Sonshine Learning Center

Our little one (infant) has been going here for four months, we love it. All the teachers and assistants have been great! As new parents we looked at multiple daycare centers, we could not be happier with our choice for location, price and especially quality of care.

Love SonShine! As a first-time mom, the transition to daycare was something I was nervous about, but SonShine made it such a positive and comforting experience. The staff went above and beyond to help with schedules, feeding, and routines, which made everything so much easier. Most importantly, they truly loved and cared for my baby as if he were their own. Knowing he was in such nurturing and capable hands gave me so much peace of mind. I’m so grateful for the amazing care and support we’ve received at SonShine and couldn’t recommend them more highly!

Too many issues! Enrolled our infant son many (12) years ago here and forever changed our perspective on childcare, became a stay at home mom as soon as I could. At first though a friendly tour and paperwork with administration and reasonable cost, seemed like a great fit. Later to find out one day, the infant teacher at the time did not feed our baby the bottles we sent. Our baby came home with half a bottle drank out of 4 total bottles! Disturbing enough, they said at pick up, “he may just be sick” and “not feeling well”. No phone call to notify us. When I got him home, he guzzled so much milk. Next day I addressed this right away with staff and supervisors, which was handled immediately. Other days, he seemed to only work up to half bottles drank of what we sent. Seemed strange my baby wasn’t eating. Find out later, the infant staff was putting my son in zip up sleepers on top of his foot Jammie’s/clothes he was already coming in! The baby is too hot and very uncomfortable!! We said no thanks to that quickly, but obviously wasn’t aware to that being done until the teacher mentioned she was doing that. Somehow we stayed at this place long enough for one of the staff members to get fired for bringing a firearm on daycare property. We found a new daycare shortly after this incident. This review is not to throw arrows but to give a transparent review of our 1 year experience. They had cute musicals though, just wish that attention was given to more important issues! Hopefully many positive changes have been made and parents (especially young ones) are seen and heard!

We have just completed our time with Sonshine. Our son is off to kindergarten and it was time to say goodbye. Sonshine has been one of the most accommodating, helpful, and wonderful experiences. We began with the center near Luther College, and after moving ended up at the Mendota Heights location. They have consistently remained at the lower end of cost compared to other centers, but the lower cost has never affected the safety and learning opportunities afforded to the kids. I believe they were a SIGNIFICANT part of our son's success with letters, numbers, and eventually reading. I would not hesitate for a moment to recommend them. To address other reviews I have seen: Sonshine operates differently from how I hear/imagine other centers run. They keep their costs low, and as such, you won't necessarily see the same level of aggressive "administrative engagement" as you do at other centers. I do not say this as a bad thing -- more just something to consider for other parents. You aren't going to have classroom cameras or a guarantee of daily pictures. But you do get excellent daily reports of food, naptimes, and any behavioral concerns. At times the communication could be a little chaotic, and we would need to ask for clarification on things. It was never a problem at all, but if you require a daycare center to take care of every single little detail and ensure that you have every piece of information available at the drop of a hat, you may want to look elsewhere. Their grassroots approach comes with a small amount of disorganization, but it is outweighed 1000 times over with their personal approach and care for each and every child there. Conversely, I recall an emotional conversation with the assistant director when our son was having trouble with potty training; I was worried he wouldn't move up to the next class. Nate not only let me know that my concern was misinformed, but he took the time to coach me on the issue in general and let me know that everything we were doing was great, our son was perfectly on track, and that I was ultimately worried about nothing. He was 100% right, and I will never forget the feeling of support I had following that phone call. Every interaction I've had with staff at Sonshine has been reflective of that conversation. These people care about children, and it shows in every action they take. We could not have asked for a better experience and I was incredibly sad to see our time with them end. We will miss them immensely.

I have mixed feelings about it, and i feel like I need to change my 5 star review to a 4 star to be honest. First, my son loves it. He improved so much on spelling and writing there. Second, Teachers are great. My son misses his teachers even after graduating from there. I'm happy with teachers working there. They are intelligent/patient with kids. Last, the only thing I do not like is the administration there. Just like other parents mentioned, the administrator is rude and impatient with parents and teachers. Many parents transferred their kids to other daycares because of the bad administration from what I have heard. Nothing changed after so many complains. It might be a good time for a new administrator there, it might solve many problems and bring in more children.