I am wrapping up almost 12 years at Giving Tree.. with 3 kids who all went to through the Pre-k program. All 3 are way beyond prepared and advanced for kindergarten.. all their elementary teachers will tell you same I accredit it to their excellent staff and center , Shelly the current director is one of the best if not the best that place has ever had... yes there is turnover on staff.. it is childcare and not the most high paying job but super tough.. probably tougher to deal with parents honestly then kids... most kids want to just have fun and eat snack . My kids will still to this day some of the things Ms. Wendy makes are the best out of any school lunches or other places.. and she is just the kindest person also. I encourage everyone to ask questions, tour, look around at the background of other daycare owners, heck pull up their public records.. you would be surprised.. and I can guarantee you this owner knows her educational background and that this center will speak frankly to you on how issues are handled.. because yes nothing is perfect but it is how it is dealt with that we all want fair and honest resolutions. I have heard stories from my kids through the years of other kids actions, even the actions of other parents in front of the teachers and kids sitting right there.. it is appalling to me and then these people want to blame the center and staff.. Take a tour, ask the questions, play out scenarios .. you will be impressed at the level of professionalism here and the fact they keep the kids so engaged In learning and fun at he same time! We are forever grateful for our experience and great start to education there. read more

I want to provide some feedback on Giving Tree, the daycare located behind Publix in Lake Wylie. We have been attending there for almost two years, & have had some bumps in the road, but this week took the cake! I am so upset. I don't know if I should cry or scream. I'm so frustrated, I've done both! My 7 year old son has been in the afterschool program as well as the summer camp. He has been bullied with no help from the staff or the Director. He would come home & tell us that another boy was hitting him & throwing things & when he told, they would just tell the boy to stop. My husband & I had become so frustrated with the lack of attention on addressing this, that we requested to meet with the Director, Ms. Shelly (Michelle Dawson). She told us that they had a zero tolerance policy, but felt confident nothing was happening. Not only was nothing addressed, but it continued to get worse. It came to the point where we told our son that if this kid continues to hit him to defend himself. The next day, our son did just that. The bully wouldn't leave him alone, kept hitting him, the teachers did nothing, so my son looked at the kid & said "do it again & I'll kick the crap out of you". We received a call from the director saying that he had used foul language with the word "crap" & that wasn't welcome here. They did nothing to the bully but reprimanded our son. My 4 year old daughter has been in five total classrooms with dozens of different teachers. We told the director when we enrolled that she was advanced, & needed to be engaged in a structured setting to be successful. They were confident they would keep her plenty engaged so we trusted them. After seeing day after day, that our daughter was not engaged, they kept moving her up to older classrooms but with the lack of structure, it didn't make much difference. My husband purchased dozens of preschool activity books for every kid. This helped some. The Director told us that our daughter was bored & started being more & more frustrated. We reminded them that they said they could keep her engaged in a structured setting. The Director then shared how frustrated her staff was for all of the movement, essentially blaming our daughter. She said that our daughter would get frustrated & not listen to the staff when she was upset. She made a comment regarding how disappointed she was that our daughter didn't even listen to her, & she was the Director. I reminded her that my daughter is four. She doesn't care what your title is. It came to a head last week when our daughter started crying in the mornings & not wanting to go to Giving Tree. She started referring to herself as a "bad girl" which is what they were telling her she was when she didn't listen. Our son then told us how mean they were being to his sister & he didn't know why they wouldn't just leave her alone. He was so upset. This was the final straw. We had met with the teachers & Director several times. Every meeting was positive with them telling us how wonderful of parents we were & how they wished they had more parents like us. But after the events last week, we requested another meeting asking for some immediate action taken on the bullying of our son & stopping referring to our daughter as a "bad girl". The director, Ms. Shelly, immediately got emotional & upset, saying that if we didn't trust her, we should go our separate ways. We were shocked! We said we just wanted to discuss the issues, & find resolution for our kids. She made it clear that she did not want her or her staff questioned. She told us that she loves our kids & would do anything for them & could not believe we were questioning that. We spent two hours away from work & in her office, discussing this. The meeting ended positively, her thanking us for our partnership & her looking forward to school starting, & our kids continuing in the before & after school program this school year. At 5pm that night, she sent an email saying that because we clearly don't trust her that our kids were expelled effective immediately. The email was signed by both her & the owner (whom we have never met or spoken to). After receiving the email, we reached out to understand what happened. We were so confused & shocked. We called the school & her cell phone but she wouldn't take our call. We went to the school but she saw us & walked away, hiding in her office. She told us to our face how wonderful we were, & then when we shared our honest & real concerns, she retaliated. I am livid that we had to tell our children that they will have to miss the last week of summer camp with their friends. I don't know if this woman is just on an extreme power trip, or what the root cause issue is, but I am so disappointed in the lack of professionalism, the lack of ethics, & most importantly the blatant disregard of its hurtful impact on my kids. It makes me sick. read more

