I'm a little late writing this review but I feel as a parent this is my responsibility to share my experience with other new parents that have to make the decision to place their child in daycare. My review and experience is based on the infant room only. I had multiple bad experiences in the infant room with two of the caregivers in particular. I gave instructions on how to feed my 4 month old baby at that time that was not followed. Also on one occasion my baby had a blow out and her soiled clothes was placed in her bottle cooler without being placed in a separate plastic bag. I still gave the daycare a chance because I realize no daycare is perfect. The last straw is when I was picking up my baby and she was isolated from the other infants and caregivers on the opposite side of the room. I was extremely upset. I asked the caregivers how come she was isolated and I was told because her bouncer was there, which makes no sense considering the bouncer was not nailed to the ground. I spoke to the owner the next morning and she appeared to be very attentive and receptive to my concerns. The caregivers had already spoke to her prior to the next morning, which is most likely because they knew I was going to report them. They told the owner the reason my daughter was in the corner away from everyone is because they didn't want the other babies (that are the same age as her) to hurt her and I get mad. This was absurd because I never said anything about my baby being hurt by other babies in the "infant" room. This was very unacceptable and was a form of child neglect. The supervisor said she would talk to the caregivers. That same week there was no change in their behavior, they never spoke when I picked up my baby, they would just hand me my baby and say nothing for the most. They wouldn't verbally tell me how my daughters day was even after the discussion I had with the owner. Never once did the owner try to rectify the situation by giving me a update or a corrective action plan, which let me know she didn't really care as well. I sent the owner a email explaining why I was removing my daughter from the daycare and I never received a response.I removed my baby from Happy Times within a week of this occurrence. My baby now goes to Principrin and she is so loved and taken care of, and I don't have worry in the world when I drop her off. This was my experience with Happy Times Academy, it was a horrible experience. No parent wants to feel an uneasy feeling when they trust caregivers to care for their children. And I realize that perhaps every caregiver may not care personally for a parent but a professional demeanor should always be maintained, especially when taking care of children. read more

Happy Times Academy - My email to the owner, which she never responded to. - Child Care & Day Care Near Me - Houston, Texas

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My daughter has been attending HTA since 08/2018. She started when she was 6 months old. Overall, our experience has been a pleasant one. However, after there was a change in ownership, HTA has improved so much! From the remodeling of the rooms and cleanliness to the live updates on the app and improved monthly newsletters. I love all of the improvements that have been made. Before the new management, I did not like the unpleasant smell that the daycare sometimes had. Now, the daycare always smells and feels very clean. Although I never had a problem with the previous owner/management, I can see that the new management is more caring about the children and about parents concerns. The teachers have all been awesome. My daughter is happy to go to daycare everyday and that gives me a sense of security and tranquility. She is 20 months now and she has been knowing most children lullabies/songs, how to count to 6 in Spanish and English (she gets a little mixed up from 6-10), can sing the ABC's, says please & thank you, just to name a few things. We practice most of these things at home but being that she's at daycare most of the day, I have to thank her teachers for that. This month will be the first month that there will be holiday events/festivals since the previous ownership and we are super excited to see what everything is going to be like. read more

My first issue is that incredibly rude people work there. Beyond that, I think there are serious health and safety concerns. They will not share information with parents concerning whether lice have been found on any of the children. I understand that names cannot be given out, but i think it is reasonable for a parent who has found lice on a child to ask if there have been any other reported cases during the same time frame. Unless the problem becomes bad enough that this facility has to report it to the dept of health, their stated policy is not to inform other parents. Public schools send a letter when one child has lice. I am not sure what state of TX law is on this, but I find it strange that a day care facility is held to a lower standard than is a public school. In my opinion, this facility also has woefully inadequate security. Before you put your child in there, go and watch the morning drop off. Parents let themselves in with a pass code and then hold the door for anyone walking in behind them. ANYBODY CAN WALK RIGHT IN. The parents were walking directly to the back with nobody who worked there monitoring who walked in and what access they had. At times nobody who worked there was even at the front desk. In this day and age that is truly frightening. I would also check complaint records with the state on this, or any other day care, before enrolling. read more

