Irvine KinderCare

My daughter is almost 3, has been there 3 months now and she loves it! Food is healthy and they teach her to follow instructions. She doesn’t speak English but still the teacher encourage her to talk, which is exactly we like to see how she growing up. Miss Emy, Nikki and Alex are wonderful teachers that help both kids and parents. If u live in this area this is the one you should come.

My son started here when he was 4 months old full time and he loves every teacher. Yes sometimes there are different teachers in the rooms because of vacations, lunches, staffing changes, but it’s pretty consistent every day as I drop him off at the same time. They did have an incident of confusing another baby’s bottle with his, but it was addressed immediately. Because he got to watch the toddlers sometimes, he strived to be like them. We moved him to Children’s Village in Santa Ana due to changes in my work and now we are so glad to be back here even though it’s totally out of our way. He eats and naps with regularity and we get pictures weekly of him reading and doing arts and crafts. We really feel like he’s learning here and being cared for.

Beware of school age bus pick up and drop offs. My kid was left at kindergarten 25 mins after it ended and dropped off 20 mins late and the kindergarten ended up calling me to see where the bus was. Not cool when I have to work. Twice so far — and it’s not even the first month of school. One of the days she had to walk up to the school by herself — drenched in rain. She’s 5. Really? As confirmed by a kindergarten staff member.

I have waited two weeks since leaving Irvine KinderCare to leave a review: About a month and a half ago I walked in on my toddler’s teacher picking him up by the sides of his arms and yelling at him telling him he was bad. Although, she denies it now, she turned around and saw me and immediately apologized saying she was sorry I had to see her get angry with him. I spoke with management and was told that it shouldn’t have happened and staff will be retrained. I was also told that the teacher’s husband was dying of cancer, this made me feel horrible for making a complaint. Following this issue, I was told weekly what was wrong with my son, at a year he is throwing toys, cups and food and not picking up after himself. I started working on these things at home and was told he was improving. On the last day we were there I left him at 7:40am and he was in a tiger cloth diaper, I went to check on him and help him on the potty at 2:15pm and he was in the same diaper! He ran to me from his nap cot and his pants were soaked! When I mentioned this it was denied, she said that it was a different diaper and I told her no, it wasn’t I put him in that one this morning. She then admitted to looking at it and it was dry the first time and the second time it was only a little wet, so NOW he was soaking wet. This hurt my heart so much, they put my son back in a wet diaper! :(The management waived my 2 week charge fee and they said they would retrain, but I did not feel comfortable there at all anymore. I felt like a terrible mother for leaving him there every day and not knowing this was going on.
While there, I always felt like he was starving when I picked him up and had a snack ready or was able to nurse there. Two weeks later and I don’t feel that way at his new place.
Two weeks later, his attitude has completely changed. I waited two weeks to post this to see if it would change while at his new care center and all of our family has noticed a difference in him. He is so much happier, talkative, and energetic; this makes us all wonder what were they doing or not doing there for him. I felt like there was no love or caring from our main teacher, I saw on several occasions my son hugging her legs and her just walking or turning away from him. I would not recommend this place at all.

I’ve now been bringing my son to this KinderCare every week for over four years. He has been in every classroom from infant to pre-​K, and we’ve experienced everything daycare has to offer. I think it’s time for a review.
For starters, the daycare experience is predicated on a genuine interest in care and education on the part of the staff. You can’t possibly understand that by merely touring the facility. On your tour, you’re going to only grasp at the basics — price, hours, what the place looks like, a little bit of their policies. I can tell you, after more than four years, I’m still learning what matters and what doesn’t about a preschool, and this KinderCare has it where it counts. They really know how to attract the sort of teachers you want raising your child with you.
I’m talking about caregivers who develop a special relationship with every child. Teachers who are so much more than the glorified babysitters you find at smaller, cheaper options. As the years have screamed by and my child has suddenly gone from a babe-​in-​arms to a nicely-​functioning preschooler, I’ve come to think of the people at this KinderCare as family.
There’s nothing more important than that. I’m talking about genuine care. People who actually want to shape your child into a good person. They’ve never let me down. Think about that — as a parent, I’ve made plenty of mistakes, and my kid always lets me know, repeatedly, when I do. But in over 200 weeks of bringing him to this school, and counting all of the different teachers he’s had in that time, he has never once reported something to me that gave me pause about them. That is remarkable.
In a few short weeks, our time here will be over, and we’ll be headed to Kindergarten. It’s going to be very hard on me, probably more than my son.
We’ll miss our family.

I have a 3 ½ year old and a 1 year old. We have been coming here for over 2 ½ years and my boys love it. The teachers are very patient with my boys, and are always interested and enthusiastic about my older son’s stories and shower the baby with affection. I am always impressed by how much the kids are learning. This kindercare is 8 miles round trip out of my way in the morning, but we keep going here because my boys are so happy.

Both of my two sons come here and I seriously love bringing them here! Ms. Alex is super amazing she has always helped me! As a single parent I’m so grateful for her and Mrs.Holly. It’s hard doing it on your own. I’m also so thankful for all the staff here for always keeping me updated about my two boys. The staff here are so helpful and are caring. My two year old started coming here since he was six weeks old and he has developmental delay and had to do special exercises and his teachers in the infants were so helpful by helping him do his exercises everyday! They would always ask me how he was doing with his therapy and his improvement. They really cared for him. My four year old loves coming here so much! His teachers in the twos helped me potty train him and By the time he was three years old he already knew his abcs and was learning to write his name thanks to his teacher in the fours! She even taught him Spanish! He loves doing the arts and craft when he’s here. He has learned so much thanks to all the wonderful teachers here. Im so grateful for finding this daycare!

