Open Arms Preschool & Kindergarten Dba Poet'S Square Day School

My 16 month old loves it here! It took my girly a few weeks to get comfortable with the drop off and I saw the attention and love Ms. serenity gave her in the morning until she got comfortable. Now she runs in and give Serenity a big huge! The directors are extremely sweet and helpful! My daughter is extremely sensitive, and they are amazing about using her specific products, which I found a lot of daycare won’t do that once in the 1’s room or higher. They have outfit themes every Friday. Biggest thing is my girly is happy going and comes home happy! They let her take her baby doll with her because they see it bring her comfort. Ms. Anna (the other 1s teacher) is great with giving details on how her day went too! I love the camera system so I can check on her through the day and they are great with updates and occasional pictures in the Procare app 🥰 well balanced meals provided too! Overall, if you want to see your kiddo happy everyday after school, bring them here and make sure to give the proper adjustment period for drop offs sadness/seperation. I’ve had bad experiences with daycares, and I’m picky! and Shannon, Amelya, and the whole center but my mind and heart at ease!

The two ladies at the front super sweet, everything else blah. My son who is known for being happy and goes with the flow absolutely hated everything about this center. Would come back home telling me how miserable he was and how he didn't want to go back. Very small class size as well, more focused on having fun and not educational based from what I saw and was told by my son. My baby was ignored by the teacher mainly due to her having her own baby in there as well ( which technically isn't allowed at any other daycare you go too ) whenever I checked the camera feed my daughter would be crying on the floor while the teacher is turned away from her nose deep in her own son. One time when I checked on her, she had successfully gotten herself on her tummy ( yayyyy), but the teacher didn't notice her face was buried in a blanket ( not yayyyy ), because once again she was focused on her own kid, but we did see the director go into the room and take care of our daughter. They do not offer the food program like they say online and have you sign paperwork for. You will be responsible for all of the baby food and if you want your 3s or 4s eating breakfast you better make sure they had something before they get there, I did see my son at least getting lunch and a snack in the afternoon. When I notified DES about that concern they let me know I had to file a report and that they would more than likely loose their funding. Payments aren't as streamlined as they should be. I get the no cash on site ( ppl are crazy ) but you should still be able to make a one time payment without always having to make a new auto pay account, some cards don't have money when other cards do, I should be able to just pay my bill and not have to wait to get everything verified. If you want incompetent mediocre care definitely come here. But if you're looking for quality care and more focused on making sure our kids are successful go elsewhere. Director lady super sweet, absolutely loved her, beautiful soul, lady upfront with her loved her too, everyone else should find other jobs and the review is focused on you guys.

Above everything else and the main reason we left is my kid absolutely hated it here. Every day he would go on about how much he hated it, his teachers, and the other kids. This is a kid that's been to multiple daycares in his life and always finds a way to love them. I will give them that the director and the assistant director were very friendly. The infant room teacher is a bit young and doesn't seem to have the knowledge I would want for someone watching my infant. I can't say much about the preschool room since I checked their cameras regularly and never saw my child in there outside of for nap time. According to my child he only played there and never got any education. I cannot say that is for sure, they may have educated in a different room, but I also can't say he's lying to me. One of the biggest issues I had was their policy around food. On all of their paperwork, on the forms for reduced food, and on their website they state that all meals and formula are included in the tuition. We later found out that formula was not covered and you bring your own, and even observing all morning I never saw my child eat breakfast. We talked to DES about this and it turns out that it's a requirement to continue their funding as well as a requirement to receive funding from the government for reduced meals. They actually had us file a huge report on it. We also learned because of this that they're basically the only child care facility in the area that doesn't cover formula with tuition. I'm sure if you have babies you understand that this can be the difference of $100 or more in a month, and when you're already needing government assistance for child care that's typically going to hurt. Now my personal biggest issue i ran into. They run no cash strictly auto pay only. Me and my wife are separated and she is responsible for child care. They somehow still, despite being told multiple times, made me the primary and billed to me. On occasion I will assist her with that payment until she gets paid. Because of the way their system is set up you cannot make a one time payment for someone. You cannot cover your grand kids child care as a gift. They will not let you pay in advance and have a balance. To top it off my bank refuses their payment system and since they do not accept cash it's become difficult to get them what's owed. My wife wanted me to make the payment for her and I'm not comfortable signing paperwork agreeing to auto debiting of my card just to cover a payment for her once. It's honestly a little ridiculous. They still get three stars for how kind they were, I liked the camera system, and because their facilities were niceish (they flooded the day before I toured)

Amazing staff and facilities, the center is always clean. The teachers seem to really care about the children they have in their rooms. Abby (2 year old class) treats all the children very well and makes a meaningful connection with each of them. My kids love her when they were in her class. They are very accommodating when children have behavioral issues and providers need to come to the center to provide services. The Director Shannon is really nice and easy to get along with, she is very good at communicating upcoming events or days that the center will be closing early or closed. Every staff member seems to know every child even if they are not in their class. They have a wide rage of ages from newborn to school age.

My daughter has been coming to this center since she was an infant, and is now 4 almost 5. The staff is so good with the kids, my daughter has improved so much with her speech thanks to her coming here. Love all the staff! Highly recommend :)