This place is great! Always very clean! Our 5-month old loves it here. They sing songs, read books, do lots of tummy-time group activities. They also have complied with every special request I've had for her, and they're happy to! They've never complained, and they know the state guidelines/recommendations forwards and backwards, and they're all CPR-certified. I really like that. I trust them with her, and she enjoys her time there. They send home a chart every day that shows everything she did for that day. Staff is super-friendly and attentive. The price is reasonable, and location is super convenient for us. I highly recommend them for the infant section. read more

Amazing place. I couldn't be happier with this daycare. My son has been going here for about a year and a half. He was not potty trained when he enrolled due to a bad experience with the previous daycare. Happy Times worked with my son to make sure he was not discouraged and fully trained. He loves the staff and talks about school when he get home. The staff is very welcoming and the pricing is affordable. read more

I am a first time mother, and I was so nervous when I first enrolled my son into daycare at only 9 weeks old. He had stomach problems, and we could not get him on a proper sleep and eating schedule. I expressed all of this before he was enrolled and they reassured me that they would help us with all of this. We have had specific request with his stomach issues, and they follow them to a T, without ANY problems! His first week was tough on me, but they made it so much better! Everyone there is so sweet and tentative! I am sure I called at least 5 times a day to check on him, and they were always happy to check on my baby and reassure me that he is okay. After a week my son was on a proper sleep and eating schedule! They send home a progress report every day that tells you everything that happened that day. I love this because I was able to see a pattern in his sleep and eating schedule, and I would follow that on the days he was not in the daycare. This has helped my son sleep longer stretched at night! I will be forever grateful for this! I love dropping him off in the morning, because the teachers are so sweet, and I can see how much they love and care about the children at the daycare. My son is all smiles in the morning when he sees his teacher, and just starts cooing up a storm. I see that ALL the babies in the room are just as happy and that they show every single one of them love! I love that the price is reasonable, and that the care is top-notch! I have done drop-in on my lunch break and I see them reading books, singing songs, and doing tummy time with all the babies. I love that they start educating kids at 3 years of age, and all the activities they continue to do with the kids of all ages! I feel so blessed that we got into this daycare! From one anxiety ridden mother, this place puts me at ease. I know my son is in good hands, and I don't have to worry about anything. We will stay at this daycare as long as they will allow us. :) read more

We have been very happy with Happy Times Academy! My younger daughter started attending at 6 months and is now almost 2. Our school age daughter attends during summer and other days Houston ISD is closed. Both girls love it there. The staff is great with the kids, and they really seem to care about them. Everyone is excited to see each other in the morning. The toddler even always wants to giver her teacher a goodbye kiss at the end of the day. Overall, it is clean and organized. We have had experience with a few childcare facilities. The communication here is about the best we has experienced. They send out monthly e-mails with a full calendar and newsletter. They also plan so many fun activities for the kids and families year round. I definitely recommend Happy Times for all ages. read more

My child went here a while back ago && we pulled her when she got hurt by her teacher at the time Brittany Lopez. My daughter did not want to go sit down, and they pulled her to the table. The daycare did not call me to tell me about the incident until 2PM when it happened at breakfast time. The worst part is, the daycare did not want to show the camera footage to ensure me that it wasn't done maliciously. I would not recommend this place plus everyone who works there are mostly family and lie for each other. Also the place reeks of poop worse than any other facility we have been in. I will be filing a report with the state as well. read more

Nothing but awesome things to say! We started our three month old at Happy Times Academy in March, and she continued to attend until August. Every teacher that she had in her room was extremely nurturing and always communicated very well, which is something I can always appreciate being a teacher myself. Mrs. Rodriguez, Laura, and Isabel were all very personable and always worked with us when we were traveling or had things going on. Overall, we had an amazing experience, and our daughter loved it equally! We wish we could continue going there, but I'm staying at home this year with her! read more

I have had my 3 year old daughter with me or family since she was born. I was so hesitant to enroll her into a day care because of all the craziness that's going on, but I'm glad we picked this school! The teachers there are all so genuine, they love the kids. Ms. Rodriguez is a wonderful director! We moved and had to leave unfortunately but I know as a parent it is hard to trust someone with your babies so I wanted to put this review so you know you are making the best decision! We couldn't have asked for a better first teacher, Ms. Sandra, she is a blessing! Thank you Happy Times for giving Kylie such a great first time daycare experience! read more

