First Discoveries Academy

Our daughter attended this school last year for kindergarten. While it is a warm, loving environment, it functions more like a daycare than an academic institution. Unfortunately, she did not gain the foundational academic skills needed for kindergarten. She is now in first grade at a private school and is significantly behind in foundational phonics and reading levels.. When I raised concerns, the director, Cindy, told me that children do not read until age seven and advised me not to worry. That guidance proved inaccurate, as my daughter began first grade already behind academically. I would recommend this school for childcare or daycare purposes only, not for families seeking strong academic preparation. Additionally, the cost is very high for what is essentially babysitting rather than structured education.

I found this child care center on google. I messaged them and they responded on the same day. The person in charge, Ms Keeli was the first person i spoke to that told me bring your children with you to tour the school so that the kids will know if they like. Most of the time, they prefer the adults tour the school without the kids. when my kids went there the first time they love it. They like the painting on the easel. My 4 year old loves the goats. All the teachers are amazing. My 2 older ones 6 and 9 years old enjoyed their 5 weeks of summer camp with the other children. This is such an amazing place for kids to grow and build friendships in a safe environment. The school actually invite Clearwater Aquarium to show the ocean creatures for the kids to touch and feel the exhibits and also they have their own personal chef, Ms Cherri and also they arranged for scientist to do dry ice and bubbles for the children to see and touch it. Ms. Corrinne is always so friendly and bubbly around the children. Highly recommend if you have little ones to attend this child care center.

This was my first experience with my children going to school and it has been wonderful! So many of the schools values align with ours; play based, lots of time outdoors, lots of open ended play opportunities, Concious parenting (focusing a lot on helping the kids learn emotional intelligence including learning how to regulate and express their emotions). The school also has a garden and goats. Mondays are “Farm School Mondays” where they work in the garden. The school feeds our children healthy breakfast and lunches for no additional costs to us (thanks to a grant they apply for). Mr. David, the chef has been wonderful and so accommodating for my gluten free, dairy free, and dye free children. The teachers and owner Ms. Cindy have been amazing- when I have a concern they really listen and have gone above and beyond to accommodate my requests (within reason). I have two very active boys and the school does not make them feel bad about being active, impulsive, and aggressive (as most boys are) but rather positively reinforce who they are and redirect (in a gentle way) behaviors that are not the best. We will be returning and highly recommend this school!

Both my 3 and 5 year old are attending preschool and Kindergarten here. We are very happy with the overall environment and community. The kids were very comfortable from day one. My daughter has not complained about mean kids like she did at her former VPK location because it's run like a family here and it's small enough to manage in that sense. It's definitely not the high stress or one size fits all environment of public school. As a former public school teacher, I can appreciate everything that FDA represents from an academic and social emotional learning perspective. I highly recommend First Discoveries Academy as an excellent alternative to public school! Thank you!

My son has gone to this school for just over a year now. My husband and I have discovered the staff do a wonderful job at guiding the child to becoming a thoughtful and skilled problem solvers. We have fully appreciated the hard work that is put in by the, staff, family and children.