Sparkles! At Crystal City

My daughter has been attending Sparkles since she was five months old. She is now 11 months old and recently transitioned to the "Infant 2" classroom. From her very first day at Sparkles, she has been treated with the utmost care, patience, and affection. The staff and teachers are angels - they care for each child as if they were their own. The teachers are always doing fun and developmentally appropriate activities with the children. They are super organized and responsive - parents receive frequent updates via an app, including lots of photos of the kids having fun. Thankfully, Sparkles provides camera access to their classrooms and playgrounds so I can check in on my daughter in real time. This has been a huge reassurance to me as a working mom and helps me feel like I'm not missing out on her development. Even at her young age, my daughter looks forward to school every day and is always happy at drop off. We are so thankful we enrolled in Sparkles! A recent 1-star review is complaining about the Center's pickup/drop-off policy, which is absolutely reasonable and clearly communicated at time of enrollment. Now that I'm familiar with my daughter's routine at school, I would not want her classmates being picked up and dropped off randomly throughout the day. The kids thrive on their routines and it would be disruptive to have adults barge in whenever it pleases them. Any parent who doesn't recognize structured pickup/drop-off as a reasonable (actually, a beneficial) policy is selfish and somewhat sociopathic. On top of that, it's pretty vile to make false claims of racism just because of their personal feelings about a policy. Sparkles provides such a diverse, inclusive space for our little one to learn about other cultures - all of the teachers are women of color and I would say almost half of the students and parents (including our family) are POC. I wanted to share my honest feelings of Sparkles to counter the unwarranted negative review posted by an immature parent.

Both my girls attended Sparkles at 4 months old, with the oldest starting in 2016. The youngest just ended her time at Sparkles in August 2025 to start Kindergarten. We continued with Sparkles even through COVID without a break in service and care for our children. We had the pleasure of going back to visit recently and it felt like home. The teachers/staff are amazing and took such great care of my girls, especially the youngest with a severe food allergy. Special thank you to Ms. Lupe, Ana, Erika, Meka, Fergie, and Gille for always helping out and being attentive to our needs. When we found out my youngest had allergies, we were extremely nervous. But you all eased our concerns from the start.

I signed up my four-months old son to Sparkles, and had an appointment that I needed to take him to. I picked him up from the daycare and dropped him off after I was done with the appointment. I instantly received a message after I left saying that’s it’s against their policy to have a child dropped back to the daycare after 12. I found the policy bizarre and confusing, what if the parent has to go back to the office, or has tasks that need to be done, isn’t the daycare there to help, I responded to the message saying for planned appointments I’d let them know but for the unplanned, I’d just take my son and bring him back. The director, Melissa Tate, said she won’t accept my son back if he got picked up. I called corporate the next morning to see how is this situation ok, I got Gille Baez, she is the manager for the Fairfax location and Crystal City. She started screaming on the phone and repeating “listen, listen..” so unprofessional. I ended up pulling my son out of that daycare and found another one. DO NOT GO THERE, weird administrative staff and just mean vibes. Also my son got SICK after being there for only one week. I’d say the staff is racist too because that’s the whole feeling you get. STAY AWAY FROM SPARKLES.

We are beyond grateful for the love and care our son receives at Sparkles. From the moment we walk through the door, we’re welcomed with smiles and kindness—not just from the staff, but from the children too, which speaks volumes about the nurturing environment they’ve created. Our son, who is on the autism spectrum, absolutely lights up as we approach the school. His bond with Miss Yeisy is something truly special—so warm and emotional. It’s clear how deeply she cares for him, and the progress he has made during his time at Sparkles has been incredible to witness. We feel so blessed to be part of this amazing school community. Thank you, Sparkles, for helping our son grow, feel loved, and truly shine.

My daughter just finished and 2 years at Sparkles, where she started at almost 2 years old and couldn't be happier about the care, attention, stimulation and approach to development from every staff member at Sparkles of Crystal City. A big shout out to Erika, Yeisy, Ana, Mayra and Lupe for all the love and care for my Mia....this is a debt that I will never be able to repay. I can emphasize enough how much I appreciate everything this ladies gave to my daughter. She is the happiest and smartest (an obvious unbias opinion) thanks to them!!!