As a mother of 3 girls having moved and educated them from UK to Spain to USA over the past 17 years I have been extremely happy with this school for my littlest. Really lovely, nurturing ladies and my daughter absolutely loves it, most importantly. Very good value and flexible hours - no boxed not ticked and the best nursery I've come across having looked at many, several of which had long waiting lists and thankfully I got her in to Happy Times which she has had and continues to have! P.S The person who wrote the other review is talking absolute rubbish!! read more

Happy times has proved to be a great daycare for my 9month old girl. She has been there since she was 5months old and is so happy. The staff are so warm and friendly.. and everyone gets to know you and your child. They have lots of fun activities ongoing, even for the babies! It doesn't look much from the outside and that can be a little off-putting but once you get passed that, it's a hidden gem. read more

Great place if you want your child to be surrounded by barbed wire like a jail, literally. The only fun thing was the holiday activities they had. Otherwise, I would never recommend this daycare to anyone! My 2 year old son started around mid year in 2015. Shortly after he started I was getting incident reports about my son being bit, pushed off the play equipment and hit. The teachers kept assuring me that it will be ok, it's because he is just new. Not long after that I was getting incident reports regarding my son being the aggressor. He is pushing, pulling hair, spitting, throwing items at the other kids, not following the rules. I did not believe that because he is not like that at home. The director kept asking me what they can do about it because it's getting to become a big problem in his class. I told her that I don't know what to do because he only acts that way there, not at home. He is with them the majority of the day and not me. A couple months go by with steady incident reports and we have a family meeting. We discuss some sort of reward sticker chart for my son to help him improve his behavior at daycare. 1 week later the teacher comes up to me when I am picking my son up and she told me that my son is not interested in the chart so she stopped it. Shows how much they care about really helping my son improve when they are giving up after 1 week! The teacher starts to tell me that my son seems bored in the class and needs to be more challenge so I say ok, challenge him! They do nothing. They explain to me that the only thing they can do is make sure my son is next to the teacher at all times and STRAPPED DOWN TO A CHAIR WHENEVER HE IS AT A TABLE! It's apparent that my son has some social delays and doesn't quite understand yet what is not acceptable but strapping a child down to a chair is horrible. The director consistently would ask me if I have found another place for my son yet because they don't think they can keep him any longer. We have had quite a few talks together that I can specifically remember. The director clearly stated that my sons teacher has been out a few days and she thinks it is because of my son being too much for her to handle so she needs a few days off. I asked the teacher the next week and she said that yes my son is a handful but would never miss a day because of that. I had confronted the director later the next week and she told me that she had never said that to me. She said that she knew the teacher was missing work because of her being sick. I was fuming! I could not believe that the daycares own director would lie right to my face and continuously deny it just to try to get me to leave quicker. As I was walking away the director said back at me, "I hope you don't go around telling people different things than what I say". She even told me a bunch of bs about how some parents were threatening to leave if my son won't stop and that other kids were starting to act out. And of course since it's all about the money the director told me that I would have to leave so they don't lose multiple families.I felt like the daycare was the bully and my son was the person getting bullied. They have made my son out to be the devil child. She acted like if my son was the ONLY child that has ever had this issue. It sincerely breaks my heart knowing that instead of trying new methods to help my son improve they give up and tell me that we need to leave. Giving up on a child is what they did. I have discussed this with other parents that I know and also family members and they think that I should have never left my child in their care. I am ashamed to say that my son ever went there and I really, really hope that this review can help some other parents make their decision on whether they want to put their child in this facility. I believe that this daycare has an EXTREMELY low standard of who they are hiring when it comes to knowledge on social behaviors in children and experience with child care. Do I blame the teacher? No. I blame it on the lack of knowledge that they have regarding different types of children's needs and NO CURRICULUM. My son needed to be challenged and needed help with his socializing skills and for some reason they had no idea on how to go about that so they just gave up on him. Seems like all this daycare is good for is to make sure they eat, sleep and get their diaper changed which my son came home with more than enough rashes. Pretty pathetic and extremely disappointing in my eyes. My son started happy and left unhappy. Kind of ironic isn't it, HAPPY Times Academy? I see no happiness and no academic qualities in this daycare. https://stage.worklifesystems.com/ReferralUpdate/UpdateReferral/1295572 There on that site you will see how little their skills are compared to the other surrounding daycares in the 77008 area. read more

