It's been years since I sent my son to The Learning Circle, but I'm still left with a terrible taste in my mouth pertaining to the administrative staff and owner. I watched the owner take advantage of both parents and employees during the COVID childcare crisis. Trusting toddlers to their own devices is the only thing I'd recommend less than trusting the owner with your hard earned money. If you need childcare and cannot get a spot anywhere else, The Learning Circle makes its case for a lackluster temporary alternative. They've purchased positive reviews on other review sites, which makes me cringe at the lack of responsibility they're willing to take for improved business practices. read more

My son has been with The Learning Circle--Somerville since the age of 7 months. He is now 3.2 years old and has started to show some unwanted behavior. To help guide my son to behave in better ways, the directors and I met about implementing a behavior plan. However, * The daily sheets they sent home each day critiqued the undesirable behavior and never recognized the improvements my son made over a short period of time * One week after creating a behavior plan, my son was having a difficult week and exhibited more of the unwanted behavior. I was never given the opportunity to schedule a time to meet with the directors about this matter in person, the meeting time had to be on their terms. As a single working mom, that was not an option. * The directors never followed through with the plan, instead they expelled my 3-year-old son from the preschool program by email (with less than 24 hrs notice at midnight). The least acceptable option to inform me of the expulsion should have been a phone call, not an email. The best and most professional way to inform me would have been an in person meeting. read more

I see the staff lead kids on walks through the neighborhood on a daily basis, and never, ever, once have I heard them talking to the kids. No pointing out interesting things. No asking the kids what something is called. No singing a song together, no chatting one-on-one. Honestly, it's concerning to think that these are people who claim to be doing anything related to learning, at least from the dozens of hours I've happened to observe them in action. read more

My experience working here was traumatic. I noticed many instances of teachers throwing and grabbing children. They would swear and yell at the children and swear and talk about explicit content in front of them. Most of the workers here were burnt out, fed up and unable to provide appropriate care. When staff reviews came, I wrote the above concerns. The director pulled me from class and forced me to erase what I had wrote, and write a new statement that was not exposing the abuse. My schedule was full time with the exception of one hour on mondays. Monday's I went to the doctor to receive treatment for a disability. One day the director pulled me from class and made me bring all my stuff. They said they found out about my disability and said it made me a safety risk to the kids. This is completely untrue. They forced me to resign. Looking back I realize how illegal all of this was and I wish I could take more steps to abolish the entire company. Don't send your kids here. They are still toxic and under qualified. read more

The owner is not a pleasant person. Happily, we found this out as part of her telling us it was our fault for not acting fast enough. I feel like we dodged a bullet. read more

I would never ever send my Child to the Learning Circle.!! The teachers are really nice .!!! Julie and Danna are really mean to the teacher.!!! I have heard Julie yell at the teachers when I came to pick up my child.!! Danna has had a really big attitude towards the teachers.!! The office does not follow the covoid 19 rules.!! I have ask a lot of questions and about the covid 19 rules and the office says that that it is ok when it is not ok.!! I am going to pull my child from this center.!! I hope that one day that Julie will learn how to treat the parents.!! read more

I'm going to be the voice of dissent here. My daughter went to The Learning Circle from 8 months to almost 3 years. We only pulled her out because we moved. I did find the owner to make questionable decisions, I did not like her at all and was glad that she was rarely there and in that I agree with the other reviews. There were several policies that I thought were great though: No sugary snacks, and no clothing propagating violence (including superhero clothing). The kids go outside every day - all ages, weather permitting. They also allowed cloth diapers. We loved all the women who worked there. Whenever we came by the infant room, there would be someone happily sitting under an adorable small pile of babies, reading or doing some sort of activity. I don't recall our daughter ever being strapped in a bouncer - certainly not every day. She was promoted to the toddler room before she was able to walk (she walked late), and did well there. She was certainly not discouraged from learning. In the toddler green room, we especially LOVED Erica. She seemed to just adore her kids - she would actually cry when the kids left or were promoted to the other rooms. We always got daily updates on our daughter's progress. Whenever we came, they were always drawing, singing, playing with legos or engaged in some sort of activity. A lot of times, we'd meet Erica out on the street when we were coming by early, and she would be carrying our daughter, who was always the smallest (she carried some of the other smaller children sometimes too) while the other kids would be strapped in the carriage - because "they were too cute not to carry." Were there things other daycares did that I thought were better? Sure, and sometimes I was jealous. Do others have more space? Of course. Was I a fan of the owner and front desk staff? No. But I always felt like I was leaving my daughter in a stimulating, kind, caring environment, and for that I am thankful. I don't really understand the reviewer who says that kids don't hit for no reason, and accused the daycare provider of lying - in fact every parent I know had a kid who went through exactly that phase at age 2 or 3. Mine certainly did (it sucked). read more

I don't write a lot of yelp reviews, but i think it's necessary in this case. My child has been going to The Learning Circle on Highland Ave. for over a year and we have loved the experience. The teachers are kind, extremely hands-on, thoughtful, communicative and responsive to any questions I have. I get in trouble with my daughter for "picking her up too early"! She never wants to go home. She's 3 and has already learned to write letters, numbers and knows the alphabet in sign language! They have gone above and beyond my expectations. I was very apprehensive about putting my child in daycare, but it has turned out to be a great experience for us. All of the other parents I am in communication with (who have children in the same class) agree with me, which is why I feel it's necessary to write this review. read more

My daughter has been here since 3 months old in the infant room. My wife and I can't say enough good things about the care she receives here. We love it and our daughter always seems to be super happy when we pick her up. read more

