This YMCA is attached to the old Ankeny high school which is now Northview middle school. The…read morefacility doesn't have a lot of square footage but it does pack a lot into what it has. They have an exercise area and weight room. The exercise area has treadmills, ellipticals, and plenty of other exercise machines that have TVs. Also on the main floor the Y has a one basketball court size gym, three racquetball courts, and an aerobics room. On the second floor they have a karate room, swimming pool, and locker rooms. The swimming pool is decent sized and has a lot of lanes. The locker rooms have showers and a sauna.

Sauna temp is great but it is too small I am finding out. Treadmills are plentiful but some are…read moreneeding constant attention.

We've been at Treehouse for almost a year and couldn't be happier! The owners and staff truly care…read moreabout the children, and work hard to provide an educational and nurturing environment. Our children will be well prepared for kindergarten.

We have been at the Ankeny location for 7+ years. They have become family to us! The teachers are…read moreso loving and care deeply about the kiddos! Highly recommended!!

We had been taking our kids to Little Endeavors since 2018. It is extremely unfortunate that our…read moreexperience has turned so negative. Before I get to the recent negative experiences, let me first share that the pros of Little Endeavors (Ankeny). The facility is a good size and includes both an adequate space for use as an in-door gym and good age-appropriate equipment. As for teachers, there are good (Denise, Allie, Maggie, Peg), and there are bad ones (which I will not name). Until a month or so ago, the list of pros included the amazing director (Sara), which really set this daycare center apart from the others. Since her departure, the pros have not outweighed the cons for us (which includes an annual tuition increase), so we decided to leave Little Endeavors. 1. Three minutes before drop off/center opening, we were notified that three classrooms would be closed for the day due to staff shortages. Three minutes! This forced us and other families having to find alternative care at the drop of a hat before we could go to work. 2. Also due to staff shortages, they reduced the center hours by up to two hours for weeks, causing obvious impact to families and work schedules. There were some other minor things that just started adding up that I won't go into detail here, but all of this to say that we felt it best for our family to leave for a more dependable, affordable daycare center. So, we put in our notice on a Wednesday, which gave two weeks of what our youngest (oldest no longer attends daycare) would have been at the center. We were aware of the two week notice policy, which states, "....A two-week written notice is required for families wishing to terminate our services. Failure to provide notification in writing will result in being charged for the two weeks." Since the policy does not provide a definition of a week (calendar week? week of services?) AND because the new director did not give any notice of two-week policy infringement upon confirmation of receipt of our termination request, we were completely blindsided by being charged for a third week of services (for the week after our youngest's last day at the center)! Thinking it was a clerical error initially, we emailed the new director asking for a correction. From then, it has been back and forth with different reasonings and information. First, she said that since we notified on a Wednesday, that the two-week policy would get us to two calendar weeks (another Wednesday), and in her explanation she made it sound like had we notified her one day earlier, then we would not have been charged at all (because our youngest was not attending Little Endeavors on Mondays or Tuesdays). Later, she said that they run their billing cycle on Mondays, so we would to have notified before Monday...like, what? She said that she consulted the General Manager, which also felt that they were justified according to this unclear policy in charging us for a third week! We even looked to compromise; if they would refund us for the two of the three days, then we would consider the matter resolved. That was over a week ago. On top of all of that, the same Parent Handbook that references this two-week policy also states that the initial deposit will be used for final week at Little Endeavors: "This security deposit will be applied to your account balance the last week(s) you are in the center." This was NOT done. So, we had to pay three weeks for our full tuition, meaning we were charged for an extra week AND our deposit was not used. AS OF 12/02, WE HAVE NOT RECEIVED OUR DEPOSIT REFUND! As a business, if your policy is unclear, you do not give appropriate notice, and you give the wrong information, that is considered a mistake (or a few). An ethical business will fix their mistakes. To the families that send their kids to Little Endeavors - GOOD LUCK! And be sure to read the nonexistent fine print. Needless to say, I am glad that I am no longer giving my money to Little Endeavors and its unethical business practices.

I have worked in childcare for over 35 years and have come to see the best, good and the ugly. This…read moredaycare looks great from the outside, but very unprofessional, I understand ratio's but, don't except a child and then tell a parent the last working day (Friday) before the child is to start that you can't except the child. know your numbers before you tell a parent yes!

I arrived for my tour of the facility in hopes to enroll my two kids for daycare and rang The…read moredoorbell to get in. No one came to the door but a staff member must have been getting back from her lunch and let me in.. without asking for an ID or who I was or who I was there to see. This teacher left me up at the front desk with no staff and went back to a classroom. Two more staff arrived from break and walked past me back to classrooms with still no staff present at the front desk. I was mortified that they would just let anyone inside and left unattended. There was even a debit card laying on the desk in plain sight. Needless to say I left.

Their Urbandale location is terrible when it comes to hiring, I was lied to about pay and hours,…read morewas hired when they were no longer supposed to hiring anyone so therefore I only got to work 2 hours a day. They told me when they hired me that I would be a full time employee and that was not the case, no adult can live off of $200 biweekly. As for the center itself it's not managed well, kids are out of control and they even let a child that was formally kicked out for endangering her classmates, come back to the center because they "felt bad for him" it's unacceptable. Children are not corrected enough for their bad behavior so it continues to happen, their are children constantly being bitten, scratched, and kicked by others and most of the time parents are even informed when their child misbehaves so therefore nothing changes, as far as center cleanliness goes that is one thing they actually do a good job with, the entire center is cleaned and sanitized each night, all and all I wouldn't recommend working at this center or Johnson due to the fact that majority of Urbandale employees originally came from Johnson's center.

One of the most unprofessional and awful experiences I've ever had. I had my son enrolled here for…read morejust shy of two years. Since then, he has experienced personal growth due to some of the teachers there, but his current teachers have no place being around any children. My child has been bullied and provoked on multiple occasions by other children, even mentioning to me that he has shared this with the teachers. When confronted about it, management was unaware, either pretending or communication between classrooms is really that poor. I'm aware that my child can, at times, be stubborn, as four year olds are. He doesn't always follow directions when given at the daycare (I refuse to use the word Preschool, since there is no actual teaching). However, the staff is ill-equipped to handle any kind of disobedience he had, which only made his behavior worse. We know this, because we can compare his behavior and experience to the public daycare he attends most days, where he receives shining reviews for his amazing behavior. When confronted with the above issues, management was either blissfully unaware or refused to change due to lack of staffing to watch children, citing that the law only requires that they have 12 children to one teacher. The owners were extremely rude in the chain when they finally did butt in, saying they didn't have to change anything. Management recommendation from the beginning was that we find a new daycare for our child from the start. In summation, please PLEASE enrolling your child here. Especially if they are in the 3-5 age. They may be treated as poorly as our son was.

Stopped in to check on something with staff. Greeted and ID'd immediately which is always nice to…read moresee when you trust the security of your children to this place. Escorted to staff and we had a nice conversation. The inside is crowded but I think they are at max capacity. They could easily expand but it doesn't look like they are wanting to do that. Private lot.

I have had three of my children enrolled at ChildServe's Childcare Center in Johnston. The…read moreteachers have been so attentive, caring and personable with my family and children. They followed a care plan for my daughter that was delayed in gross motor skills and she's catching up to where she should be. All three of my children LOVE to come to school and thrive on the consistency of a schedule, activities and consistent teachers. The teachers love the children and are so pleasant, positive and accommodating to my children's needs and interests.