I have my two girls at this Kindercare. My older daughter has been attending this Kindercare since she was 9 months old. She just turned 4 and she can read as well as a first grader (I am a second grade teacher at a blue ribbon school). This is due to the excellent staff at this school. If you think about it, your child spends more time with the teacher in a given day and having a dedicated teacher makes all the difference.
The preschool teachers (for 4 year olds), miss Daisy and Ms. Shondra, make learning so fun that my daughter doesn’t want to come home when we go to pick her up.
Ms. Indika, who teaches three year olds, has high expectations of kids– academically, socially, and behaviorally. She is a true gem who has help build a strong foundation for learning. Her academic curriculum is very solid– so strong that I didn’t move my daughter to the ever so popular Montessori school. My daughter has learned all over her letters and letter sounds with her. She also learned simple addition and subtraction. She can now read and write all the sight words that first graders need to know for spelling tests.
Miss Alysha, Miss Jennifer, and Miss Araceli helped my daughter potty train when I was helpless and scared about the whole potty training thing. They’ve coached me and communicated with me daily to get my daughter potty trained when she turned 2.
Miss Alex (assistant director) is heaven sent. She is a phenomenal teacher who always looks out for students and parents. She truly loves and cares for all the kids at this school.
Miss Tanya and Miss Chanel in infant room, and all other infant/​toddler room teachers– I was so thankful to have such dependable, trustworthy teachers that I could completely trust with the care of my two girls.
In response to another review– Kids will always be sick and they will always be passing germs. We, as parents, can’t keep our kids at home until they are 100% better. Both of my girls were sick every other week for the first year or so as they started school. But this is the case for all the kids at all schools. Even my own elementary school’s principal assured me that my girls will develop strong immunek system earlier on, so that they won’t be sick when they start elementary school. So although it was heartbreaking and frustrating to watch my kids be sick as they started school, we stuck with the school. IT is definitely not the school’s fault, or any school’s fault, for having sick kids. As for my 4 year old daughter, she now has sniffles here and there but she hasn’t had a fever or a severe illness since she turned 2.
For new parents that are shopping for childcare/​preschool– I strong advise you to actually visit the school that you are interested in– see the kids and teachers for yourself. Don’t make decisions based on Unilocal reviews. What you read here is based solely on one person’s experience.

I would highly recommend this Kindercare. Let’s face it, when it comes to our kids, we need to completely trust leaving them with somebody else. This Kindercare absolutely does that! My wife and I looked at several places to send our son (including other Kindercares), and this location has:
— very friendly and knowledgeable staff and Director
— great teaching for students
— drop off/​pick up at our local elementary school
— great activities to teach kids socialization, alphabet, writing, math, etc.
Thanks Kindercare!

UPDATE: I received a call from the new director who called to empathize with my experience at her location. We had a very good discussion and she strikes me as someone who «gets it». Based on our brief conversation I’m confident she’ll rectify the issues we encountered. She indicated she has noticed some of the same issues I mentioned and has already initiated trainings to address these issues. She didn’t call to get me back as a customer or have me change my review, simply to express her sadness regarding the experience I illustrated in my review. I wish them the best.

Everything looked fine at first. The classrooms were wide and bright. The management was nice and looked like they knew what they were doing. Even if it was one of the most expensive day care centers, you’d think it was worth for your baby.
Then chaos began. Who is my little one’s teacher? The answer has been a mystery. Every single day you leave your child to a different teacher. When you go pick your child up, there is another teacher who doesn’t know anything about your child’s day because she has been there for 10 mins.
In the morning, some of the teachers are so decisive not to take your child if they have 4 toddlers at the time (laws or whatever enforce each teacher not to have more than 4 toddlers at the same time, and that’s why caring a baby under 2 is much more expensive). However, you can find your little one with her 6 or 7 friends playing under only one teacher’s supervision when you go pick her up. On the other hand, you are the one who needs to go and look for an available teacher if the teachers, in the toddler classroom, are fully loaded. For this, you are required to see someone at the front desk (which means management). Unfortunately, there may not be anyone.
It’s been almost 1 year, and I still don’t know who the infants’ or toddlers’ or 2s’ or 3s’ teachers are.
Finally, I can say that think more than twice if you plan to send your toddler to this place.

I would be very careful sending your child here.
We recently moved to Irvine and my wife made an appointment. We arrived about 10 minutes early for the appointment, and the woman at the front seemed rather annoyed at this. She told us, «I have things to do, so you’ll have to wait.»
If the person giving tours of the place is nasty and has a bad attitude towards potential customers, I can’t imagine entrusting my kid to be around that environment when we are not there to watch.
While we were waiting, I wandered around to see what kids were doing in various parts of the center. It has to be the first time I’ve seen a daycare where none of the kids were playing. It was very disturbing. The place just kind of had an unwelcoming aura.
Needless to say, we bailed. Before considering this facility I’d highly recommend you show up unannounced and observe.