Honeytree Early Learning Center

Friends and co-workers have all utilized HoneyTree daycare. They always talk about the positive and inviting environment and the helpful staff. The kids get hot meals and snacks throughout the day, including breakfast and dinner (if needed). In addition, they are one of the few centers that will take children to their nearby school and pick them up in the afternoon. They also have summer programs when kids are not in school. HoneyTree is an excellent place for your kids to stay active and cared for, so you do not have to worry.

This review applies to HoneyTree 460. I apologize in advance for this very long review. My children seem to be happy at this day care center. My husband and I are not in a position to keep our kids at home and make a decent living. We are always on the look out for better options for child care but have found Honeytree to be most convenient for us at this time. Enrollment includes diapers, pull ups, formula and food and there is a discount for Carilion employees. However, parents should consider the following before enrolling their children here. 1. This site, as all the others, closes for every major holiday and at times closes the Monday following that holiday. 2. This site will close a few hours early for after hours events like Halloween parties. 3. This site will close early on days they offer open house for parents to meet their child's teachers. 4. This site will open later and close earlier for 2 weeks or so during the summer to accommodate staff vacation requests. 5. This site does not prorate charges for the above closures. 6.This site also does not prorate if your child goes home early due to illness or for doctor appointments. 7. The manager of this site almost never answers or returns phone calls. Another staff member may return your call but it's only to give a message or answer a single question that they have to relay through the manager. 8. The corporate office is even worse at answering phone calls or returning messages. 9. Send your children to the site with little to no personal belongings. They are usually short staffed and are unable to keep up with your child's belongings. This includes but is not limited to hats, jackets, sweaters, backpacks, socks, and blankets. 10. You will be asked to send backup clothing for your child in the case that they have an accident or get soiled. Do not send clothing that you do not want stained. Soiled clothing goes directly into a plastic bag and stains set in. 11. As I stated, they are usually short staffed so if there's something wrong with your child like a bruise or scratch you may or may not be notified about about it. 12. As with many daycares illness comes through in waves. I have a good idea how. I've witnessed babies sharing bottles and smaller children picking up infants and waddlers as staff scramble to take attendance. Staff will go home sick and you will not hear about it until your own child is sick. 13. This site has a 9:15am cut off time almost daily due to staffing so they can attempt to maintain ratios. I'm not sure what parents end up doing about work if they do not arrive in time. Again, sorry for the long review but I want parents to consider the pros and cons.

My children have attended 2 different HoneyTree centers over the years and we have loved both. The staff are wonderful and the children get nutritious hot meals every day including breakfast, lunch and a snack or dinner for the afterschoolers. They also are one of the few centers that work with DSS and are a great resource for foster parents.

DO NOT USE HONEY TREE. Unreliable, unfit environment, untrustworthy. Please read their reports on the VA DSS website. This place only thinks of your children and family as a number and a part of their pay. They are never in ratio with children and staff. They are recorded by the VA DSS having 20 children to 1 teacher and 15 children to 1 teacher (all children under age 4). They also have been recorded having a child wandering around a room alone with no teacher aware that he was in there. The DSS lady had to tell them he was in there. There was a child who came home with bruises on his arm from his teacher. The daycare was made aware and this teacher is still employed. Honey Tree does not care about your children or their employees. They care about money and that is it. My daughter's daycare closed several days without much notice because they didnt have proper staff to open up, but they could not keep staff because they treat them so poorly. I had to miss days of work because they couldn't open. They also required staff to come in and watch children when they had fevers of 101 and over. I don't want sick people watching my child. I cannot stress enough how awful Honey Tree is. They have made promise after promise of how they would fix the facility up and it never happened. These promises lasted for about a year before I took my daughter out. The last straw was having them close down and hearing of the abuse and nothing happening. The same teacher who left bruises also was caught yelling at the kids. I dropped my daughter off later than normal. I guess the teacher didn't expect a parent to walk in. NEVER AGAIN. What a terrible place to send your children. Hate I ever had my daughter there. One day my husband tried to drop our daughter off at 6:30 AM when they opened and all the parents dropping off were required to stay till more staff came. He stayed for 40 minutes making him late for work. Do not use Honey Tree if you care at all about your children. Our particular facility went through 5 directors in less than a year. Turn over speaks volumes!

When I have kids, they definitely will be enrolled at Honeytree! The valley's best daycare as far as I am concerned. The environment, from what I hear and have seen first hand, is incredible and everyone truly cares for the children! 5 Stars!