Little Green Treehouse – Lakeview

Little Green is a wonderful day care option in the area! Our son has been enrolled for about a year and I have nothing but positive things to say. His two lead teachers, Veronica and Pamela, are amazing. They both are attentive, diligent and caring. From day one I have never felt uneasy about leaving my son with them. They utilize a private Instagram account to upload pictures throughout the day and have a weekly newsletter of all the happenings. We also get monthly art projects that tie to their lesson plan. I love the open communication I have with his teachers and my son has hit every developmental milestone (if not early). The most important thing is my son loves it, every morning he squeals and laughs when I ask him if he is ready for school! We are moving at the end of next month and his new day care has pretty big shoes to fill.

An awesome experience for our two children. The teachers are excellent and we would highly recommend it for Lakeview families.

don’t really like writing reviews, but felt i needed to weigh in to help counterbalance amber’s 1 star post.
certainly bad experiences are possible and can happen anywhere. my observation is that these usually happen because of poor communication rather than due to some inherent problem. this really must have been the case with LGTH.
in our experience — as in the experience of a pretty tight-​knit group of parents from several classrooms — LGTH staff and admin are nothing short of excellent. they really go above and beyond in terms of the actual child care and in terms of the various logistics parents care about, such as thorough information about the day’s activities, great meals, great e-​mail communication, etc.
we’re about to put our second child into LGTH and let me tell ya — it’s a big sigh of relief, because i know he’ll be taken care of well.

We are new to the Little Green Tree House but I have nothing but good things to say so far! I have two sons at the school, one in the toddler room and one in pre-​school (3s). My 3 year old can be a challenge and the transition from home-​with-​nanny to full-​time school has been tough for him. The teachers and directors have been incredibly supportive during this transition. We are making great progress and that’s due to the patience and support provided by LGTH. My 1.5 year old has had a very smooth transition and absolutely loves going to school each day! His teachers are fantastic and provide weekly email updates and pictures. He learns something new every day and is also enjoying the socialization and structure.
We are grateful to have found LGTH for our first daycare/​pre-​school experience!

Finding a great daycare in Chicago isn’t easy and getting in is even harder. A friend recommend checking out LGTH because they had such a great experience when his kids attended the original location. I was so thankful to get into LGTH. The new Lakeview facility is fantastic and even includes a large indoor play area for the older kids.
My son has been there for 8 months (in one of the infant rooms) and we couldn’t be happier. His lead teachers are fabulous (one has been there since the beginning and the other came a few months in to replace a teacher that was promoted). They truly love all of the kids and do a great job teaching them. Additionally, they communicate a lot with the parents: daily reports, happy to chat at pickup and drop off, weekly update emails, and monthly lesson plan emails. They even have a music program for the infants and my son absolutely loves it!
As an eco & health conscious parent I love that they use cloth diapers, that they have lots of eco-​friendly toys (wood or ‘safer’ plastic toys), and serve healthy meals to the older kids (and accommodate special diets/​food allergies)
For me there are really only two downsides: pickup and drop off on Ashland is a pain due to traffic and lack of free parking and it is pricey (but you get what you pay for!)
All in all I would absolutely recommend this daycare to anyone that is looking.

I am saddened that I wasted a year of my daughters young life here. There’s nothing I can do to regain that time. They say «when you know better you do better» and now I know better. I’m happy to say my daughter is now in a school that has stability and one that values her.
My two year old fought me every Tuesday and Thursday morning for a year before school. She’d yell, scream and cry before school. I thought she was just «being two». I tried upping her days to three days a week to increase familiarity and removing her for the summer hoping absence would make her heart grow fonder. I even hired teachers as sitters to form bonds. I finally removed her after she kept talking about a girl who bit her (and broke the skin) and another girl that pushed/​hit her. She kept talking about these two girls and I didn’t have it in me to make her go anymore.
Teacher turnover is high at LGTH. If you want stability for your child in terms of teachers go somewhere else. My daughter had countless lead teachers and assistant teachers in 13 months. There were constant new faces. If you want your child to be moved to a new classroom because their abilities are beyond their peers you better be prepared to notice those differences yourself and bring it to someone’s attention because they believe kids are ready to move to a new classroom only because of a birthday. I had to explain to the directors that not all kids develop the same. My daughter was ahead of her peers and when I noticed this and requested she be moved I was told by a director that if they moved my daughter up a room then other parents would get upset because she wasn’t three yet. I reminded the director that age has nothing to do with development and was finally granted admittance to the next room once teachers were consulted.
Of course, we were only in that new room four months before the lead teacher left. A new one was hired. All the kids were told about the new teacher who would be coming and the new teacher didn’t show on her first day and in fact never showed. This was our second teacher that «no-​showed» without an explanation or a simple call. We received a long email from the director explaining how flabbergasted they were. Another new teacher who hadn’t started yet was pulled from another classroom and that’s when I’d had enough. How do I explain all of this to my 3 year old? The new teacher thing was ongoing. Why don’t these people majoring in education have more regard for kids? It’s not just the teachers that change when teachers leave. The room changes. They take all of their bulletin board decorations and books, etc. with them and the room goes through transition as well as the kids. It’s huge.
I emailed a withdrawal notice (which was cordial) to the director and never received an email back. I received a final bill– that’s the only reason I know she received my withdrawal notice. She was even in the classroom twice after my email was sent and never acknowledged me. This just made my decision easier. How unprofessional and what a slap in the face to a parent who trusted these people with my child and tried so hard to stay for a year.
As far as personal pet peeves…
My daughter slipped on the tile floor in the entry on a snowy day and the coordinator who heard her slip and heard the resulting cry and saw me with a baby on my hip offered nothing but a «floor is slippery today». She didn’t act concerned at all, acknowledge or try to help a crying two year old with sidewalk salt stuck to her face. Never offered anything.
From the very beginning other things bothered me.
The school being right on a busy air polluted street and the playground being on such a busy air polluted street. The playground was not installed when we started at LGTH. I was told it would be across the street and felt uneasy but when I saw the tiny residential-​grade play structure sitting on a blacktop parking lot I was beside myself. This school promotes itself as being a «green» school. There’s nothing green about this playground. I hated the thought of my 2 year olds fresh lungs breathing in car exhaust while she played here and hated the thought of her even taking buggy walks on this street.
Getting my kids in and out of the car was difficult with such traffic on even the nicest days but when snow came and the snow was piled two feet high on the curb making it impossible to open my daughters car door well, that was just irritating. Why would you pile snow so high when you know parents have to get their kids out of cars? Not safe at all.
Pick up time sucks. (Sorry, but it does). As this school fills the parking situation is worse and worse and the meter maids have ticketed on several occasions so if you aren’t in between those two signs be prepared to pay and park for a five minute pick up.
I wish I could go back and remove this horrible decision we made for our daughter but I can’t.