Our daughter was here for a couple years, but once she got old enough we pulled her. The infant care was good- Joan was great. But we found that there were number of problems. In many cases, it seemed just like glorified babysitting. Many staff members were quite nice, others seemed to care less, and the owner didn't really make good choices, in my opinion. She hardly ever seemed to be there, actually. 1. Our daughter was slow to begin walking and crawling. I blame that at least party on the fact that she was always strapped in a bouncy when we came to get her. It was as if, because she couldn't walk, or wasn't crawling well enough, she wasn't even allowed to try, because it was inconvenient for the 'teachers.' Once we pulled her out her development sped up noticeably. 2. Every time it snowed, they cancelled. And made us pay for those days anyway. And later I found out they did not pay their own employees for that time. So it was in their best interest to cancel school as much as possible, which they did. Snowfall=windfall. 3. We did not, at first, realize that we needed to pay for the days when they did not provide care, so we didn't. They never mentioned anything until months later, when they suddenly announced that we owed hundreds of dollars, all for the days they were not open. When we told them we did not have the money at that moment, and tried to arrange a payment situation, the owner had her husband, who does not work there and is a cop, call to pressure us to pay. Unprofessional, annoying, insulting, and just wrong. 4. When we toured the place, the owner told my mother-in-law (a pediatrician) that she had a PhD from Harvard in early childhood education. Later we found out she did not actually have the PhD, but was actually currently enrolled in the program. Probably at the Extension School. Also, the parking situation is a nightmare. All in all... go somewhere else, if you can manage it. read more

Our daughter had a wonderful time at both the somerville and cambridge locations, with slight preference on the somerville location. They were very flexible in how we can schedule her at the daycare. We had very great time at a very reasonable price for somerville/cambridge area. The teachers are very nice. read more

In response to Erica C., my son never just hit another child. This is not me being a protective parent but rather an observer of his behavior. Rather than doing the job we paid them to do, take care of our son, the teachers and owner are chicken out at the first sign of difficulty. That is called being a lazy ass. Bottom line is TLC still sucks. read more

Last week, on a call with the center, I was told I could not sign my child up until I toured the facility. I currently live in another state and am moving to Somerville. I asked if I could do a video tour or secure a spot for a few days. Julie said this was not possible. I moved business travel around and made a 3pm appointment for today. I paid $40 for a Lyft from the Financial District. I filled out paperwork and toured the facility. It was only at that point that Julie let me know that she gave the spot to a family that came in earlier in the day. When I told her that I tried to expedite this as much as possible and flew 1,000 miles to tour the location, Julie responded "Didn't you come to Boston for work?" Due to this poor customer service experience, I will not consider this location and I ask all parents to keep this in mind. read more

Amazing preschool. Having my child attend this preschool lifts a huge burden off my shoulders. My little girl is in love with learning under the careful and experienced hands of the staff at The Learning Circle. This school truly exceeds my expectations! I know my girl is receiving the best education possible with the dedication of the staff at TLC. I definitely wouldn't look any further than this preschool for your young toddlers! read more

Very unreliable, unresponsive staff. We went to visit the school a few months ago and got a good impression of the space and the people working there. Just recently we tried to reach the school to see if they had a spot for our son. We called a few times, sent multiple emails via their website and directly to the director and the staff of the school and never heard back from them. It's been two weeks now, and the lack of any communication from their side does not - in my opinion - speak highly on the quality of the people running the school. read more

This daycare is the victim of unfortunate circumstances: the owner/director Julie. The teachers are nice and sweet, but this family run business ran off our child's teacher because the unbalanced sister of the director (a teacher there) got in an argument with the teacher and called the teacher by some inappropriate names. The director then lied to the parents saying the teacher left for school, and in addition did not allow the teacher to say goodbye to the kids (some of whom she's been with for years). Additionally, on the day of the worst snow this winter, the gates to the parking lot were closed BEFORE the allowed drop off time (yes, you can't bring your child late to this daycare) forcing us to unload our child in the dangerous, un-plowed street. They also seem to have issues disciplining children as a friend of ours had to pick up their child numerous times. This is a child who although a little hyper is by no means bad. Seriously? Sending kids home is how you help youngsters learn how to be people? Unfortunately these are not lone incidents in the abuse of the directors limited power. We should have known better when we received a handbook saying that our child could be asked to leave if his/her parents "disrespect the director". Although we love the teachers (with the exception of the director's sister), we would not recommend this place to our worst enemy solely due to the awful experience with the detestable family management of this daycare. read more

The owner Julie of this school do not treat her employees in good manner at all. My mom worked at this place for about four years and she is 60. Lately she had tendinitis pain in shoulder and constantly bagging them to give her light work while she was in therapy and was told to bring a letter from doctor. She took letter of therapy tho they said that they need a letter from the doctor and they pushed her to do heavy work, that considered pushing a cart of 10 kids for a mile or more. They made her push the cart and now she have tissue damage. After this whole incident when I call Julie for her workers comp claim she gave me rediculous answers and made up a totally different story saying that my mom told her that she got injured by falling from a bus when my mom doesn't even travel in bus right now also we live two blocks away so she walks. Now when I send them another letter saying she can't do heavy lifting. And instead of putting in room where there isn't lot of work, julie terminated my mom. Which was not ok. I want you all to know that this person never pay attention to how the things are going in her day care and because of her stupidness my mom lost her job. So please be aware of putting any of your kids in this day care where the owner is so self centered that would not care about women of her moms age. God knows if she could even teach the kids about respecting their elders!!!! read more