Disclaimer: Part of my wait in reviewing was in part of a fear in retaliation --in that our family can be smeared negatively in a reply by the director-- but ultimately, as a reader of this review, you can do with it what you will. This is just a summary of our experience. May yours be better if you choose to go with The Wave.
Our son started at The Wave in June 2023 shortly after he turned 2. We previously had him enrolled in a daycare since he was 7 months as we are both working parents. This was our first experience with a preschool and we were enamored with its promise.
The Red Room (2 year olds) was full of support: Miss Megan, Miss Debbie, Miss Sherrill. The after school and summer program was amazing: Miss Sharon --who helped us with napping and potty training advice --and Miss Kristi --who always loved on my son --were standouts. We were gracious when our son was bitten (teeth marks and bruise left on his hip) early on into enrollment, but it was because we are understanding that toddlers can be toddlers. We came to every event, supported the book orders, and were genuinely smitten and communicative with our teachers. Being a public school teacher myself, I try to be the parent I wish to have supporting me --one that works as a team in student-centered goals.
In fall 2024, things started to go awry. The Yellow Room (3 year olds) had a teacher who left due to starting a family and the position was filled by someone who went to preschool and church at Beachpoint. She was co-partnered with another teacher whose demeanor is quite cold. The majority of the class were girls. As August turned into September, we started getting behavioral reports for our son. We met with the director, Mr. Gabe, and set goals. We were cooperative, but my husband did bring up the point that my son either never had problems prior to this school year's room assignment or were never notified. We believe the latter point struck a nerve with Mr. Gabe as the behavioral forms turned from one a week into one given every day or even multiple times a day. Things that ranged from throwing toys (which we held him accountable for --we are not delusional when it comes to parenting) to playing with the decor (they had used a salt and pepper shaker and turned them into some decorations) and running towards pumpkins. We were called for early pick ups (once we dropped him off at 10:20 after an appointment and were called back to pick him up at 10:57 am) which was a struggle for two working parents to arrange coverage and run to grab our son. We met again with Mr. Gabe and he gave us the opportunity to change rooms mid-October. Miss Bell was a blessing and for two weeks, our son was improving and Mr. Gabe said he "couldn't wait to partner with us." Then, at the end of October, he left us a voicemail to set up another meeting. Conveniently, the end of the month was when our tuition was already paid. He wanted to dismiss our son.
Concurrently, Miss Vanessa at the front office had suggested we get our son assessed. I was unclear on what he needed an assessment for, but as a teacher and parent, I wanted to make sure I was cooperative and checked off the efforts. Fountain Valley School District was phenomenal (shout out to their school psych Mr. Justin) and was able to observe our son at The Wave. After much effort (we had to take work off to be on hand for the asssessments), our son did not qualify for autism nor speech delays. It was just further validation that our son was ...a 3 year old boy being a 3 year old boy.
I waited almost a year to post this review because I wanted to be able to look back and fairly examine what we went through. I now have the hindsight to understand that I had "dream school" goggles on. I see more clearly now that the school really worked with families that had easy daughters or obedient sons. Mr. Gabe even said, per our dismissal, that his school follows the teachings of "Jesus who goes after every lost lamb" but that unfortunately his school didn't have resources that we needed. I bring this up because in the winter, we enrolled our son at another preschool, and he is THRIVING... and the school has no more resources than The Wave. What they do have are all experienced teachers of 15+years who have huge hearts and patience for littles. I was initially ashamed of being "kicked out" of The Wave, but when I shared everything that we went through, the new school's director just said... "Your son's been on this earth for what...3 years? He's a boy. He's a kid. He's learning!" We haven't had an issue and he'll attend TK there next year.
To top it off, some of the Wave teachers still keep in touch with us and after his dismissal, a few dropped off gifts or attended his tball games (in the spring too). It's a conflict of interest as it's their work place, but I think they empathized for our experience and loved our son.
It was a hard lesson to learn, but if you are a parent, don't be afraid of your intuition. read more
