I am still amazed more people don't review child care centers. That would be helpful if they did…read more We have used three different child care centers in the Olympia area over a period of 5+ years. Two of those I consider excellent, and I would recommend them to anyone. Serendipity is one of the two excellent ones (message me if you want to know the other one). I believe that the quality and success of these places is determined by strong leadership - by good directors who know what they are doing. They are the ones who can hire the best teachers and retain them. Of course, we are obviously very happy with the teachers at Serendipity. Our child likes them too! Serendipity is relatively large, with about 3 classrooms per age group. It is well organized and professional, and all sorts of information is available to the parents on daily activities, meals, learning, special activities, etc. One unique aspect is that there are numerous classes that the kids can take during their day (for an extra charge) there at the facility. They have swimming lessons, ballet, various sports, and more. Imagine avoiding the hassle of taking your kid to these activities...instead, just letting the school do it for you! So yeah, we are happy with Serendipity.

Teachers alone should get five stars. The staff are great. My kids have had a great bond with…read moretheir teachers. The facility is really nice, but here also is the reason for my mediocre review. I think the rent/overhead must be really high, because it is far and away the most expensive daycare in the area. And the tuition is going up incredibly from one year to the next, mostly due to the administration's desire to offer a benefit to teachers, which is admirable. But given how expensive the tuition is, one would think there would be more perks to being located at such a nice fitness center. The kids do get to use the pool 1x a week in the summer, and they go to the gym occasionally, but classes are expensive and I don't think they use the outdoor space enough in the rainier months. Bottom line: Given the tuition hike, we'll be looking for another place, weighing pros and cons. There is no money better spent to me than making sure my kid is well-cared-for. Just not sure it has to be so inflated compared to the cost of living here.

As any parent a daycare is very important place to leave your child. This daycare is amazing! The…read morestaff are wonderful, and you can tell all of the teachers love the kids! They are very accommodating and work with you and your child in anyway. My son was in physical therapy, as I showed some of the teachers they would work with him throughout the day. It gave me piece of mind he was in good hands!!! Also, When the children don't go outside because the weather is too bad they have an indoor gym they can use too. Great daycare and I've appreciated all they have done for my family.

My daughter came through mid-year. She fell in love with her teachers…read more The staff took our vegan diet seriously and respectfully. They worked with us and genuinely want to give families a good experience. There was a field trip a week. There was a gorgeous farm school campus. Now, my daughter was in the Tumwater location but still learned and loved. She would skip into the classroom without turning back to say goodbye to me. I am so grateful for the wonderful experience. Thank you!

My son has been at Sequoias Treehouse since he was 3 month old, he is now 10 months, and our time…read moreat Sequoias has been wonderful! I greatly appreciate his teachers, Sandy and Laila. I call them his second and third moms! They both have such a warm command of the room, and I am provided with a detailed sheet every day reporting how much bottle he drank and at what times, also outlines his naps and wet diapers. They have an open door policy in the infant room so I often stop by on my breaks to say hello for a quick baby snuggle.

First, this is not so much a review of foundations, but rather with CADENCE…read more regarding Foundations, The teachers are wonderful, especially Ms Sarah and Ms Demi, who are fantastic. The facilities are great, and so is the quality of education they provide. As far as the school goes, I give it a 5 put of 5. That said, recently they have been acquired by a company called cadence. Since then your kid will get sent home for the slightest reason. If they have a fever then it's mandatory three days out instead of 24. For some things it's 5 days. Nor will they accept results of a negative Covid test. Cadence's ridiculous policies puts a tremendous amount of strain on working parents that unfortunately offsets many of the great aspects of the school. In Cadence's defense they will refund some of your tuition back if your child is out for a long time.

The elementary program for this school is less than adequate. We are leaving foundations after my…read moreson's kindergarten year and are working diligently to get him to where we think he needs to be academically. I don't know if that is attributed to the program or the teacher; I know I am not the only parent coming out of this year that feels this way. They test the students on subjects they simply don't teach. And if they do - I hardly saw evidence. The communication with my son's teacher was lackluster at best. During a parent teacher conference, I asked a simple question about reading materials, and she completely shut down. She couldn't answer what the kids use to assist in reading, as I quickly discovered my son hadn't learned anything and needed to know how best to supplement at home. When I asked what materials they use, she stopped talking, put her hands in her lap, and looked down for a good minute. It was truly disturbing. it was as if someone unplugged her. My husband and I were very confused. Communication over day-to-day activities was also lackluster. One Friday, my son dropped his entire lunch (that we provided), and they did nothing to get him anything else to eat. Not even a cracker. Nor was it communicated to me that this had happened. I waited until Monday to ask if he had actually dropped his food, and his teacher did confirm it and told me she looked for some food for him, but 'nobody had any', which is odd considering the school has a chef. Another day I walked up to the playground to see my son eating leaves off the ground. A typical kid thing to do, but his teacher had no idea. Why? Well, I asked what she did when they were outside - in Discovery Park - a pretty heavily wooded area. My son told me she remained at the picnic table for most of their outside time. Then, after he ate a berry off the ground - I emailed again, looping in the program director. I was surprised that they had a berry-producing tree (that the students had full access to); I was told then that 'Obviously, a teacher cannot supervise each and everything all children do while in our care.' Considering there were 10 students, and usually an assistant on the playground with the teacher. I was shocked. One day I got to school early, poor timing on my part; not wanting to interrupt his playtime with friends, I waited in the parking lot where I saw that his teacher indeed sat at the picnic table. She didn't get up once in about a 40 minute period. She sat facing the parking lot, away from the wooded area. This also explained why my son came home with scratches all over his body, with no explanation. The school set some pretty impressive standards for covid, which, to be honest, is why we enrolled him. Those precautions went right out the window; I'd say a month or two into the program. As parents, we weren't informed of this. I know of one event that happened a WEEK into the program that was explicitly against their self-imposed covid protocols. Any time I tried to express my disappointment, or frustration I was met with justification. These are our experiences, and I can imagine that if I receive any response, it will invalidate the things we experienced and justify behaviors. To be honest, I was reluctant to even post this as a review as I feel like in my gut, somehow it could come back on my son. We paid good money for this program, and to come out of it having sent him to daycare his kindergarten year, I'm sure any parent can imagine both the disappointment and the resentment that we feel.

