Great small child care center. The owners are very nice. It is bring your own lunch though. They…read moreprovide snacks. in case you forget or don't have lunch they provide something hot for the kids to eat. And give something light for breakfast as well. Your kids will definitely learn as older and younger are grouped together and sit around a table for lesson time. There is a big yard for them to run around. The place could use some updating but nothing really negative to say. If we didnt have.to move we would still be here. I recommend this place to anyone

If you are looking for a safe, caring, clean, engaging, and fun place for your precious little one…read more- look no more! My son has been going to the Little People's Place for two years, and the only thing we are worrying about is having to leave this little kids' safe haven because we are moving out of the area soon. True, this place has no shiny hardwood floors or fancy furnishings. Instead, they provide your child with plenty of individual warm loving attention; their Creative Curriculum works great to help your little one develop to the best of their ability. The teachers are a wonderful family, very welcoming and open to kids and parents; there have never been any substitute staff. We always get feedback about our son's day, they text us pictures of him playing or discovering the world, they know his likes and needs. Best of all, they CARE. We have a feeling that when my son is gone from here, he will be missed, for real. And we will miss them for sure!

**TW CHILD ABUSE**…read more My 3-year-old son went to this daycare center from November 2022-March 2023. He didn't have many issues with his teachers and other classmates aside from the occasional meltdown that all toddlers are prone to. A few weeks after getting a new teacher, Miss Camiyah, he started to complain of her being too rough with him. He said that she yanked his arm when he wasn't listening to her. A couple of days later, he told me Miss Camiyah picked him up by his ear and dragged him to the other room by his ear, while digging her fingernail into it. I immediately called the daycare and made these concerns known to the school director, Jennifer. I was obviously livid, but all I asked was that he be moved to another Childcare Network location (in Niceville). I didn't trust the child-abusing Miss Camiyah after that, and my son developed serious anxiety about being dropped off at the Fort Walton Beach location, because he thought he would be abused again. Jennifer was less than helpful about working with us to find new placement for my son. She claimed they would investigate the matter (they did not) and that they would do everything in their power to find a solution for us. After trying for a few weeks to coordinate a transfer with her, she ended up being very condescending and combative, and it was clear that she had no intentions of helping us find a spot at the Niceville location, nor was she concerned with the fact that she employed a woman who had no qualms about putting her hands on someone else's child. From what I understand, Miss Camiyah still works at the Fort Walton Beach location. I also tried reaching out to corporate about our situation, but I guess they wanted to sweep this matter under the rug as well, because they did not call or email me back. In addition to the physical abuse, I can count on one hand the number of times I entered the building and DIDN'T hear one of the teachers screaming at the children. This place is a circus, and I wouldn't trust any of these women around my goldfish, let alone my son. Unless you want to risk having your child being physically and emotionally abused by the CRIMINALS they apparently hire, I highly suggest finding another daycare.

From the owner: Located at 108 Jet Drive, Childcare Network in Fort Walton Beach provides the foundation for…read morechildren to move from infancy through elementary school and beyond as confident, lifelong learners. At our schools, children are encouraged and guided in order to thrive. Our curriculum covers all areas of development, including important social and emotional skills with activities that combine learning and fun to create happy, curious kids. Our dedicated staff and safe learning environments make our schools one of the best places to learn and grow. We are committed to fostering your child's development alongside your family and providing a safe space for children to learn and grow within the Fort Walton Beach community. Schedule a tour today to experience everything our programs have to offer!

This institution harassed our family endlessly and was utterly unapologetic. They were smug,…read moreunhelpful and so terrible that I was forced to pull my daughter out of schooling. DO NOT allow your child to attend at their own risk and yours. She is now in the Florida school system and we have had not experienced any of the god awful problems we saw from this particular school.

