Harmony Early Childhood

My 2 year old has had an amazing time here over the past few months. She started speaking Chinese within a few weeks of joining. She’s a bit shy, but didn’t cry after the first few weeks of dropoff, and sometimes she doesn’t even want to leave at the end of the day.

This place is the best. Many of the teachers have been here for a long time and they treat the children like their own. My daughter tells me she loves her teacher all the time, and she tells me that her teachers tell her they love her. It really is like a home away from home. They have a good curriculum with language learning and teacher directed projects everyday, such as painting, drawing, beading, building etc. They also go to story time at the local cafe, and they check out books from the local library. I feel this is not your typical daycare, the teachers here and the director go above and beyond to ensure the kids are well cared for and enriched. They also get plenty of time each day for independent play, and I noticed that the teachers often try not to interfere and let kids learn to solve social problems on their own before stepping in. I’ve seen the director reading to the children on many occasions. It is obvious that all these teachers love what they do and they have been taking care of young children and teaching Chinese for a long time.

I am all praises for this facility. The teachers, the owner and the Director are all doing an excellent job is providing a clean, safe and a loving environment for all kids. My kid started at this day care as a 1.5 year old and is now 3.5 years old. I am very happy at the progress she has made. She has picked up a new language - Mandarin - which is spoken by all teachers at this day care. She is confident in conversing in Mandarin with people outside her day care. The kids are encouraged to be independent early (wear shoes, fold blanket after the nap time, wear jacket, clean up). Teachers are willing to go the extra mile and give the attention and care that is best for your kid. They love to take your inputs and feedback. There are enough chances, apart from the regular parent teacher meets, where you can get information about your kids progress and you can share your concerns. Age and weather appropriate school trips are organized for kids on a regular basis. My daughter looks forward to going to her class every day and, all thanks to her teachers, this has not changed in the last 2 years. I had a very bad experience at a previous day care but Lily (the Owner) was very understanding. She made sure my daughter was given the care and attention a new joiner needs and I was updated with photos and messages on how my daughter was doing in the initial days. Thanks to her efforts, my daughter did not have any problems getting used to the new environment. I also love the family get together Potluck organized every year at Chinese New Year and it is a great to meet your kids' families and enjoy performances by kids of all classes. This place has all the benefits of a corporate run chains of day care minus their drawbacks. This is a place where kids are treated with love and kindness and utmost care. I would highly recommend this facility.

Very poor management after committing a WA State violation. I will explain as briefly as I can. My daughter sustained a head injury at Harmony at 9:20am one morning, and we were not notified about her injury until she was picked up that evening because she had a very large bruise and significant swelling (2.5 inches across) on her forehead. The injury incident report that we were given was not filled out properly (according to the report, there was no treatment provided, but the director insisted that they provided an ice pack after I called her about this incident the next day). My daughter verbally expressed to me (unprompted) that her head hurt throughout that evening, 9 hours after the incident happened. This meant that she went through nearly her entire day with pain and the director/staff did not contact us as parents at all. Had I known, I could have taken her that morning to urgent care right away, looked into pain relief options, etc. My daughter complained of pain sporadically that night (woke up multiple times) and the next day as well. Was uncoordinated in her gait, bumped into furniture, and we found out from a video visit that night (as well as an in-person visit a few days later) that she had a concussion. The staff violated informed consent rules. All injuries above the neck should be reported to parents, yet they did not do this. When discussing my concerns with the director of Harmony, she was rather dismissive and rude. She said she would share my concerns with the owner of the daycare, a so-called "Lily" who lived in Taiwan, and was unavailable by phone, video chat, etc. Basically, a person who "makes the rules" but is unable to be reached by parents except through email. Lily took 4 days just to respond to my email about my concerns. She never apologized once or acknowledged that her staff should have notified me about the head injury sooner. Instead, the owner of Harmony told me that I was stressing out her staff and bluntly stated that it was hard to hire/train a new person at this time, so she told me to immediately stop bringing my daughter to the daycare. I never would have imagined that a daycare owner would: (1) make a violation by failing to report a child's head injury to the parents in a timely manner instead of 9 hours later, (2) apologize for what had happened and acknowledge that the staff should have notified parents, (3) expel the injured student because this was causing "stress" for the staff. I am disgusted by these immoral practices and what we went through. Harmony should come with a warning.

Be warned that Harmony staff have very outdated practices, no video monitoring, no photos or written daily communication, etc. The way they use language to the children definitely does not align with gentle parenting techniques. It's very rude, like barking orders. They are very rigid with their teaching practices and there is very little variety in the activities that are provided at this facility. Regarding the lack of video monitoring, photos, and regular communication, that is something I have seen in most other daycares/preschools in the area. Many of which communicate through apps, sending photos and notes as well as allowing livestream video monitoring during certain time windows. Just very shocked that Harmony does not provide any of that at all and have been very closed off in communication with parents. If you're looking for staff who will be partners in your child's wellbeing or education, you ought to look elsewhere.