Turtle Island Children'S Center INC. is a child daycare & preschools daycare located at 659 Elm Street, Montpelier, Vermont VT. Find contact info, location details, and similar daycares nearby.
What Parents Say
Turtle Island is highly praised for its nature-based curriculum, dedicated staff, and outdoor learning experiences that foster children's curiosity and confidence. However, one parent raised significant concerns about reliability, citing frequent closures due to staffing issues, maintenance problems, and scheduled vacations that substantially limit available care days.
Turtle Island is a magical place. The educators and staff are warm, thoughtful, dedicated professionals. The care and learning they provide to the students lucky enough to attend there is nothing short of beautiful. The nature-based heart of the program has given our son a profound appreciation for the outdoors and has fed his curiosity about the natural world. The photo I'm including here (which contains no identifying features for privacy's sake) is of a day when a couple of classes took a hike out to a big maple tree the children named "Grandmother Maple" to tap the tree during sugaring season so they could collect the sap to make their own maple syrup. This is just one example of how Turtle Island enables students to experience and understand the world around them, cultivating good stewardship into the next generation. We have been so grateful for our time there.
All three of my kids have gone to Turtle Island and we love it! The teachers and staff are wonderful, nurturing, and engaging. The focus on outdoor ed and exploration is fantastic. My kids have all taught me something new about the native plants and are so excited to tell me about the adventure they go on. I’m so grateful to be a part of the Turtle community!
My kiddo has been attending TI for the last 3.5 years. I have found the teachers to be very dependable, caring and patient. Notably, I continue to see the same terrific teachers and many of the same administrators that I met on my kiddo's first day 3.5 years ago. Perhaps the best thing I can say is that I always feel confident that my child is some place safe and nurturing while I'm at work. I love hearing about kiddo's day and whether they went out on a nature hike, played games on the outdoor playscapes, or had a dance party rocking out to Let it Go with his classmates. TI offers additional after care and early morning drop off, but the standard hours of 8-3:30 work out well for my family.
I feel so fortunate that my kids get to spend their days adventuring at Turtle Island, building relationships with the most wonderful teachers and friends. It's really a dream come true. Turtle Island is a magical place where kiddos thrive and build an amazing sense of confidence with which they traverse the outdoors and the world around them!
Turtle Island is the best! We love their outside focus on nature, their positivity, community engagement and of course the excellent teachers. We’ve used other childcare centers in the past, but we’ve had such a positive, warm, wonderful experience so far with TI. We couldn’t be happier.
STARS
Level 5 out of 5
5 Stars
This rating is part of the state's Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS). Trained evaluators assess staff qualifications, learning environment, curriculum, and family engagement — standards that go beyond basic licensing requirements.
Level 1: Meets basic licensing standards.
Level 2: Exceeds licensing with some quality improvements in place.
Level 3: Demonstrates strong practices in curriculum and staff development.
Level 4: High quality across most assessed areas.
Level 5: Highest quality — excels in all areas of assessment.