First and foremost, I would highly recommend MLC to any parent looking for a strong academic…read moreeducation, while fostering independence and developing a critical thinking mind. We couldn't have found a better school for our son's educational start! My Son has really blossomed in your care, he has grown and learned so much this year! His teachers help him get excited about learning. All of his teachers have been fantastic! Above and beyond awesome, he is always thinking of them and talking about things that happened in his school. Thank you for expanding our son's mind and his world. The solid beginnings and joy for learning will influence his classroom experiences for years to come. Alex and Sandra Rios

So the Owner (Cristy) and the 2nd in Command (Kim) recently had a major disagreement and have…read moredecided to go their separate ways. Kim is opening her own daycare called The Little Learning Academy. A large number of the long-time teaching staff have decided to leave Creative Play School and follow Kim. Apparently any staff member who states their intention to switch daycares is terminated on the spot. Trust the staff to know which Owner they want to work for. Interestingly enough, a large portion of the parents are also leaving Creative Play School to follow Kim to her new place. Numerous parent rumors say that Cristy has been strong-arming families to commit to staying with her at Creative Play School or potentially losing their current spot at Creative Play School while they wait for the new day to open. Any smart parent will lie to Cristy's face and promise to stay, then jump ship on opening day for The Little Learning Academy. Your allegiance is to what's best for your child, not Cristy's strong arm business. For context of where my review is coming from, I'm a parent of 3 children. We spent two years at Creative Play School before and during covid. We removed our child from Creative Play School during Covid due to Cristy's shady business practices. The daycare policy was that if your child attended one day of daycare, you had to pay for the entire week. Our kids would go to school on Monday, we'd be notified Monday early afternoon and the kids would be sent home for Covid policy. Yet we had to pay for the entire week. And what's worse, Cristy did not pay any of the teachers. So she provided a few hours of daycare each week, and then charged everyone for a full week, and kept all the money herself. We had to leave Creative Play School because we were paying so much money and the school was basically never open. There were other issues during our stay at Creative Play School. There were constant transparency issues about what is actually happening at the school. They are very tight lipped and close door policy on so many things. The actual classroom teachers are great, but management is super shady. And if a significant number of the staff is now leaving that should clearly say something. So why am I speaking out now? We have since moved on to Cinco Daycare but are looking strongly into the new The Learning Academy. Since our departure from Creative Play School we continue to follow the quality of the school as we live down the street from them and we continue to be friends with current students and teachers. When enough people get together to experience a common problem, a community needs to speak up and address the problem. At some point Cristy should address these issues if she is to be trusted with taking care of all our small children. A good start would be for Cristy to address the increasing number of negative reviews popping up on Google, Yelp, and Facebook.

My review was reported by the owner for conflict of interest becuase she believes Im a staff member…read moreunfortunately I'm not im a current parents that you are trying to hold "hostage" how dare you try to delete and hide what is going on behind closed doors. All of this is knowledge known by parents due to staff past and present telling parents what is happening becuase they are in happy! This is a truthful review that does not deserve to be deleted! Unfortunately, parents are getting scared so it is time to make a public post. The creative play school was a great preschool up until a few months ago. A few months ago something changed with management the assistant director that has been there for years had left due "pro-fessional differences". The owner or director is never around and was rarely around when the assistant director was there, either hiding or not there all together. The VPK teacher is running the place now and not in her room so those kids are not being taught when the state and parents are paying for. Multiple teachers have left due to the management being unprofessional, gossip-ing, and being inconsiderate. Some staff are now bullying other staff leaving on social media. Teachers are being shoved wherever a staff member leaves and most don't even get proper training. To top it all off, parents are deciding on whether to go to a new place that the assistant director opened and the owner is cornering parents who may potentially leave and threatening them that they will not have a spot for a month if they are leaving. Bottom line...do not go here children learning is not the priority.

They have hiked the prices $20 weekly twice now since July 2022. It now costs $170 weekly for the…read more"free" VPK program. Its $170 for a program that the state pays half the day for. Make that make sense!!! When parents raised complaints about the rate increases, the upper management (not the owners) told us "if you don't like it, pull your kid out, but childcare here is competitive and VPK is already in session so you won't find a spot". They knew that we would struggle finding a new facility and made us feel trapped. I will say that the teachers at our individual location were wonderful. We loved having our kids in the classes and really benefited from being there

Don't ever being your kids here. As a previous employee I witnessed children being manhandled and…read moretreated unfairly. Kids being pulled tightly by staff, being so rough with their bodies and blaming other kids for bruises that they caused. They won't pay attention to your child if they cry, or if something genuinely happened to them. The workers are snobby and disrespectful and rude to everyone including the children. They definitely have favoritism within the children. The head manager there, Steffany Cougar is horrible to the children when no one is watching. I have witnessed her get in kids faces and scream at them, pull them harshly and drag them away by their wrist. When parents come around she acts as if she is perfect but in reality she's merciful to those poor children. Please don't bring your children here!! Don't work here as well!!