Out son attended the Pre-K program this past year. Overall, we were very satisfied with the school. His teachers helped him learn his letters, sight words, to read, count, etc. He came home almost regularly with art or other projects he completed. He had a music class and a cooking class rather frequently as well. They also took 2-3 field trips a month. Breakfast, lunch, and an afternoon snack are all included in the weekly tuition as well as all the activities that they participate in. Sometimes we would not get notifications from the app they used at the beginning of the year, but they seemed really receptive to that feedback, so they started reminding us of importance information in other ways as well. My son was used to a Montessori setting before we moved, so he wanted more lesson style work to complete and complained that they "played" too much. If you're looking for that type of education for your Pre-K student, this will not fit your goals. Again, we enjoyed our year here. My son's teachers were kind and caring. They took the time to get to know him as a person to ensure that he got the mist out if the learning experience they provided. read more

The Giving Tree became such an essential part of my children's lives while we lived in Clover. My youngest started there at 11 months and we left a little before they turned 3. My other child also attended for their after school care during this time. I never had any issues. The teachers were always amazing at communicating with me and Shelly and Jessica at the front were always very accommodating of any of our needs/request. We moved away to another state otherwise we would have continued utilizing this lovely business to care for our babies read more

Considering they have zero competition in the area in terms of before and after school care they take full advantage of the parent's wallet!! Charging you a annual fee without notice of when that fee is. Closing for a 'teacher work day' with less then five days notice to the parents. Charging you for a full day when they closed during inclement weather. I could go on. And we are stuck because there is no other option in the area. I encourage a reputable business to open nearby and give this place a run for their money! read more

I have been meaning to write a review about Giving Tree CDC for a while now, but just haven't gotten around to it. We moved to Lake Wylie in June 2015, and this was the closest daycare center to our new house. We enrolled our then 18 month old & he was put into the Honey Bear room. The center itself is very attractive-inside & out, so we had very high hopes. We found out that our son was 1 of 18 toddlers in the Honey Bear room, which seemed very high considering the size of the room. It was explained to us that they had a 'half wall' to separate the much smaller children (12 mos) from the more active toddlers (18-24 mos). I just assumed that they knew what they were doing as far as classroom size was concerned--and I'm sure they meet all state requirements, etc. However, after the first week, we started receiving incident reports on a very regular basis upon pick-up. Our son was being bitten over and over again in his new classroom. I am not unrealistic by any means. I completely understand that toddlers will bite & much of the time it cannot be prevented. But the sheer number of times that it happened to our son was overwhelming. We met with the teachers in his room, with the Director & with the Owner. Our only response was that the behavior was "age appropriate", etc. We never felt like our concerns were taken seriously. Again, I totally understand that it is age appropriate, but I also know that things can be done--especially when a "known biter" is involved. We kept our son enrolled at Giving Tree CDC for 2 months, and he was bitten 12 times (that we know of). The bites were very bad--they left bruising & teeth marks for days following the incident. It absolutely broke my heart to know that my son was in that much pain, that frequently & nothing was being done about it. We finally did something about it, and transferred him to another center. He has been there for 7 months & has been bitten once. Those numbers are much more reasonable, in my opinion. In the 2 months that we went to Giving Tree I never saw the 'half wall' in the room utilized. There were days that the children weren't taken outside to play, and the reason we were given was that it was "too hard to get 18 kids to do the same thing". In 2 months my son did ONE art project. When we brought up that we hadn't seen any art hanging in the room or anything sent home, we were told that it was summer time & that it was very hectic with the school-aged children there during the day. I find these excuses to be unacceptable. This is a very pricey daycare center compared to many that we looked at, but unfortunately you do not get what you pay for. Many of the teachers were very inexperienced & lacked a lot of, what I consider, essential training. It seemed to me like they just tried to cram as many children into each room to make as much money as they possibly could without taking into consideration any consequences that could arise. Of course children are going to get bitten when they are playing right on top of each other and not given any other outlet for their energy. I do want to add that we only had experience in the Honey Bear room (12-24 mos), so the other rooms may very well be better--I can't imagine anything being worse. Every time we drive by the center we see signs out front announcing they are hiring & that they are enrolling. Knowing how hard it is to get into a good school, this cannot be a good sign. Turnover amongst the teachers is also very high, which is telling in and of itself. I'm very glad to see that there are new daycare centers opening in the Lake Wylie area soon so parents will have other options for care for their children. Hopefully, the Owner/Director of Giving Tree CDC will take a hard look at the policies that are currently in place & make some long overdue changes. The center has such potential, and it's very sad to see that they aren't living up to it. read more