it is a close enough location which may suit our childcare needs. But nothing really wowed me from that visit for a toddler.

This is the second year our child has attended Saint Christopher's preschool. The staff really care…read moreabout the kids, and the small environment makes for a wonderful, nurturing, personalized experience. Our child first attended 2 days/week as a 2.5YO and his vocabulary exploded thanks to his time with the teachers, staff, and classmates. Each class enjoys daily outdoor time, science class, music class, and special activities like a traveling petting zoo, puppet shows, etc. We receive updates & pictures every day via an app. The tuition is reasonable (honestly I think they should raise it, as it is lower than other schools we toured). Highly recommend this school. You won't be disappointed.

This is the third year of my daughter in this wonderful preschool. I feel I am lucky to know this…read morepreschool for my daughter. It is a small preschool, hidden as a nest. The school has a lot of activities for kids, and I love they have music and science classes every week. My daughter loves all teachers here; from her 1st year class - Ms.Megan, to her 2nd year in the Duck class - Mrs.Nistchke, and Mrs.Avarez and then Mrs.Mc Gilley and Ms.Conor in her 3rd year at Ponnies's class. My daughter also loves Mrs.Waddington - the Music and science teacher. She came home yesterday, and talked to us about the moon and the sun, how they move and solar eclipse! The teachers are knowledgeable and very caring. We always felt welcome, the Director - Mrs.Huff and Mrs.Branch welcome families on every morning. The school has created a memorial journey to my daughter. I can't say thank you enough!