After leaving this negative review I was harassed by a staff member who works there. Nichole…read moreEverland. This is exactly why I reviewed this daycare. Unprofessional attitude and actions by all staff members. And no there are no cameras like she stated. I have asked to see camera footage before when I caught them trying charge me for things I had turned in and as stated by the owner herself they do not have cameras. This was also confirmed by another parent as well last year. The daycare worker who engaged in this post currently works there and judging by the grammar used, should show the type of staff you'll be involved with if you mention anything to your disliking. I am NOT the only parent to report this daycare. Please check their Google reviews as well If you are considering this facility, please do your child and yourself a favor and as soon as you walk in walk out. The facility is unclean, animals running around, and staff that does not watch over the children. They frequently change their contracts to their liking despite being funded by the ELC. Enacting exorbitant fees that working parents can not help. They offered a 10-hour waiver for years and then abruptly ended it without any valid explanation. They do not have cameras in the facilities and will not install them. My child has been significantly hurt there many times. Recently a black eye that lasted for 4 days due to their negligence. Please follow in the footsteps of other parents in these reviews and report report. They take advantage of the fact that they are one of the few daycares with openings because parents frequently leave. Edited to add; Search for the CARES Search tool in Google and you can see a list of all the inspections they have had had and the violations they received. Also edited to add that they have stated it's not a DCF requirement to report any daily activities of your child unless they are one and under. When asked if they would regardless they offered only a one word response "No". This response came after they discriminated against my child and stopped reporting anything after I confronted them on numerous issues after receiving reports well after a year old....No childcare facility should make your child's daily activities including meals, diaper changes, nap times and activities a secret for their eyes only or selectively to parents. Compounded with no cameras and no current lock or code to enter the building. They do not even have a staff member to watch the doors. Nor do they actually check the log in activities on the computer before releasing a child. They actually had to send out messages making sure parents were checking out their children correctly .. this is alarming as a parent. No parent should ever have to be disrespected and locked out of their child's lives by a daycare center claiming to care for your child. Ultimate bait and switch. We promise to look after your child but we won't tell you what goes on even if asked. It is family owned and they will deflect and defend themselves if you bring any singular issue up to them. DCF was made aware and owners stated that they told them to just keep doing what they were doing....Appalling!

It has been a year and a half since the incident and I never wrote this review, but I was just…read moretalking about this with something which brought back this old memory. I would NOT recommend this place to anyone. I remember there was a misunderstanding where me and my wife said we would bring our daughter there around 10am and Hamma (I believe Trina was her real name) said it was ok. My wife and I both had clients based in eastern time and we both would get on early conference calls. It was I who would free up after 9am and bring our daughter there. After we signed up and were there a week, I received a call about it. I can't remember from who, perhaps Hamma's daughter or someone related, and she said I would need to bring her in before 9am. She was extraordinarily rude. I explained everything and came to the conclusion that there must be some misunderstanding, and if we can't come to terms on it, we just wouldn't be able to continue to bring our daughter there. I remained calm and spoke very softly. Then she immediately reminded me that she required two weeks notice. So I said, ok, but in these two weeks I would bring her there at 10am as per the agreement with Hamma. She said she would not let my daughter in the building if we show up after 9am. I said, well then I can no longer continue to bring her there. She explained that I am still required to pay an addition two weeks and then hung up the phone on me. At that point I called back and Hamma picked up the phone, and I said, "Are you people out of your minds??" She came to agree that I didnt have to pay her anymore and that I would go get my daughter and all her belongings immediately. I got off the phone and went into the other room and told my wife, and her first response was, "OH MY GOD!" I went there immediately. My daughter and her stuff was waiting for me in the front office. And Hamma greeting me with a smirk. I said to her, they they should be ashamed of themselves. This is supposed to be a daycare where children are taken care of, and yet I feel like I have stopped at a gas station in the Bronx. Still, all I got in return was nothing but a smiley smirk. This place is ridiculous. I wouldn't recommend leaving your children around these people. This rude vulgar lack of concern, is not the type of atmosphere for children. It is now a year and a half later I have no hesitance to tell people this story so they don't take their children there.