The parking is HORRIBLE pretty much all the time! On a very busy road and it makes it very…read moredifficult to get in or out.

as a mother that had postpartum depression the level of worry i had with sending my son to…read more"daycare" was so high. i was mess and this story starts before covid. I was crying dropping my son off with what felt like strange that is now our extended family. I was having a hard time Ms Angel, and Ms Beth along with all the magical caring staff members cared and helped even if it was a hug and talking time to bond with and my son to put me at easy! okay now let's talk about the butterfly room! My son comes home everyday with a story and a new dance long with a new skill! it brings me to tears how much they have done for our family! ms Marina is incredible and i'm so thankful to have them!

Another day at the YMCA, and the hot tub is still not working. The entire Y was closed for repairs…read moreand refurbishing for three weeks. And six weeks later the hot tub failed, for unknown reasons?????? And it remained unknown for weeks. Finally it was determined the computer controlling the chemicals was not operating. Really. For sixty years chemicals were added by hand, and measured the results. But the staff cannot do that now? The weather turned really cold, and the hallway heater to the locker room failed. Oh well dash, and into the warm shower. Well so those run cold, and after weeks of complaint, it runs hot, but now only for 10 seconds with no pressure. I could hand pump water faster than pushing that little button every ten seconds. Half the soap dispensers do not dispense soap??? Now a new learning, double pumping water with the left hand, and soap with the right, while not pushing your self over. Oh well, a quick cold shower is invigorating and the showers are wide open. Better keep moving. The drain in the drying area has been clogged for two weeks. The standing water is great for spreading foot fungus, and there is no way around it, but the signs are there to warn you not to slip, on the now slimy floors. The Y does warn you to avoid liability, but when the hazard is not avoidable, one wonders if just unplugging the drain would have a better result. You and I don't have the time to discuss all the bungling. Time for management, whether it is new, or old.

Ymca is a rip off who takes advantage of everyone. I have coached many teams in my younger years…read moreand now my grandchildren are starting to play. Find out it cost over $100 to play basketball and when asked what size shirt they wear he was given a shirt way to big and when asked they responded with they didn't have any his size, so why ask what size shirt when you sign up, also no balls supplied for practice every player was asked to supply there own ball. Ymca has gone way down hill since I was coaching. Tried to reach out to sports program director and never can get ahold of them and never get calls returned. Ymca is a rip off stay away there are other programs that are lots better.

This place is neglectful to children, looking for the next money grab, and have employees who will…read morehave actual "beef" with your toddler age children and refuse to care for them while under their supervision.

If you only read one review, let this be it…read more (TL;DR - it's misrepresented here on Yelp and is filthy and disgusting with a bunch of shrill harpies hollering at the kids.) First things first - all their photos here are from over two years ago. But don't worry; I added a bunch from this month so you can see where these kids spend their time. I didn't get any shots of the playground, but that photo of new toys in beauty bark? No longer accurate. It's a long strip of pea gravel with a bunch of plastic toys that are so old and sun-bleached, you wouldn't be able to donate them to Goodwill. It's fenced in with chain link and it's in a parking lot next to Taco Bell. When I called to schedule a tour, I asked a lot of questions and was placated with all the answers I wanted to hear (including that their play area was NOT in a parking lot, ironically). I toured Little Flowers and my first impression was that it looks so different that I thought the Yelp photos were of a separate location. The preschool room, let me tell ya - it is TOTAL chaos. The "teacher" doesn't have any control over those kids and all she does is yell. Even when she's speaking normally it's a yell. And apparently her own son is in that class as well, she was yelling at him too. It was disgusting, smelled terrible, kids crying...I mean I understand that daycare can be a mixed bag but this was on another level. The photos I shared here were taken after some modicum of "cleaning" had been done, as evidenced by the smell of lemon slightly masking the pee odor. Why do people send their kids here? Either they don't know, don't care, or don't have a choice. I am not sure which of the three is worst, to be honest. I don't have an axe to grind here. I just think that it's super important that we as parents keep ourselves and each other well-informed. Avoid this place.