Little Hands Daycare & Learning Center

Our son is currently enrolled in this daycare. Prior to being enrolled in the daycare, the Director was very transparent from day one on the waitlist and how far we are from being accepted. Once we enrolled, it was really difficult for me to let my son go to his first daycare, but the director and management were very understanding and made it a very seamless transition for myself and for my family. Between the managers, the teachers and the floaters - they have been super amazing. They communicate all issues such as incidents that might have happened in the school or whether he wasn’t feeling great that day or if he has said new words. My son has become more social, open, and wild (in a good way) and has been able to communicate a lot more ever since he has joined this daycare. I have toured many facilities and I can say that this is one of the better facilities that exist in Maine. The best part of the daycare is that they have a playground, dedicated to each of the classrooms tailored to the age group that they belong in. If you are in the Falmouth Area or close by I strongly recommend that you visit this facility if you’re looking for a place to send your child. At the end of the day all that matters is that the child is safe and is taking care of and I can confidently say that this daycare has kept my son safe and has made it easy for a first time mom like me to be able to send her son without any worries.

Little Hands came highly recommended from a good colleague and now I understand why. Our son had no classroom experience before joining the toddler program and all the teachers & staff made the transition for him (and us!) incredibly easy. He LOVES his teachers, Ms Lilli and Ms Connie, who have been so supportive and caring (they truly do SO much!) and we’ve already seen so much growth in his development and socialization. The front desk is always very organized and communicative which is seriously helpful. We’re so thankful to be a part of the Little Hands family :)

Let me start by saying this is the first Google review I've ever left, but this is important, so I'm doing it. My husband and I just enrolled our son at Little Hands at the end of June after doing a lot of research and making the hard decision to leave another center, and boy, what a mistake we made... On Monday July 7th, we received a call that two of our son's teachers were "no longer at Little Hands," which caused red flags to go up for us. We were concerned with the turnover, but as we had just enrolled, we wanted to give them a chance to fix things and were re-assured there was plenty of coverage in the classroom until they could find replacement teachers. Fine. Tuesday the 8th comes, and I'm noticing not much is being logged in Procare. I was trying to be patient, as I understand they're probably under a lot of stress with the staff changes, and may not log everything right away, but when my husband picked up our son at the end of the day, not a SINGLE bottle had been fed to him. Our son is 10 months old, and we've been very clear that formula is his main source of nutrition. We pre-made 3 bottles every day (per center rules), and there were 2 cold in the fridge, and one in the bottle warmer at 4 p.m. Not a single ounce consumed. When asked, staff said, "We offered him a bottle at 10:30, but he didn't want it." Even if that were true (which I don't believe it is, because the unconsumed milk from that bottle would had to have been thrown away), they did not offer him any more milk after 10:30 a.m., and it was now 4 p.m. Also, the puree we packed for lunch, which is his main meal, was untouched, cubes of homemade vegetable puree still frozen. When asked what he had for lunch, the lead teacher couldn't say because she was not there during lunchtime. When asked who gave him lunch, and who we could talk to about that, she said she didn't know. But, we were re-assured "he ate today," essentially some puffs and a bit of applesauce, which is NOT the primary food for an infant. My husband immediately approached admin about the issue, and they said they would have to "investigate" and call us once they had a chance to do so. When admin called us later, they claimed that he had bottles in the fridge from the day before, which was an outright lie. We bring fresh bottles every day, and remove unused bottles daily, because that is what their center requires. We could not believe they were just outright lying to us, and would not own their mistake or even apologize. Our son immediately drank 2 bottles, 12 oz of formula, within an hour of being picked up from Little Hands; he never does this – he was starving. The staff was quick to blame the staffing situation, and their "app being down," which seems like another lie since other activity had been logged that day. One teacher even used the "busy" excuse, saying, "Oh, it's been crazy in here today," which is absolutely insane to me. There is NO excuse for not feeding a child (outside of a real emergency, of course). The treatment that day was absolutely neglectful. Needless to say, we felt we had to withdraw immediately as our son's wellbeing was at risk, and we could not trust the staff to be honest with us. Also, after doing some digging, I learned that not just 2 staff, but actually 5 staff had quit after a potentially unsafe management decision, and then administration downplayed the whole situation to us, and surely other parents as well. My husband and I are not confrontational people, and do not make decisions lightly, but we could not move forward with Little Hands, and we would encourage others to be very cautious with this center! ** EDIT: You can see the center's response below now. They obviously want to make it seem like I'm overreacting, and that they're not in the wrong, but please know that they were absolutely neglectful that day. The issue was not "failure to communicate updates," the issue was neglecting to feed my child. More deflections and gentle language doesn't change that.

I have two young children who have attended Little Hands for over 2 years now. The front end staff is always friendly, responsive and supportive. They have also done an amazing job running the daycare during the pandemic and have great protocols in place and open communication. The teachers have always been amazing. They're kind, supportive, patient, caring and motivated. The classrooms are clean and well appointed. Their playground is well kept with modern, wooden play equipment and they take the children out as often as possible to play. Most of all, my girls love going everyday and that speaks volumes.

My daughter has been enrolled at Little Hands for almost two years and we have been so happy with our experience here. All of the staff and teachers have been so helpful and attentive to my child's needs. They truly love what they do and it shows. Having reliable childcare isn't always easy to come by, but we've found that here. So thankful for Little Hands!