My wife and I have had our kids (3) at Happy Times for the past five years and we are really appreciative of their care and attentiveness provided to the well-being of our kids. Our oldest started when she was one while the other two started after my wife had to return to work from maternity leave. We like it so much we recommended it to our siblings and our nephews are there as well. Happy Times to us has become an extension to our family, the kids enjoy going and that in itself speaks volumes of their staff. We see Happy Times more of a school than a daycare, as they teach and entertain the kids by reading, through music and great amounts of arts and crafts. We consider ourselves very particular about the care of our children, if we saw anything we didn't like they wouldn't be attending there. read more

Probably the worst family business I have ever been to. Since a lot of the workers there are family, they will stick together and try to get your child kicked out like one of the workers just told me this morning. She made herself look like a complete idiot by telling me that. Her name was either Isabel or Laura. She wanted to confront me about what I had said to the director but none of what the director had said to me. Why? Because all they care about is the money and not your concerns. You will be bringing your child home with diaper rashes and mosquito bites. They will act like they are listening to your concerns but in all actuality, they will not implement the changes they said they would do. They will give up and vote to get your child kicked out of the program. Yes, they will literally vote. I was told that this morning. I was never asked to have a family meeting. I was the one who had to ask. I was rarely ever told how good my son was because it was all negative bs from them. I don't know how they were even able to get their license but they did. It's not even a warm environment. It's a huge tin shed that's surrounded by an ugly chain link fence with barbed wire. The 'now hiring' sign has been out front since before my children even started going there along with a 'summer special for karate' that has been up since last summer. The floors inside cold and there is hardly ever anyone at the front desk when I enter in the morning and afternoon. I drop my son off in the morning to a woman who doesn't even speak english, let alone know how to say his name. The teachers fail to let you know if your child has run out of something until you get a call later in the day that you need to bring formula because they have run out or your son has made a mess and he needs a change of clothes. One incident, my daughter had wet herself and I wasn't told that she needed extra clothes. Middle of the day I get a call from the daycare saying that she has no more clothes, I needed to bring her clothes. When I got there she was laying in her bed in nothing but a diaper. Her skin was so cold that you could see all of her veins in her arms and legs. I asked why wasn't she wrapped up in a blanket and they say they aren't allowed to use blankets in the crib. I said then why didn't you hold her in a blanket and they just told me that they had to take care of the other babies. All the other babies were on the floor doing tummy time so why couldn't they hold my daughter and keep her warm???? This was the most ridiculous thing that I had ever seen. They also lost my daughters monthly feeding chart claiming they never received it. The chart shows how much they are supposed to be feeling her. They went though 1 whole can of formula in 3 days. My daughter eats 6 oz., 4 times a day at daycare and they want to tell me that they ran out in 3 days? A brand new unopened can? I asked them about this and the worker had told me that I need to tell the teachers what they are supposed to be feeding her but how am I supposed to do that when different teachers work different days and teachers who are supposed to be in a different room come to the infants room at random times? But of course the daycare will deny all of this to make themselves look perfect so they can make more money. They have no curriculum so the kids are running around with blocks. They might read a book or two but what are they learning from a book about an alligator? How big their mouth is? There is no system and no structure. The lady that had confronted me earlier this morning wanted to keep talking a bunch of nonsense about my son and how she was one of the people who had voted my son out of the daycare. I had asked her about a sticker reward chart that the director said they would do for my son since apparently they have no idea what to do with a child and she said that my son didn't like it. What child doesn't like stickers? That chart was up for a week maybe 2 then they took it down because she said his behavior wasn't changing. She wasn't able to explain anything else about it to me. They expect a 2 year olds behavior to change in less than 2 weeks. This is why this daycare is not worth it. Do not waste your money on this "academy". If I'm not mistaken, an academy has structure and discipline. An academy has a curriculum. This place has employees who make sure your child doesn't die and that's about it. I don't know what positive things to say about this place except for the friendlies of some of the teachers. But as for the education level, I don't think they should be teaching at a daycare that is supposed to be a Texas Ready facility. Not impressed with much. There is a reason why this daycare is so cheap, you get what you pay for. read more